Module 2 – Case
THE PROJECT/PROGRAM MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO)
Assignment Overview
As mentioned in the Background Material, you will focus on
the PMO and project success experienced by A. G. Edwards.
Your primary focus will be on the Project/Program Management
Office (PMO). The PMO maintains the project management intellectual property of
the organization. Likewise, the PMO acts as the conduit for project management
status information to senior management. To perform these two important
functions, the PMO utilizes specially designed systems to coordinate and
correlate data for access by project managers and senior leadership (Cooke
& Tate, 2005, Kerzner, 2005). Project data repositories store the
information generated during the project and allows project managers to access
data such as “lessons learned” when needed. Likewise, this data can be used to
create reporting for senior management.
According to Kerzner (2005), three types of PMO exist.
First, the functional PMO handles project management within a specific
functional area or division. The primary focus of the functional PMO is
resource management. A common functional PMO is the IT department’s PMO where
the personnel can be highly utilized or consist of external contractors.
Second, the customer group project office brings together customer centric
projects to gain synergies and maximize customer experience. The customer group
PMO can exist on a temporary basis. Finally, the corporate PMO handles complex
and cross functional projects needing coordination to reach a strategic
objective or address a corporate wide issue.
The value of the PMO comes at a cost. These costs include
tangible costs and organizational costs (Berkun, 2005; Cooke & Tate, 2005,
Kerzner, 2005). Obviously, the organization must fund the individuals working
in the organization. Likewise, the organization must commit resources for the software
systems to maximize the value. From an organizational perspective, the
resistance to change experienced in the adoption of project management as a
discipline exists when management creates an organization within the
enterprise. Questions of the authority and locus of control worries manager
(Kerzner, 2005). The PMO can overcome these concerns by streamlining processes,
ensuring to maintain senior leadership sponsorship, and building and inclusive
environment.
The PMO is vital for the organization to continue to mature
in the project management discipline. The PMO acts at the guardian of the
corporate project management intellectual property. The different types of PMO
includes the resource management focused functional PMO, the customer centric
PMO, and the strategically minded corporate PMO. Finally, the PMO must be
funded. The PMO must produce results to match the investment to be considered
successful.
Case Assignment
Establishing a PMO can yield great value to an organization.
It can also cause loss if not properly implemented. As demonstrated in the A.
G. Edwards case, a PMO can be reinvented and enhance the project success of the
organization. In this case you are to review the story of the A. G. Edwards
PMO. Utilizing the other required reading, you are to craft a review of the
steps taken and the value realized. The case should include the following.
An overview explaining the Project Management Office, its
functions and values.
Detail the steps taken by A. G. Edwards and the results
realized.
Please discuss why establishing a PMO is important for
ensuring successful project management efforts in an organization.
Assignment Expectations
You should try to integrate your responses into a seamless
essay rather than using a question/answer format. You can segregate answers to
the various questions using sub-headings, if you would like. Please present
your response in a 3- to 5-page essay.
A good format for this paper is to use section headings. For
the first section the heading “Introduction” works quite well, of course. You
may want to include brief sub headings for the key topics in the body of your
essay and your final section could simply use “Conclusion” or “Summary and
Conclusion” as a heading. There are variations of this heading usage formatting
approach, of course. The key point here is that headings are very useful for
helping to organize your essay. They can also provide clues for your professor
for finding your answers to specific questions.
Also, please make sure that you include an appropriate cover
page and that you cite and reference your sources.
Include this essay in a Word Document and upload.
