Project Management

For many IT organizations, setting up a Project Management Office (PMO) is a lot like a New Year’s resolution: The best intentions don’t change anything unless you know the whole scope of what needs to be changed. In most cases, the organization knows that it needs to improve its project management, but it’s not sure what the first steps should be.

When we work with IT organizations to enhance the effectiveness of their project and portfolio management, we start by assessing where they are now: What are the needs, perceived weaknesses, challenges, opportunities, and anticipated benefits? After building a team to focus on PM effectiveness, we start our work by conducting a survey of the team to gather current impressions about how project management is handled now. Conducting the survey at both the beginning and end of a PMO development effort provides a yardstick for measuring specific improvements later on.

We’ve posted a copy of one version of our Project Management Effectiveness Survey on our Resources page. It’s available free to registered visitors. Of course, we encourage you to register for access to our entire library of white papers, technical articles, tools, tips, and other documents available free on our Resources page.

If you’d like to talk with us further about our project and portfolio management services, send us a note on our Contact Us page.

A good article appeared late last year at CIO.com about the linkage between project success and a project’s alignment with business strategy. In essence, the project manager needs to both 1) know the company’s high-level business strategy, and 2) know his/her project’s value relative to that strategy.

Many factors influence project success and failure, including schedules, resources and funding. But new project management research from training company Insights Learning and Development, certain chapters of the Project Management Institute and a strategic execution consultant suggests that the single most important factor influencing project success is the project’s link to the organization’s business strategy and the project manager’s understanding of how the project supports the business strategy.

This certainly conforms to our experience with a wide range of IT projects at IT Evolution. Every IT project should demonstrate its full business value before it even gets launched. Part of the value equation involves a solid knowledge of the organization’s strategy on the part of a project’s PM, sponsors, and stakeholders. Sometimes, the PM needs to act as the evangelist on business strategy to those who might not be as familiar with it, particularly in technical environments. Clear alignment with business strategy raises a project’s profile, solidifies its support, and significantly enhances its chances for success.

Read the full article over at CIO.com.