Question

CREATING A METHODOLOGY1 John Compton, The president of the company, expressed his feelings quite bluntly at the executive staff meeting; We are no longer competitive in the marketplace. Almost all of the Requests for Proposal (RFP) that we want to bid on have a requirement that we must identify in the proposal the project management methodology we will use on the contract should we be awarded the contract. We have no project management methodology. We have just a few templates we use based upon the PMBOK® Guide. All of our competitors have methodologies, but not us. I have been asking for a methodology to be developed for more than a year now, and all I get are excuses. Some of you are obviously afraid that you might lose power and authority once the methodology is up and running. That may be true, but losing some power and authority is obviously better than losing your job. In six months I want to see a methodology in use on all projects or I will handle the situation myself. I simply cannot believe that my executive staff is afraid to develop a project management methodology. The executive staff knew this day was inevitable; they had to take the initiative in the implementation of a project management methodology. Last year, a consultant was brought in to conduct a morning three-hour session on the benefits of project management and the value of an enterprise project management methodology (EPM). As part of the session, the consultant explained that the time needed to develop and implement an EPM system can be shortened if the company has a project management office (PMO) in place to take the lead role. The consultant also explained that whichever executive gets control of the PMO may become more powerful than other executives because he or she now controls all of the project management intellectual property. The executive staff fully understood the implication of this and therefore became reluctant to visibly support project management until they could see how their organization would be affected. In the meantime, project management suffered. Reluctantly, a PMO was formed reporting to the chief information officer. The PMO was comprised of a handful of experienced project managers that could hopefully take the lead in the development of a methodology. The PMO concluded that there were five steps that had to be done initially. After the five steps were done, the executive committee would receive a final briefing on what had been accomplished. The final briefing would be in addition to the monthly updates and progress reports. The PMO believed that getting executive support and sign-offs in a timely manner would be difficult. The first step that needed to be done was the establishment of the number of life-cycle phases. Some people interviewed wanted ten to twelve life-cycle phases. That meant that there would be ten to twelve gate review meetings and the project managers would spend a great deal of time preparing paperwork for the gate review meetings rather than managing the project. The decision was then made to have no more than six life-cycle phases. The second step was to decide whether the methodology should be designed around rigid policies and procedures or go the more informal route of using forms, guidelines, checklists, and templates. The PMO felt that project managers needed some degree of freedom in dealing with clients and therefore the more informal approach would work best. Also, clients were asking to have the methodology designed around the client's business needs and the more informal approach would provide the flexibility to. The third step was to see what could be salvaged from the existing templates and checklists. The company had a few templates and checklists but not all of the project managers used them. The decision was made to develop a standardized set of documents in accordance with the information in the PMBOK® Guide. The project managers could then select whatever forms, guidelines, templates, and checklists were appropriate for a particular project and client. The fourth step would be to develop a means for capturing best practices using the EPM system. Clients were now requiring in their RFP that best practices on a project must be Critical Issues c02.qxd 1/5/13 11:39 AM Page 109 captured and shared with the client prior to the closeout of the project. Most of the people in the PMO believed that this could be done using forms or checklists at the final project debriefing meeting. The fifth step involved education and training. The project managers and functional organizations that would staff the projects would need to be trained in the use of the new methodology. The PMO believed that a one-day training program would suffice and the functional organizations could easily release their people for a one-day training session. Be sure to offer your recommendation

Please answer the questions 250 words each paragraph form not bullet points. Much appreciated

1 Is it acceptable for the Project Management Office (PMO) to report to the chief information officer, or should they report to someone else? If no, to whom should they report? Share your reasons.

2 Should Enterprise Project Management (EPM) methodologies be designed around organizational culture or dynamic project elements? What are the pros and cons of choosing either one?

3 Can all of the benefits of implementing Project Management processes and methodologies be realized by an organization? Why or why not?

Answer 1

1) The project management office is responsible for optimal management every process within the project integrating all required data and information related to corporate strategy and supporting the balanced score card. The PM of is also responsible for all resources, tools and methodologies essential for the success of the project across the enterprise as it is responsible for identification of the optimal plan and the methodology to be adopted executing the project to use of best practices and established standards.

Implementation and use of Technology within an information technology project is Central to the project but for the business project technology is the basic Framework or tool with the help of which the PMO managers the project to guide it to a successful finish. The PMO reporting to the chief Information officer, maybe required for information technology project but it is essential that the project management office which become the central factor for the success of the project report to the chief executive officer also, or another profile within the top management such as, Director, Projects. The profile will depends largely upon the size of the organisation and the existing organisational structure but it is extremely important that the PMO report to management as both need to elaborate extensively to ensure the success of the project in alignment with the strategy, mission and vision of the organisation. The PMO needs to adopt and follow the organizational policy and strategy so it is essential that the office b in continuous communication with top management to implement any change in strategy goals within the project immediately. As the management is finally responsible for performance it is important that a monitoring and control over the piano bill entertained by the management to ensure optimal functioning of the office.

2) The EPM needs to standardize project management and implement a repeatable process which successfully achieves optimal outcome of every project in terms of budget, schedule, and quality with each factor meeting the required standard,achieving outcome above the standard. The methodology adopted need to be in alignment with the existing organisational structure to be successfully implemented and adopted by every individual across the organisation to provide benefits to the organisation. Successful implementation becomes difficult if radical changes requiring excessive adaptation without considering the existing organizational structure are designed in the EPM. It is important to follow the guideline established through extensive research and present it within the project management book of knowledge, but with adequate modification to suit the unique needs of the organisation. The project management requirement of every organisation can have major differences in which features within the life stages are of exceptional importance and require optimal control and management being critical to the overall performance and success of projects. It is important that focus be provided today structure of the organisation and the unique requirements of the type of project executed by the organisation antivirus an optimal enterprise project management system which has its foundational basis in the guidelines within the PMBOK but the defining features are based upon organisational structure and project needs. The dynamic project elements are essential for successful completion of the project and require focus to optimize management and control of these elements.

Within all the five stages of initiation, planning, execution, control and closing it is important that a perfect plan and strategy be implemented which standardized procedure and methodology to be adopted along with benchmarks for performance management for maximizing project success. This requires consideration of both organizational culture and the dynamic project elements with presentation and integration of both within the enterprise project management methodologies. Organizational culture needs to be considered while planning the action and operations procedure while focus can be provided primarily to dynamic project elements for implementing monitoring and control procedures within the risk management. It is important that a unique EPM methodology is designed for integrating the framework provided by the PMBOK with the structure of the organization as the body and the control of the dynamic projects elements as a major goal. EPM methodology continuous and constant used on every project and need to be optimised by adopting unique methodologies providing benefits of all elements being implemented through integration and flexibility rather than focusing on one and ignoring another. An innovative design solution approach needs to be adopted.

3) the benefits of implementing project management processes and methodology can definitely be realized by an organization provided that the implementation is successfully achieved and optimized my designing methodologies which can be adapted to easily by aligning them with the existing organizational structure regarding operations and policy framework. This will result in minimizing changes by utilizing the existing beneficial features of the organization structure and processes and only modifying the undesirable or inefficient ones with the inclusion of all the stakeholders in the redesigning process. The implementation can also be optimised by providing adequate training as a support for facilitating easy translation by adopting the change towards more efficient processes and optimised output by all employees. The training program needs to be adequate for an understanding of the methodologies and successfully being able to manage the technology. The duration of the training needs to be decided after conducting a needs assessment to provide an accurate assessment of the time required by the involved candidates for deriving absolute benefit from the training to be able to achieve efficiency and outcome. The training program should include an analysis for measuring the efficacy and improvement achieved by the process.