ICPM

This article is about "The Roles PMOs can Play in IT Modernization" according to recent research from Gartner Inc.

“Effective IT modernization requires organization, and we believe that the concept of a project management office (PMO) or multiple project management offices is crucial to organize for, and facilitate IT modernization.”  That's the conclusion of recent research from Gartner Inc., which argues that -- in addition to working hard and tackling challenges -- IT should think about establishing project management offices (PMO) and embracing cutting-edge project management technologies and methodologies.

Many companies are finding that they must build project management capability if they are going to meet the business challenges in the future. PMOs are increasingly being viewed as an essential component that enable the success of projects, and hence, the future success of the entire organization.

This is part 4 of a series of blog posts in which I look at the components of a PMO and give you a pragmatic way to increase your PMO success and improve your PM maturity.

Every company has some form of special tools that project managers and project team members use in their day to day project activities. A few examples:

This is part 3 of a series of blog posts in which I look at the components of a PMO and give you a pragmatic way to increase your PMO success and improve your PM maturity.

It is quite important that your Project Management Office has a policy about how your project teams collaborate with each other and where project documents go.

This is part 2 of a series of blog posts in which I look at the components of a PMO and give you a pragmatic way to increase your PMO success and improve your PM maturity.

The Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Application is an important component of your Project Management Office (PMO).

Project Management Offices (PMOs) have always been a passion of mine. I have also had the good fortune to be working in several companies where the project management maturity was in its infancy and a PMO had to be built. This gave me the opportunity to help create 3 PMOs from the ground up. This didn't just teach me a lot it also created my passion for everything PMO. I can't explain why, the assignment of creating a PMO for a company, rolling out our creation and then seeing how it improves the company's overall approach to how we manage projects is something that gives me enormous pleasure.

There is an interesting article posted on PM Forum titled UK Survey Reveals Top Three Reasons Why Web Projects Fail. The results of this survey are not surprising at all. In fact you have heard this before: scope creep, failure to meet stakeholder expectations and cost / schedule overruns are the top three reasons for web project failure. What I found enlightening about this particular article is the following statement by Damien Tanner, Co-founder of New Bamboo who said, "It is critical to get the basics right. If companies are willing to accept failings in the development process for smaller projects, there is a real chance they may not revise their processes before tackling more ambitious projects [...] These failings are set to become more prominent as companies want to develop more complex projects or bespoke solutions to unique business needs - such as social networking, e-commence and interactive elements with their customers.".

Today, a TV program I watched was interrupted by a commercial. It showed a woman sitting on a chair holding a $5 bill in her hands. She then stuck that note into her mouth an began eating it. At that moment, the words "Dramatization. Do not attempt." popped up at the bottom of the screen. While I find this to be a hilarious result of the litigious culture here in the US it also got me thinking about project management. There are so many great books and methodologies available to us project managers, but somehow, the best practices that are described don't make it into most of our daily lives? Why is that?

Margaret Meloni started an interesting discussion over at IT Toolbox. She asked: "I have a question for you. If you signed up for a class called 'Soft Skills for Project Managers', what would you expect to learn? What would you want to learn?" She received quite a number of responses, many of them extremely thoughtful and with a lot of good explanations.

At least once every moth will I come across a message in a newsgroup or forum that talks about the fact that "PMP Application audits are NOT random. A friend of a friend of mine told me that the PMI looks at your application and based on the profile you will get audited." These are worthless speculations. Here is why and how you should approach this instead.