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Embracing PM as a Routine Business Function
Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.
Initiating, conducting and deploying projects are part of the enterprise landscape. They are the catchall for everything that is not routine and operational. Weather they are focused on improving operations, building new facilities, acquiring new companies or developing new product, projects are how non-routine things get done. The reality is however, that projects should be routine.
Perhaps one of the stumbling blocks to the PMO and the oversight of projects is that it has failed to be recognized as a normal and recurring business function. Even the title “Project/Portfolio Management Office” sets it apart from other business units and functions. For example, the human resource department is not called the “Human Resource Office”, or the purchasing department the “Purchasing Office”. Maybe if the project industry began speaking in generally accepted business terms rather than project speak, it would find more acceptance within the enterprise and join the ranks of other normal business functions.
However, there is more than just the terminology used that keeps the business function of PM a mystery to most. For many organizations, projects are a mystery because they do not follow any prescribed process that is routine and operational in nature. The outcomes are inconsistent and the dependence on specific individuals is high. …
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"The reason why worry kills more people than hard work is that more people worry than work." - Robert Frost |