Henry HattenrathProject Consultant| Tectonic Engineering MSA LLCNew York, Ny, United States
Projects are complex enough without project teams or the Project Management Office (PMO) adding to complexity and diverting resources to non-value added administration. If complexity is not recognized or not properly controlled and managed, PMO resources will shift management activities away from project realization. As a result, the project teams will be distracted from the project at hand and management soft costs will increase sharply.
Complexity in rail transit projects may be affected by factors such as:
• Work locations, site access, field conditions and work hours
• Work areas shared with other projects, high voltage power systems and operating trains
• Maintaining existing operations with minimal impact of core business services
• Number of work packages, contractors and subcontractors
• Regulatory requirements for project execution and for operation of the project deliverable
• Administrative requirements for oversight and auditing program
• Reporting requirements stipulated by local/federal funding sources
• Interdependencies and interfaces between work packages and with other projects
• Protective services for contractors working in an operating environment
• Outreach program to customers, communities and local officials
• Size of the Owner’s organization
• Maturity of Owner’s PMO/project management processes
There have been numerous papers written and practice standards authored on the key dimensions of projects and the monitoring of key performance indicators to assure delivery within scope, schedule, budget, safety and quality and objectives (aka 5 dimensions). In executing capital projects, PMOs often create project management strategies and models that utilize and integrate existing systems and processes within the Owner’s organization. Many organizations already have Processes, Procedures and Practices (PPP) that ensure the effective operation and management of the organization’s core business and operating projects.
Since projects are temporary, it is best practice to amplify existing organizational assets as needed to add only new elements that are necessitated for management of projects, programs or portfolios. Some of the project management elements that rely heavily on the organization are: Human Resources, Procurement/Contracting, Environmental, Communications, Quality Management, Time Management, and Cost Management.
As a result, PMOs often focus on project management organization hierarchy and governance, accountability to the Owner, and Scope Management and Integration Management while adjusting other areas for project reporting, records management, performance management, quality assurance and control, schedule management, and personnel responsibilities, authority and training. Customized PPP may be required to meet special requirements stipulated by the Owner, funding providers, and regulatory agencies.
Rail transit projects should avoid adding complexity from:
• Issuing overly detailed amplifications by PMO to existing organizational PPP
• Producing project reports/funding grant documents with inconsistent data on milestones, goals and key performance indicators
• Conducting PMO executive meetings about project reporting and oversight reviews that hinge on every word written by Subject Matter Experts while disregarding action on accurate assessments and issues
• Assigning multiple parties to track and report on the same project metrics and displaying different results
• Creating new PMO processes and procedures that already exist in the Owner’s organization
• Duplicating Logs and project data already maintained by another project participant
If not controlled and managed administrative complexity will debilitate project teams down to a continuous circle of non-value activities. Owner Executives, Program Managers, Project Managers and project staff will be in a SELF-perpetuating Question, Answer and Explanation process that erodes the effectiveness of management on complex projects.
Saving Changes...
It these complexities are not planned properly they come as surprises during execution.
Experience and Expert guidance are more helpful in such cases. No doubt effective PMO can help in resolving these complexities. Saving Changes...
Bruce Wilkinson MBA, PMPExpert Project Manager / Trustworthy Executive Assistant / Business Coach| goBRUCE Business ServicesCuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
I get the impression that the Rail transit projects you are referring to are susceptible to complexity through duplication of effort, almost as if there were multiple power structures managing the same project. You also speak of a complexity of relationships where it almost seems like the dependencies between different projects or work packages becomes tangled and overwhelming. I also find it interesting that you point to the PMO as adding complexity and overhead rather than reducing it. Ouch!
Definitely looking at this as an "outsider" here, but I do wonder if some of the newer LEAN or Agile methods were implemented, if it would help, or if that is even possible in this environment. Saving Changes...
Henry HattenrathProject Consultant| Tectonic Engineering MSA LLCNew York, Ny, United States
Thank you for the comments. With the input, it may be useful to start a new discussion on success factors for PMOs. Saving Changes...
Ganesh SrinivasanGanesh PMO (PMP, PMI-SP, ITIL-F)| MNC BankChennai, India
Dear Henry,
Greetings ! Yet an other interesting initiative from your end. Very useful topic. Thanks to hihglight about the PMO, since i'm PMO Practice, i feel proud with your statments.
With technology continuing to invade the business world and the convergence of complexity, uncertainty, and constant change, a whole new class of projects has emerged, We can term it as complex projects. Extreme Project Management models and a variety of Agile Project Management models such as Scrum, Rational Unified Process, Feature-Driven Development, and Dynamic Systems Development Method have emerged, but project failure rates have not been measurably reduced.
From PMO point For Complex Projects :
1. Risk is very high - Dealing effectively with risks in complex projects is difficult and requires management interventions that go beyond simple analytical approaches.
2. Shedule needs to in detail - capturing all the task associated decides the Critical Path and Project Success. Various Milestones needs to be there for better control and visibility.
3. Budget needs to be tracked in detail with EVM.
