Project & Portfolio Management AtekPC

Karthik Arumugham [1311299]

AtekPC Project Management Office

1. What is the purpose and mission of a PMO?
A project management office (PMO) is an organizational unit used to centralized and coordinate the management of
projects. A PMO oversees the management of projects, programs, or a combination of both. The PMO has various
functions in which supports project managers, these functions are aligned with the reasons in which AtekPC has
developed a PMO. In sum, PMOs are dedicated to improving the practice and results of project management.
The PMO office provides support to the project managers. The office maintains the records of project performance and
helps to manage the resources for projects. The purpose of the PMO at AtekPC was to move away from the culture of
informal project management and establish a formal PM standards, methods, tools, and project performance archives.
The mission was to prove the PMOs worth by slowly integrating it into the company to realize the benefits from
consistent project practices.
Ateks PMO:
-

The purpose was to have consistent project practices

Formal documentation and plans for PMO did not exist
Responsibilities limited to IT projects
Two categories of duties:
Project Focused (consulting, mentoring, and training)
Enterprise Oriented (portfolio management, PM standards, methods, and tools)
PMO responsibilities:
Establish, publish, and disseminate project practices, standards and tools
Add Later Portfolio Management & Archiving of projects for knowledge sharing
Authority provided by CIO after the PMO had proven itself:
Authority being developed bottom-up
No plan to enforce usage at the enterprise level

2. What are the main challenges and obstacles in implementing a PMO?

AtekPC had no history of project management, the functional areas were not held accountable to any measure of
performance for the projects they worked on. There was no tracking if the projects actually had a positive impact on the
companys ability to perform.
Most of the obstacles to establishing a PMO are beyond the CIO and PMO Manager's control. There are external factors
within the enterprise that will hinder progress of a PMO implementation. Regardless of the technical challenges during
the implementation, the core of the problem could be lack of organization support, from the top to the bottom, no
enough executive stakeholder support, no visibility of the program, conflict of interests within departments, people are
reluctant to change the ways they have been doing things.
Few root causes of PMO implementation hindrance:
The PMO vision and role is not clearly defined: There is no complete consensus regarding its purpose, its
responsibilities, and its authority. It has slowly evolved.
Not enough executive stakeholder support: Not all of the senior executives were equally enthused about the
PMO concept. Authority was primarily being developed bottom-up through the value of the PMO services. Even
this was limited to those functional areas and IT areas actively engaging the PMO. There was no current plan to
enforce usage at the enterprise level.
Corporate culture limitation: Corporate cultural change had been informal. They never treated PM, PMO,
formal processes seriously. Normal Operation Processes and function units have to change their culture,
behaviour, and even habits if they work with a PMO.

Project & Portfolio Management AtekPC

Karthik Arumugham [1311299]

No support from department management: Department managers may see no value in introducing a PMO in
their projects. Also there are political conflicts as well, with managers worrying about the PMO getting to much
authority.
Hard to prove value before the PMO can get more support: The senior IT managers encouraged a slow,
incremental strategy (baby steps) that would allow the PMO concept to prove itself with small victories won
through mentoring one project at a time. While proving themselves, they may fail the challenges of addressing
all the cultural limitations and barriers. The PMO had raised issues that had proven too controversial to resolve
immediately.

3. What structures and governance mechanisms are critical to effective PMO implementation?
Ateks Governance
-

Lack of CIO support

No roadmaps or timelines for maturation of the PMO
No way to measure performance
Proving value is the only way it will work
Lack of clarity on PMO accountability
Current model was temporary
Planning Office and Senior VP, committed to more planned, rigorous, project management approach

There was no previous history of data to compare the PMO success to at AtekPC, they had to rely on anecdotal evidence
and subjective consensus. The PMO was accountable to the head Application Development within AtekPC. The
governance model was temporary for AtekPC and would have to report to a different layer in the company at a future
time. The following recommendations are critical to effective PMO implementation at Atek.
-

Governance: The performance of the PMO can be measured by the CIO to evaluate if the PMO has been
successful in achieving the objectives. The evaluation even though based on subjective observation can be done
to see if the PMO initiative has been able to make the structure of the processes formal or not. The formal
structure and centralized chain of command will reflect the initial success of PMO. After that the success of
business processes and ability to compete in the market can be used as criteria of success for the PMO.
Cultural issues: AtekPC seems to have an informal pattern of communication, which cant be radically changed
within a short time. However a gradual shift can be brought through the use of PMO light by focusing on the
strengths of the process and allowing the employees to understand, accept and adapt to the changed
procedures.
Staffing issues: A combination of the two approaches will require the company to hire an individual for PMO
implementation. Along with that the current managers can be trained for the PMO implementation to make it
effective without hiring new staff as the company has limited resources available.
Enterprise-oriented responsibilities for the PMO: The PMO will be focusing on creating an effective alliance
between the various departments of the organization and achieving the company objectives in a specified time
frame with support from the employees. The project related activities, reporting and maintaining of different
organizational processes will also be developed by the PMO.

Project & Portfolio Management AtekPC

Karthik Arumugham [1311299]

4. How much PM is enough PM? How much PMO support is enough PMO support?
Implementing a PMO will help, projects finish on time; shorten project duration; controlling project priorities; smooth
fighting for resources between projects; have trustworthy project priorities; right selection of project; brining project to
successful closure; reduce project rework; organize things so people can achieve the most with minimal effort.
Ateks PMO Organization
PMO-heavy

PMO-light

Full staff of project managers who assumed

responsibility for the management of all IT projects.

Minimal staff of experts who worked through internal

project managers to perform the responsibilities of the
PMO

Acquisition of project management experts, either from

internal or external sources, and used these resources
to manage projects under the direction of the PMO.

This model focused on the development of the skills of

internal project managers who were not formally
connected with the PMO

No project would operate outside the management and

direct control of the PMO.

All projects operated outside of the PMO under existing

organizational controls, and the ownership of projects
resided within the functional area and IT group charged
with execution of the project.

Enough PMs are needed to manage projects and to provide guidance. Too many new project managers, or too big of an
office would cause a conflict in the company and become a problem as it would fail due to resentment. Change needs to
be implemented slowly, on a limited scale to get buy in and slowly change the culture to accept the PMO, could provide
worth to all projects.
Adopt a combination of Project Management Office (PMO) heavy and light in bringing a positive and long term change in
the organization. PMO heavy has the disadvantage that it forces radical changes on the employees which gain short
term results only. The people in the organization seem to have a tendency to resist adopting a changed structure of
processes. A combination of the two approaches will enable Strider to bring long term change on the basis of the
already employed people who can easily establish feelings of trust and cooperation among the workers. The new hiring
will allow Strider to introduce formal pattern of control and policy implementation.