Evaluating Organizational Readiness for a PMO

Dave Blumhorst is VP Professional Services for Daptiv Solutions. He is a seasoned executive that has run IT, professional services and finance departments.

  Business Case   PMO   Strategy  

According to industry experts, a majority of efforts to establish a Project Management Office fail because leaders do not sufficiently assess organizational readiness for change. How do you know if your organization is ready to take on the challenges and embrace the opportunities of implementing a Project Management Office?

The best time to assess an organization’s readiness for change is well before you begin implementing a solution. The importance of assessing your organization’s readiness for change cannot be underestimated. Projects, resources and work will form the core of any PMO; hence, project management maturity is a critical factor in determining what systems or practices should be introduced and to what level of functionality.

But remember, just because you are not operating at top levels in every discipline of a Program Management Office does not mean you’re not ready to take the plunge. Deployment of a PMO is a journey--one that goes through many iterations and cycles as it grows and matures.

To begin with, don’t be surprised if you end up spending the bulk of your design session answering just the basic questions. It’s imperative to identify the pain points before finding any kind of solution. The challenge here is that this is often a “rubber hitting the road” moment, where different departments and groups …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.