The Proactive PMO

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  PMO   Portfolio Management   Strategy  

Project management is an evolving profession--look at any number of aspects of the discipline and you will see that there is growth and change happening at a rapid rate. Agile may be one of the best examples of that--it has gone from a niche approach that was frowned upon by many organizations to a mainstream methodology that can drive tremendous improvements in project effectiveness.

Technology has also played a major role in that rapid evolution. Not much more than a decade ago, project management tools were standalone applications and collaboration consisted of e-mail, telephone and meetings. Today, teams in different corners of the globe can collaborate effectively through technology--the tools are no longer a barrier. In fact, they are a key enabler.

I’ve seen a lot of PMOs implement these changes, if not fully embrace them. But in all too many cases, they are reactive--a solution implemented in response to a problem. In this article, I want to argue for a more proactive approach.

Why proactive is important
Think about your personal lives for a minute--your car or your home. If you wait for a problem to occur--your roof to leak, your oven to break, the car to become a smoking pile at the side of the road --then you have to deal with all kinds of inconvenience and likely additional expense than if you had implemented a preventative maintenance …

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