Defining and Implementing Future State PMO

SITUATION  

Our client, a Fortune 500 Gas and Utility provider, required assistance with the assessment of their Project Management Office (PMO.) The client required a third party to lead the effort and provide an unbiased final evaluation. The objectives of the engagement included:  

• Understand the current PMO governance structure, decision processes and areas of improvement  
• Assist the PMO with the identification of a better methodology for managing resource availability (demand vs. capacity) in order to improve portfolio planning and project execution  
• Address the challenge of managing the organization’s resource capacity to support the on time delivery of scheduled projects  
• Assess the capacity management processes and project governance (audits, health checks, quality controls)  
• Understand and recommend a road map of PMO enhancements, including a review of current, and possibly future, enterprise tools  

SOLUTION  

In collaboration with our client, we framed the future PMO model, utilizing our IT Strategy Framework as the approach for organizing and conducting the analysis, by working with the PMO team and key stakeholders to gain a baseline assessment of their existing environment and established current maturity levels. The road map was developed to address gaps between current and desired maturity levels for capacity management, governance, tools and methods. 

RESULT  

Our team worked closely with both executive leadership and IT delivery directors to establish the PMO Road Map. The Road Map is the basis for IT decision making, capacity management, and the focus of key programs leading to a future state of automated capacity planning and management. Final deliverables included:  

• Future state establishment – the ‘to be’ desired state and key gaps to be addressed  
• Tool recommendation – tools under consideration included MS Project Server, ServiceNow, SAP CATS and a bespoke capacity tracking tool  
• Road Map of short-term and long-term projects – including Agile assessment, project resource flows and modelling, methodology gap improvements and key activities for achievement of a fully automated solution