Customer Relationship Management > Organizational Structure

Contrary to a recent report, PMO longevity doesn't lead to greater success; PMO success leads to longevity. And PMOs that thrive share fundamental commonalities of alignment, from culture to customer, that they start getting right early in their existence. Here are six ways your PMO needs to be aligned.

We seem to be moving from the “every PMO is different” model to the “PMOs fit into one of several types” model. However, since the heady days of Y2K the world has changed a lot--and created a lot of opportunities for PMOs to reinvent themselves and create a new model. This writer may be a power-crazed egomaniac, but he thinks PMOs can run the organization (if not the world).

How can organizational change be implemented with a minimum of distress? Change frequently results in unrest, uncertainty and concern caused by nothing more than fear. People lose focus, become less productive and potentially seek out alternative employment because of the fear of something that is not going to happen. In this article, we look at how we can manage those situations more effectively.

The elusive achievement of organizational alignment in corporate America is striking. What is needed is the development of an organizational structure and culture that dynamically self-adjusts and recalibrates to an ever-changing environment.

With an unprecedented 96 percent project success rate, Dell Services’ Healthcare and Life Sciences team wins the 2011 Project Management Office of the Year award.

Economic challenges have made the idea of Cloud Computing almost irresistable to cash-strapped CIOs, but what is the real cost of doing business in the Cloud, and what does that mean for IT Governance and standards?

Ignoring resistance is futile. Use these tactics to be prepared for inevitable resistance to alternate project management techniques. Otherwise, be prepared for a whole lot of frustration.

In the history of organizations trying to implement and get some value from project management, there has been a string of buzzwords that have captured the hearts, minds and budget approvals of senior executives. Why doesn't the hype of portfolio management seem to measure up in real life?

It's important to clarify the purpose and status reporting expectations early in the project. Here, we share a sample integration management cadence for a large project or program that effectively balances the time with the administrative overhead.

Although many organizations are adequately capturing lessons learned, they often struggle with learning and reusing them on current projects. A detailed analysis of the lessons-learned programs at three organizations uncovered these nine best practices that can help you and your team share and find all those lost lessons.

Do PMOs have value? Arguably, yes. At least...sometimes. According to the results of recent research, the presence of a PMO was often a contributor to the attainment of organizational value. What was of particular concern, however, was the actual role of the PMO within the organization. Two broad types emerged within the research; find out what they are inside...

It’s time that we face up to a fundamental reality: organizations grapple with making project management work successfully on a consistent basis. Yes, there are exceptions--and some notable ones--but on the whole they simply prove the rule. It's time for a different approach.

In focusing on the “how to” of governance, we can sometimes lose sight of the fundamental “why” of what we are doing.

We are all leaders of our teams, and that’s a responsibility that we shouldn’t take lightly. Your project team looks up to you--don’t let them down. Here's some advice on how to set the right example.

Anyone who has been a project manager for a while will have run into an organizational change management project--and has likely experienced some of the unique challenges that they present. We all know that there is no such thing as an easy project, but making fundamental changes to the company or department in which we work presents a whole new set of potential pitfalls. Successful organizational change management needs careful planning and execution--and here we help you prepare for this tricky time.

Companies that pursue business intelligence through a technology-driven approach get lots of cool graphs, but not information that allows them to make actionable decisions. Here's the right way to approach this all-important process.

Project management in practice struggles to evolve, and we consistently fail to take the actions we know we should. Human inertia is too strong an influence to ignore if we want the future of PM to be that much different than it is today. If it were to be different, however, where might it go? There are two overall directions that appear to be emerging, and each has advocates and detractors. Whether (or indeed if) one attains dominance will depend upon the intersection of many forces.

A hospital’s yearlong initiative to improve care coordination for underserved patients is benefiting from a dose of project management that brings structure, organization and accountability. Simple, strategic Post-it notes and iterative approaches are part of the prescription. It’s all new medicine for the doctors leading the effort.

PPM without organizational preparation?! Say it ain’t so! Two aspects of organizational culture must be managed in order to capture the benefits desired from PPM…and to avoid a series of unfortunate events.

When it comes to the critical business analyst role in agile projects, it's all about the value.

It's becoming more common for different types of PMOs to emerge in the same organization, and the drivers of having multiple PMOs appear to be based on four key factors.

May 19-21 event in Boston will address ideas that help cut through the economic slump and present the PMO of the Year.

When managing projects--especially those in extreme environments, where speed and agility are the name of the game--complexity can be a real killer. But simpler processes, clearer communication and greater focus can lead to breakthrough success in organizations and in projects.

As businesses evolve, so do IT departments. One way to make sure that technology and business interests are aligned is through program management.

A new book emphasizes the integration of project management and change management to improve the chances of success for business, IT and other organizational initiatives.

Managing projects that span countries and cultures brings with it its own set of challenges, not the least of which is a greater risk of failure. This article explores some of those challenges and complexities that are unique or amplified when managing global projects.

A trip to the mailbag results in a valuable lesson on setting up a company's organizational structure to be better suited for project portfolio management.

Stakeholders are critical to the success of any project--but do they know that? This article tackles reluctant stakeholders--the ones who don’t want to get involved in the project.

How do we adapt in the face of consistency, or of anarchy or of brutal regimentation? As project managers, the only thing we really have control over is ourselves. Given this, how do we change our approach in a way that enables us to be effective in producing project results, rather than bashing our head repeatedly against an unfeeling and unchanging wall of bureaucracy? Here we take a look at adaptation in the face of organizational consistency.

The number of articles that explain why something doesn’t work--or is wrong, or isn’t working the way it should--is staggering. It's time to take a different approach by focusing on what actually does work. Join us for a look at consciously seeking the positive, a rare but perhaps necessary practice.

Welcome to the PMO! Does your Program Management Office have a plan for helping new project managers? More than any other function, the PMO varies hugely from one organization to the next--and even from one division to the next. That means that there will always be a ramp-up period for anyone entering as a project manager--and yet many PMOs make no allowance for this.

Change has been around foreverchange management is another story. In today's business, the strategy of managing organizational change defines which companies get the competitive advantage.

Training budgets are being cut, but your workforce is expected to excel anyway. A new set of tactics is needed for you to adapt workforce learning to this economic contraction.

Few know the evolution of Application Lifecycle Management and how the Structured Revolution of the 1970s and '80s was a major turning point in software development. This article presents a retrospective on ALM and Structured Development Life Cycles--those that shaped it, the influencing principles and the related methodologies and tools the movement spawned.

The following section provides additional questions and considerations for Portfolio Identification. While refining these selection criteria for your specific needs, consider what your organization requires when identifying the scope of the portfolio(s) to be managed.

Picking the right IT governance framework can be confusing. Here we take a look at many of the emerging flavors in the increasingly clustered mix.