One of the key items to monitor the success of a project is not only by ensuring that the project is delivered within scope, but also that the revenue forecasts at the beginning of the project is realized. With Devices reaching End of Life, Company Mergers and Acquisitions, Business Transformations, Regulatory changes and various changes in market dynamics, IT projects are just increasing day by day and there is a growing need for skilled Project Management Professionals.
To ensure that Projects are properly managed, most organizations these days have a Project/Program Management Office (PMO). PMO is not just about having a large team of Project Managers setup and made available for Client projects, but also about having the correct framework and governance structure set in place to ensure that Projects are governed and executed in such a way that the top and bottom margins for the project have the least delta numbers.
I have worked across PMO's in multiple organizations and have found that PMO's with the best governance structure have better P&L figures. So even a PMO with lesser projects may perform far better than PMO with more projects due to proper governance structure and framework. But please make a note its not the tool which define a PMO's success, but the processes which define the success.
So what does it to take have a successful PMO running -
  1. PM on-boarding for PMO - Ensuring that there is a defined PM on-boarding process where the PM is made aware of the company's tools and internal processes.
  2. PM on-boarding for Project - Ensuring that a proper checklist is in place to handover project to PM from Pre-Sales team. No handover should take place using just an e-mail. PM on-boarding should definitely happen using a formal handover call with proper Minutes of Meeting captured.
  3. Resource Management / Tracking - Whether using a tool or just using a Spreadsheet, the PMO should ensure that all billable Project resources (PM's, SME's, Technical Consultants, Field Engineers, Process Consultants) are acutely tracked. The PMO should also ensure that projects have the right resource fit - Technical Consultants and PM's with specific domain expertise should be assigned the correct projects.
  4. Resource Rate Cards - The PMO in discussions with the Finance team should ensure that correct rate cards for all billable resources are maintained. The rate cards will help during the Pre-Sales phase to calculate the Project profitability and will help in long run to determine what level of resource should be used in case of additional scope being added to a project.
  5. Timesheet Management - The PMO should strictly ensure that the organizations Timesheet Management System (TMS) is directly linked to the Resource Rate Cards. The PMO should also ensure that a billable resource book his time based on actual utilization. The PM should ensure that if there are additional efforts spent by a billable resource then an appropriate Project Change Request is approved with the client.
  6. Governance and Reporting - One of the key activities which will ensure success of a PMO is ensuring that an appropriate Governance structure is setup. In simple terms the PMO should ensure that a weekly or bi-weekly or monthly governance/review meeting is setup with all Project Managers. The meeting should typically focus in reviewing the Status Report/Project Dashboards of respective projects and also to ensure that the projects are correctly managed, risk/issues adequately tracked and that the project finances are in green. In the meeting the PMO may also capture TMS reports to track fore-casted versus actual resource utilizations, which also gives a good picture on the overall financials. The TMS report also helps the PMO in resource planning to ensure that proper work assignment is done across all resources and also that adequate bench strength is maintained for upcoming projects. The governance meeting should also focus on discussing lessons learnt and provide required Management support for Projects in Amber/Red.
With the above 6 key drivers, an organizations PMO can ensure that the Projects operate in a Controlled environment.