I would like to clearly show the value of a Project Office within our organization. As we have defined it, the Proejct Office is responsible for 1) developing and maintaining standard project management methodology and processes, 2) improving project management competency (via training, mentoring/partnering, a central PM repository), 3) implementing and maintaining PM software, 4) Measuring and reporting project portfolio information. Any advice or references? Saving Changes...
John ZacharProduct Dev Manager| Association for Project Management (APM)Brackley,, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
Since the implementation of a PSO (and the P can stand for project, programme, portfolio, and several others) is infrastructure, the opportunity to generate tangible benefits is low to non-existent. That leaves intangible benefits - much harder to quantify.
A PSO should give the organisation a number of perspectives / views that would otherwise be impossibe to achieve.
Your comments about the PM method, and the level of PM capability or competence, and perhaps even the status of individual projects are all areas where the PSO should function. And the bits of information, examined individually are interesting, but it isn't until you put them together, the value is generated.
For example, an organisation, working in the FMCG enviorment has a number of commercial products that could be called cash cows - those products that have a decent market share and are generating revenue for the organisation. A number of these products are being reveiwed and updated by the product managers as a part of their normal procedures; and in most cases 'improvements' would appear to be needed. Each product manager, on his / her own doesn't feel that their work threatens the organisation.
However, the PSO looks as what is happening inside the organisation, and finds that 75% of the organisations cash cows are all beinig reviewed / updated / improved at the same time. The level of risk to market share associated with all the products being 'improved' at the same time is much greated than there would normally appear to be when examined individually. This is that otherwise unobtainable perspective.
Think about the other perspectives that can be created, then think about strategic objectives, like competitive advantage / response, or strategic alignment or even management information.
That is the type of value that can /should come from a PSO.
Hope that helps. E-mail me direct if there are questions. Saving Changes...
