Project Management Office - Five PMO Models for Project Management - Case Study Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE By Student’s Name Course + Code Class Institution Date The balance of this page should be left blank. Please start or attach your assignment on the following page (which has been separated by a Section Break) Jones, University of Southern Queensland, Aberdeen Street, Brisbane. OLD-4001. Director of International Office, University of Southern Queensland, BRISBANE OLD 4001 Dear Sir/Madam, Attached below is report you requested. The report analyses complex IT project named AIBA at the eCourier company. The report gives an overview of the company, the literature review, the possible recommendation, and conclusions. The analysis depends if the project will be applied and implemented in the company. Yours Sincerely Jones Abstract PMO (Project Management Office) is undeveloped and unfamiliar phenomenon in the industry. The function, aim and importance of PMO has remained questioned by various organizations. In spite of that, PMO happens to the department that handles the largest number of projects in many bigger organizations and has the summary of the projects of the entire organization. Today the questions remain, why is PMO implemented in institutions? What are the problems faced in executing Project Management Office? And how can the factors affecting PMO be solved for future benefits? To find answers to these questions, an intensive theoretic study was carried out. Then a case study about multi-project organization was done. The study offered an insight and an understanding of how PMO works in actual life. From both practical and theoretical point of view, it was simple to give opinions on the research questions presented by combining the data collected. It was evident from the study that the theory differs from real-life functionality of this entity. Within organizations PMO can be found in numerous variations and forms but are not easy to be identified. The aims of PMO among organizations are variable but highly valued those organizations involved in the idea of PMO. According to the case study results, PMO is a long living entity, though its implementation can be a challenging task, PMO can easily be realized if it is properly executed with the organizational properties. Contents Abstract 4 1.0 Organizational context 6 2.0 Literature review 6 2.1 Project Management Office (PMO) 6 2.2 Five PMO models for Project Management. 8 2.3 Project management for the Organization 8 2.4 Organizational performance 8 2.5 Project management 8 2.6 Company that is Project-oriented 9 2.7 The benefits of implementing PMO 9 3.0 Recommendations 10 4.0 Conclusions 12 1.0 Organizational context The first stage is to examine the theory of PMO and review why, and how the implementation of PMO can be done in an international organization. A literature review is carried out on the related books, websites and articles, which enables the author to get an understanding and more information on the topic of PMO (Zohrevandi, 2014). Secondly, a case study within international organizations is conducted, especially, the companies that carry out their business activities in more than one country this helps to know how they employ the concepts of PMO. The results of the research will give valuable propositions to the thesis queries and a comparison to the literature review. Lastly, the case study brings up reflections on the research questions in line with theoretical information and results. Additionally, a guideline and important points will be outlined which will help the organizations in PMO implementation, improvement and enhancement of efficiency in operating Project Management Office as a lasting entity (Zohrevandi, 2014). The major aim of the research is to get information about the relevance of implementing this entity and how its operation in international organizations. Another important aim of the study is to come up with relevant information that will be helpful to organizations that are intending on starting Project Management Office in their companies. This will save work and time, and the companies will understand the appropriate PMO for their companies. 2.0 Literature review 2.1 Project Management Office (PMO) The history of PMO dates back since 1930 (Salameh, 2014). In the recent years, PMO topic has risen with its intense needs. The PMO as a unit of organization was created to help project management team and distinct levels of management on basic issues and operational units of the organization, in executing practices, tools, methodologies and project management techniques (Salameh, 2014). There are five indicative stages of a company's development in project management: Basic PMO; Projects Office; Centre of Excellence; Advanced PMO; and Standard PMO The purpose of PMO within an enterprise as defined is to coordinate various business groups to one another as in the organization to ensure smooth working plan in the teams. Provide an understanding on the project office duties in order to assist project management teams. The concept of PMO remains effective once there is an environment that requires concurrent management of many projects (Salameh, 2014). One of the major PMO benefits is the opportunity to increase limited resources in an environment for multi-project. Implementation of the function of PMO may signify an important shift in the culture and structure of the organization. Organizations establish their distinct culture due to the shared work ethics and values among individuals mixed together (Salameh, 2014). The development of a structure that supports documented, repeatable and systematic processes sets is the main aim of developing PMO program. PMO are mainly channeled towards performing projects in the right way (Salameh, 2014). The most significant functional sets of PMO are the methodologies of developing project management competencies, and controlling and monitoring performance of the project. The mentioned types of sets comprise the following functions: i. Reporting the status of the project to upper management ii. Implement and develop a methodology standard iii. Controlling and monitoring of project performance iv. Developing personnel competency, which includes training v. Operating and implementing an information system for the project vi. Project scoreboard development and maintenance. vii. Promotion of organizational project management viii. Offer to project managers mentoring programs ix. Provision of set tools without standardization efforts. 2.2 Five PMO models for Project Management. i. APT- Autonomous Project Team ii. PSO - Project Support Office iii. PMCOE - Center of Excellence for Project Management iv. PrgMO - Program Management Office v. CPO – Chief/senior Project Officer Based on the previous research, organizations have been subjected to challenges when doing many projects at the same time. This makes such organizations unable to complete the projects on time (Salameh, 2014). This study is looks at the best ways to solve this issue for the future projects. By adopting project management office (MPO) by using special model, this research was able to come up with a project-oriented organization’s case study, in order to help the leader of the project management, manage many projects at the same time, and complete them at the expected timeframe. 2.3 Project management for the Organization Project management for an organization means the use of techniques, skills, tools, knowledge and organizational activities to attain the organizational goals of the through projects. 2.4 Organizational performance The word ‘performance’ is derived from the French word ‘parfournir’ meaning an ‘accomplished something.’ Organizational performance refers to a subjective concept anchored in the stakeholders’preference and values. 2.5 Project management Project management was constructed as an interdisciplinary concept of leadership with an aim of provides a solution for a temporary problem. Therefore, because of this trait, project management is able to attain a high innovation degree in provision of solutions for more complex works (do Valle and Soares, 2015). Project management is defined as a science and an art of designing, planning and managing work from its inception to completion (do Valle and Soares, 2015). It is also considered as a process or system of scheduling, designing, planning, controlling and managing interlinked project activities for the reasons of achieving a particular goal or objective within a specific standards, budget and time. Project management is A management practice that is innovative, inclined to achieve specified or stated goals within a given budget limits and time, through maximum utilization of resources, is what is referred to as project management (do Valle and Soares, 2015). Project Management Institute defines a project as an impermanent activity aimed at creating a distinct service and product. Project management is an art of organizing endeavors with an aim of reaching the expectations of stakeholders. 2.6 Company that is Project-oriented As applied in this study, refers to any organization or company working at numerous projects simultaneously, or an organization which adds on new projects after the completion of others. Also, it can refer to an organization working at projects in different project life cycle stages and proceeding at the same time while potentially competing for the same resources and overlapping each other. 2.7 The benefits of implementing PMO As mentioned earlier, dynamic market environment has called for innovative organizational ways that are up-to-date (do Valle and Soares, 2015). Organizations are undertaking highly complex projects as they grow in scope and size. Nonetheless, organizations have not been able to make same development in their practices of project management (do Valle and Soares, 2015). This can have an effect of increasing the rate of project failures in organization. However, to overcome this, many organizations have responded by implementing a Project Management Office entity. In big organizations with a high number of workers, it can be challenging to attain same processes and obtain excellent results from all undertaken projects. Since numerous projects are implemented simultaneously it can be difficult to stay in control over the big companies’ project portfolio, strategy and project coordination (do Valle and Soares, 2015). Therefore, it is crucial for entities to provide support for project leaders with recommended processes, defined working ways and models. These challenges can be solved by the organization implementing PMO, which in turn will help the company to achieve project management control, support, alignment and oversight. The answer to these challenges is implementation of PMO by organization, which will have a positive impact on oversight, control, support and alignment. 3.0 Recommendations Theoretically it is shown that, in average PMO life expectancy is roughly two years. PMOs are changing entities that help in problem solving therefore they are required to administer change within organizations (do Valle and Soares, 2015). For this reason, they normally do not suit in the context of the organization. PMO often lack management support since they are overambitious and usually impose changes that workers disagree with which automatically creates short life expectancy for PMOs (do Valle and Soares, 2015). The need for downsizing, minimum number of projects in place, lack of trained project managers, working projects not being maintained, minimum number of people that require PMO, the entire management and organization that does not acknowledge and value the significance of PMO are the reasons for the closure of PMO. The following are four major points that facilitates PMO (Getahun, 2017). To achieve this review all the lessons studied. Prioritize the projects and align them strategically with corporate plans (Getahun, 2017). In the organization, PMO should work in line with the project portfolio. Aligning of the projects enables them to generate necessary return on investment and meet profitability targets of the organization. Creating a culture that supports PMO environment is the second point (Getahun, 2017). It is evident from the results of the case study that were attained from Marel. Allowing workers to take part in the PMO evolvement is the main reason that keep PMO alive, this enable the workers to get to know its roles and gain an understanding of it eventually making PMO able to deliver. To have strong spokespeople and leaders to support the PMO is an important factor to embrace and to enhance its achievement. The third issue is the Implementation of a project management that is strategic in terms of practice, which is a main common factor among the case study’s PMO functions. All the mentioned Project Management Office above, have in place a PM model that was developed and invented by the company. The PMO has been established around this model, for instance the SCA (Getahun, 2017). The project management model PRIME was implemented in SCA, and based on that, PMO was developed. The last point is the creation of a system for strategic project management that will facilitate the measurement of project success and then organizational PMO value (Getahun, 2017). AB and Rio Tinto Alcan and Sony Mobile Communications are the two organizations involved in this study, which have a specific PMO success measurement system. The systems were based on measuring the duration at which PMO uses to train the project management team as well as the functionality, time, and budget fulfillment (Getahun, 2017). All the findings have been summarized in the figure below. They comprise the factor that weaken and strengthens the PMO. The aspects outside the circle weakens Project Management Office whereas the factors within strengthens it. Figure 1: 4.0 Conclusions Since PMO does not easily show its value for work and bring drastic changes, it can be unpopular and vulnerable department. In some instances, PMO interferes with other departments. These interferences can be observed when PMO takes resources and call for organizational changes. The cultures to become approachable, and get employees, are the major challenges facing PMO. There is a need for the employees to change their mindset so that they can make it easy for organizations implement changes brought by PMO. PMO can bring a lot of benefits to organizations that have extensive project base, if the challenges mentioned are dealt with. PMO ensures that projects are implemented based on the same standards. PMO has different roles each varied based on the level of significance dependent on the PMO’s age and the organizational level of project management maturity in an entity. Read More