The return on investment (ROI), or the perceived lack thereof, for the establishment of a project management office (PMO) is an area within the project management community which has received a lot of attention lately.
One of the biggest concerns that have been raised is that investors feel that the time, energy and money spent are not justified. Often the expected ROI is also not realised.
When all is said and done, consensus still is that the establishment of a PMO within an organisation is ultimately worth the investment.
So how then do you bring these two viewpoints together? The first step would be to remove or minimise most of the pains caused during establishment of the PMO, and one of the most effective ways in which to do this is to utilise a packaged project management solution.
It has to be noted though that some problems are more easily solved than others. The main driver for the success of any PMO is the maturity of the project management community within the organisation as well as the project management culture that exists. No tool will solve maturity issues.
These two softer items are some of the first to be addressed before an organisation even considers the implementation of solutions for the establishment of a PMO. All role players within your project management community need to be at the same maturity level and supporting the same methodology, strategy and business goals through their project management process. If the aforementioned is lacking, hardly any solution will solve your PMO headaches.
Along with this you need to understand what you are expecting from your PMO and why you are embarking on this road. In setting realistic goals and knowing where you want/need to go, the process of obtaining this is more easily measure and managed.
Implementers of project management solutions for PMO establishment have found that even if the community is mature enough to accept a solution into their environment, the implementation and alignment of said solution does not always come easy.
The key success factor of any solution is that it should strategically align to your business intent and not the business to it. Configuring a solution to realise this goal proves to be a challenge in that the project team does not always know exactly what they need to measure, how to express their requirements, and often don`t understand the proposed solution well enough to express their requirements in such a way that the solution delivers value for money.
A packaged solution can offer distinct advantages in such a situation. Packaged project management solutions are usually based on the service provider`s previous experience with similar implementations and aims at providing a best practice implementation. The experience obtained through multiple implementations in a variety of clients and industries also provides alternatives that the new client might not think of.
Eighty percent of all PMOs have the same basic requirements, even though different terminology might be used. When all is said and done the common threads are definitely present.
So exactly what are the benefits that are offered by a packaged project management solution:
* Starting with an 80% fit In starting with a packaged solution your organisation is out of the starting blocks with an 80% fit. Minimal work is required to move this up to a 90% or 100%. Minor tweaking and changing of one or two components allows your organisation to get what you need to start working with.
* Initial investment is less The financial impact on your organisation, when choosing a packaged solution, is significantly less. Less workshops, requirement specifications and consulting time is needed to align the solution to the organisations needs.
* Pre-configured items remove requirement pains No longer does your core project team have to sit in workshops and attempt to align their requirements. This avoids the iteration circle of configuration specifications being sent back and forth to have the requirements align with the business need. The pre-defined components immediately align all key players allowing them to focus only on the gaps.
* Forms a solid base to build from Your PMO immediately obtains a solid and uniform base to start from. This allows the community to mature with regards to their requirements along with how processes and procedures are managed, while all of them are utilising the solution in the same manner. This allows for quicker standardisation of procedures and best practices, as the solution is designed to assist with these challenging aspects.
* Provides more time to focus on change management In not needing to spend all your time on the configuration and installation of the solution, the management team can focus on one of the most important aspects of their PMO establishment - change management. As with all other factors mentioned previously, change has to be managed to ensure the success of any PMO. In being able to focus on aligning the team, and not on the solution, management teams can support all resources through the transition phase.
* Shorter implementation times, quicker ROI The fact that your PMO is established in a shorter space of time ultimately implies that your ROI can start showing far quicker than usual.
More often than not your packaged solution will not be the final solution for your business. As your community utilises the solution, they will mature along with your environment and requirements. This, however, is not a great concern as most packaged solutions have the flexibility to grow with your organisation.
Packaged project management solutions are definitely the safest and most rewarding route to follow when wanting to establish a PMO.
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