Tips of the Trade: Establishing an Enterprise Program Management Office as Part of your Company Strategy

The strategic business plan in order to provide a disciplined approach to the management of project process and methodology roll-out and delivery of an enterprise portfolio must be part of a company’s strategy for success.

 First step in the strategic business case is conducting a subjective analysis of the organization’s project delivery weaknesses, threats, strengths and opportunities as indicated in the diagram below. The program components in yellow in the diagram indicate the maturity rating. The triangular pointer for each aspect of the program component in the diagram is associated to the strength and opportunities in green.

In parallel during the analysis phase is the training and restructuring of the federated project management practices and ad-hoc processes.

·       Creation of a true project portfolio differentiate between maintenance and operational support deliverables

·       Restructuring and consolidation of the federated processes and streamlining of portfolio communication

·       If prioritization framework for initiatives does not exist already, roll-out a demand management process for both out-of-cycle request and fiscal year request.

Critical Success Factors

       I.         The EPMO must be endorsed and supported by the executive team from the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer (or Chief Administrative Officer) to the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer

     II.         Create a results-oriented Project Management Office by aligning with the Office of the CFO to establish guardrails for CAPEX and OPEX (if they don't exist already).

    III.         Establish clear and open communication (Executive dashboards, Project Steering Committee meetings for decisions and escalations etc.)

   IV.         A 360 collaboration with supporting Business Units of key areas that must be included for success (Collaboration Process below).

Above image is based on a real team structure from prior experience

     V.         Create a governance structure (Project Management Council) to facilitate project related issues, risks, phase gate approvals and fiscal year planning.

   VI.         Build a business analyst team to help with requirement gathering and documentation

  VII.         End-user engagement is absolutely crucial through all phases of the execution/delivery life-cycle (establish an IT Business Relationship Managers for continuous delivery collaboration between business and IT).