In most organisations various departments implement their own set of projects, which would have been identified to achieve a certain goal.
It could range from setting up a departmental IT system, process improvement, product development and so on. However, the challenge is to ensure completion of the project, within the allocated time frame, budget and appropriate quality. An oft repeated complaint is that most projects remain incomplete or have overrun their budgets due to lack of monitoring mechanisms in place.
Monitoring projects requires specialised skill sets, which are learnt over a period of time. Many global organisations recognise this and have set up Project Management Office (PMO) to enable effective execution of projects. PMO is managed by a set of staff that ensure the above listed challenges are addressed adequately and the organisation benefits from the project being executed.
Roles of PMO include programme and resource planning, project monitoring, risk identification and mitigation, quality assurance, change management and communication. The PMO may be located within a department that is implementing the project. However, the most effective PMO is at the corporate level, reporting to the CEO, to oversee projects across the entire organisation.
The advantage here is that the PMO will then have the necessary authority to monitor all projects at organisation level, avoid duplication, if any, and share resources and best practices.
Based on the requirements of the organisation, PMO roles range from advisory, to supervisory to execution. Most PMOs tend to have a mix of these roles. However, a pure execution role is usually not recommended for a PMO, since the project ownership is at the individual department level.
For organisations in the region, PMO should be more focused towards supervisory role. Here the PMO plays an important role on behalf of the CEO and management. All project requests are validated by the PMO, to ensure that the department requesting the project has the necessary business case, has resources and planned the project.
Controls
Next, during project execution, PMO provides supervision and controls, to ensure that the project milestones are being met, and within the allocated budgets. Exceptions and corrective measures are recommended and if required escalated to the management for necessary approvals. During project execution, PMO provides necessary training, templates, and guidance to the concerned execution team.
To execute the above function, PMO department may start with a team of three to four, growing to around six-eight over a period of time. The head of PMO is usually supported by two or three project directors, who may have a team of analysts, to monitor the projects.
However, it is important to have clearly defined job descriptions and performance measures for the PMO team members. To ensure that the PMO's role is not diluted, it is necessary to identify criteria, as to which projects are to be managed by the PMO. Some of these may include the project value, business impact, number of resources and, most important, whether the project is affecting multiple departments.
- Sanjiv Anand, managing director, and Manish Kotwala, director, of Cedar Management Consulting International.
By Sanjiv Anand and Manish Kotwala
© Gulf News 2008
