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2007-04-16 17:17:00
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Our organization is thinking about developing 1 PMO to manage all
projects. Does any organization have a 1 PMO that oversees all projects
including IT or multiple PMOs? Where does the PMO report to?
[XXXX]
Vice President and CIO
[XXXX] Health Services
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2007-04-17 12:54:00 |
[XXXX],
We are beginning to implement a PMO. This will be a 1 person office and
that person will report to me. This person will not manage all projects
but will be responsible for establishing our organization's project
management methodology, procedures, templates, etc. She will ensure that
each project team gets organized and trained appropriately. She will also
monitor progress of all projects and report to our IT Steering Committee
on such progress. She may manage certain select projects, but that is to
be determined.
[XXXX]
VP and CIO
[XXXX] Community Hospital
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2007-04-17 12:54:00 |
[XXXX],
We created a PMO approximately 1 year ago. The office currently is staffed
with 1 FTE which I anticipate will grow. This individual provides a degree
of oversight over most IT projects. Also, this individual is evolving our
project management methodology. The office reports to the Director,
Information Systems.
Please call if you like. I can fill in additional details.
[XXXX]
Vice President, Information Technology & Chief Information Officer
[XXXX] Medical Center
Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
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2007-04-18 16:22:00 |
[XXXX],
We use a Project Management Office at 2 levels. All projects
over a certain size (600 hours) or that require cross-functional
resources must be conducted using the PMO. Departmental projects, i.e.
projects wherein all resources required are from within a single
functional unit AND that are less than 600 hours in size can be
conducted outside the purview of the PMO. However, those projects are
required to use the PMO processes and best practices, i.e. charter,
plan, schedule, and reporting.
We control big projects being decomposed into multiple sub-600
hour projects by limiting the percentage of staff resources that can be
allocated to Departmental projects.
It takes a fair amount of discipline and a good dose of
Portfolio Management to make it work. But it is effective in controlling
rogue projects and ensuring cross-functional integration of change.
[XXXX]
Vice President, Information Technology
[XXXX] Health Network
XXX-XXX-XXXX (direct)
XXX-XXX-XXXX (cell)
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2007-04-18 16:22:00 |
At [XXXX] we have two PMO groups. One in IT and
a second for all other projects. The IT PMO reports to the CIO and into
the IT Executive Council (updates, etc). The BHS PMO reports into the
CFO.
A PMO structure is new at [XXXX] Health Systems but has been in place
for IT for the last few years. We use the Microsoft Enterprise Project
Management system... it has some flaws but is serving our purposes well.
First challenge was/is the philosophy of a PMO. That is still in
progress. As the philosophy grows and is accepted, challenges to the
current software solution will come forward.
[XXXX]
CIO
[XXXX] Health Systems
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2007-04-18 16:22:00 |
We have one PMO in our multihospital system and it reports to me, the
CIO. It is staffed by 2.5 FTEs. The role of the PMO continues to evolve,
and has been in place for about 2 years. Initially, we focused on the
methodology, and spent time building templates, tools and training
project managers. We now use the PMO to perform checkpoints on
projects, such as testing reviews, prelive assessments, post live
assessments, etc. The PMO also provides staffing and support for the IS
project slate and the IS steering committee. They guide users through
the process of writing project proposals and business cases, and assist
me with running the steering (governance) committees that review and
prioritize the IS projects. The PMO is also very valuable in helping to
forecast staffing for new projects as they use tools to roll up all the
projects and resources for the department.
[XXXX]
Vice President & Chief Information Officer
[XXXX] Health Organization
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2007-04-18 16:22:00 |
We have used project management extensively for implementing clinical
systems in the past. Historically PMs reported to the CIO but were in the
IT department. We started getting more and more requests for help with
non-IT projects so about 18 months ago we made the decision to create a PMO
as a separate department. The department still reports to me, I have had 2
FTEs and I am adding a third person next month. We use PM extensively for
organizationally strategic initiatives. For example we have implemented a
Rapid Response Team and a centralized scheduling process using project
management. We also still use our PMs for all new IT implementations. It
has been very valuable.
[XXXX]
Vice President and CIO
[XXXX] Medical Center
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2007-04-18 16:22:00 |
Dear [XXXX],
I'm a former Director of a centralized Project Management Office.
Additionally, I designed and implemented 3 other PMO's as a consultant.
Hence, I'm speaking from significant experience here. From my
experience, my suggestion is to begin by eliminating the concept of a
centralized, enterprise PMO!
[XXXX] suggests three models to PMO's - management, coach, and the data
repository. What it sounds like you are referring to is the management
model where the Project Manager's sit centrally. Typically, these
organizations report outside of IT - Finance is the usual location.
Obviously, this makes sense to offer appropriate checks and balances.
In many organizations this is a pleasure for the CFO because they have
spent years dealing with the late and over-budget delivery of IT
projects that our industry has become so known for. I'm also an
ex-Finance guy... The ironic thing about enterprise PMOs is the group
typically only works on IT projects with the minor exception of
construction projects. Most operational areas have not adjusted their
thinking to "project" approaches.
The typical results that I have seen are turf wars. The IT department
normally looks at the centralized PMs as prima donnas that don't
understand the overall product. The PMO wants to control all of IT's
resource capacity and obviously most IT departments do not want to give
up control of their largest projects and resources to a centralized
group and rightly so. Can you imagine going to the CMO and suggesting
that the head of the PMO will control the resource capacity for the
Physicians...
Nonetheless, this is the situation that typically will occur. The PMO
will normally take all the IT capacity into a model and suggest how much
capacity should be applied to maintenance/support/enhancements. The
real test will be the first production downtime when you need to pull
resources away from the project and apply them to an operational issue.
Another byproduct is many times, the PMO becomes so focused on project
methodology that adherence to the methodology becomes the project focus
and they typically forget about the actual product being delivered. I
certainly fell into this trap in the past running a PMO. My
organization was so immature on projects that I had to constantly force
them to focus on project artifacts and methodology. The teams became so
focused on putting issues in the right place, using the right template,
updating MS project just right, etc... that they forgot "why" they were
doing the project at hand. Obviously, the "keep it simple" principle
was easy to overlook.
In terms of projects, I have normally found that a PMO works well for a
large program of projects designed with one end goal. Examples would
include: EMR, EHR, new hospital. This is normally when organizations
decide to add the PMO. You'll notice that the group will be very
successful during that period of dedicated focus. If the large project
occurred successfully, the PMO becomes the next pancea. The next step
for the organization is to transition all projects to the PMO.
Unfortunately, the group will normally have issues transitioning into
portfolio management of a large group of unrelated projects. Many times
this is where the turf battle will start presenting itself. For example
- you role out an upgrade of MS Office to all the PCs in your
organization. Is this a project requiring a PM? One of my PMO's argued
that it should be under the umbrella of the PMO. At the same time, my
technical team thought it was ridiculous to use an expensive PM to
roll-out such a simple project (this was before we implemented software
distribution tools).
The final concept of centralized PMO's is accountability. Most
centralized PMO's liken themselves as being accountable for the success
or failure of the projects at the macro level. At the same time, the
minute a problem exists at the micro level the technical resources
accountability for success and failure will shift quickly. The behavior
ends up being pretty passive/aggressive in nature.
My recommendation to you is to assign 1 to 4 people (depending upon your
size) to a role of project methodology, PM tools administration,
training, and metrics gathering/reporting. Then weave in heavy hitter
PM's within the IT organization to run the large projects. Although I
normally advocate that a good PM can run any type of project equally
well, it certainly is easier to have PMs with the appropriate technical
background (at least in terms of categories). For instance, in my
organization, I have Applications and Infrastructure PMs. I have found
this organizational design to be extremely beneficial to integrate PM
discipline and at the same time reduce conflict.
If you do decide to implement an enterprise PMO, make sure to get some
good consulting experience to help design the solution. Give me a call,
I can recommend a couple organizations and more importantly individuals
that could greatly assist you in the process.
Best of luck to you!
[XXXX]
Chief Information Officer
[XXX] Centers of [XXXX]
XXX-XXX-XXXX W
XXX-XXX-XXXX C
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