Dear Ed,
Re your comment: "we're trying to come up with metrics to justify the PMO to the CIO and the department we serve."
In justifying a PMO, it is not so much a question of what are the best metrics to use, rather what are the best metrics for you. Many organizations are too quick to use the traditional PMI and PM Profession views and stats "hook, line, and sinker" of why the organization, any organization, should have a PMO and what the benefits of the PMO are and will be. While this approach works great when there already is support for the idea, it sometimes falls flat when there isn't. Another approach is to focus less on the "PMO" and more on the "needs" of your CIO and the department that your group serves. As in any "strategic selling" model, identify the needs, by decision making heads (all of them), and then establish the "win-win" results of having their needs met by the proposed idea of having a PMO. Per the strategic selling model, identify in the organization each "buyer type" required in making a decision to have the PMO. That is, the economic buyer, the user buyer, the technical buyer, and the champion. And, be mindful that different decision making heads have different "buyer modes" such as over confident, even keel, growth oriented, in trouble. In doing this, you will find that your justification is less PM-centric and more business-centric. If meeting the needs of the decision making heads warrant the PMO, in their mindsets, then you have won the case. If not, then there is your answer too.
And as an aside, if the meeting of the needs of the decision making heads does warrant the PMO and it is decided to set one up, be sure to measure the PMO against those needs for which it was established. You can also use the canned PM and PMO metrics and whatever measurements that your tools give you, but at the end of the day, the PMO is a driver and enabler of the business, not the PM profession.
Great post and apologies in advance if my reply reads to "basic" or "preachy". It's just that too often PMOs drift away from the business and the needs of the company into a self-directed set of desires and focus. I hope we hear and learned from others..!
Mark Perry
VP of Customer Care
BOT International
