This case study is about the implementation of a Project Management Organization
ID: 3722917 • Letter: T
Question
This case study is about the implementation of a Project Management Organization (PMO) at AtekPC, circa 2007. The purpose of the PMO is to oversee IT projects within the company. Your case study is providing guidance for John Strider, the AtekPC CIO.
The Problem analysis should address the recent trends in the PC market, and how they affected AtekPC’s IT function. What problems led to the creation of a PMO?
Again, there is a dearth of data, so no Data Analysis section is needed.
Two major Alternatives are described, PMO-light and PMO-heavy. Your Alternatives should address those two approaches, as well as a third Alternative you create. The main variables are how much control the PMO has over individual projects. How much control is enough?
Your description of the Alternatives should include their impact on the organization, and how they affect the processes, governance, and culture in the resulting organization.
Define appropriate Criteria for judging the Alternatives, and select a Recommendation.
The questions provided here are NOT designed to be comprehensive steps, just some of the points I’d expect you to address while doing the case studies. So please go beyond the issues identified here; these are just help to get you started.
Written case studies should follow this structure:
Cover page and table of contents
Executive summary – should be brief (1/2 page), and summarize the problem, alternatives examined, and your recommendation.
Problem statement – should include describing relevant key symptoms of the problem (e.g. increased competition, lack of profitability, etc.).
Data analysis – should quantify the problem (possibly based on analysis of the data exhibits given in the text), and provide more specific examples of its scope, breakdown, or other key information.
Key Decision Criteria – these should be the basis for evaluating the alternative solutions. These criteria should be traits of the solution you can measure.
Phrase them like commands, like ‘increase market share’, or ‘reduce transportation costs’, etc. Be as specific as possible – ‘increase profits’ could imply increasing sales, reducing overhead, reducing staffing, improving market share, buying your competition, etc.
Graphing select pieces of data from the case study exhibits can be very helpful.
Make sure to cite and discuss your exhibits in the body of your case study – don’t just leave them orphaned at the end of the document. o
Alternatives analysis – should describe at least three alternatives to solve the problem. One is, of course, the actual solution used by the company. The others you invent. It helps to give each alternative a brief name (e.g. Only Sell Books, or Close Failing Departments), and refer to them that way throughout the document.
Judge (i.e. score) all of the alternatives based on the decision criteria, and how well they help achieve the goals stated therein. You can choose your scoring approach; a binary yes/no score is probably too course, but a scale of 1 to 3, or as much as 1 to 5 points for each criterion could work.
Recommendations – states what your recommended course of action is to solve the problem. Your recommendation should be the highest scoring alternative. No, you don’t have to follow the course that the actual company took; maybe you have a better idea!
The Action and Implementation Plan is not needed.
(optional) If you have exhibits, include them at the end. o
The case studies do not have specific page limits, but as a guideline, it’s hard to do all of the above well in less than 5-6 pages
Explanation / Answer
SOLLUTION :
The ever increasing challenge of successfully managing information technology (IT), organizations are recognizing the need for greater discipline in managing IT projects. For many organizations, this has meant ratcheting up project management skills, processes, and governance structures within the organization by implementing a project management office (PMO). Unfortunately, there is little shared understanding of the challenges of implementing a PMO. Therefore, managers and their organizations have inadequate guidance to help them identify and overcome the obstacles they are likely to encounter.
Project management Processes:
Project management is one of the critical processes of any project. This is due to the fact that project management is the core process that connects all other project activities and processes together.
When it comes to the activities of project management, there are plenty. However, these plenty of project management activities can be categorized into five main processes.
1 - Project Initiation
2 - Project Planning
3 - Project Execution
4 - Control and Validation
5 - Closeout and Evaluation
Project Management Methodologies:
In order to achieve goals and planned results within a defined schedule and a budget, a manager uses a project. Regardless of which field or which trade, there are assortments of methodologies to help managers at every stage of a project from the initiation to implementation to the closure. In this tutorial, we will try to discuss the most commonly used project management methodologies.
A methodology is a model, which project managers employ for the design, planning, implementation and achievement of their project objectives. There are different project management methodologies to benefit different projects.
Project Management Tools:
In order to execute a project successfully, the project manager or the project management team should be supported by a set of tools.
These tools can be specifically designed tools or regular productivity tools that can be adopted for project management work.
The use of such tools usually makes the project managers work easy as well as it standardizes the work and the routine of a project manager.
Following are some of those tools used by project managers in all domains:
Project Plan
All the projects that should be managed by a project manager should have a project plan. The project plan details many aspects of the project to be executed.
First of all, it details out the project scope. Then, it describes the approach or strategy used for addressing the project scope and project objectives.
The strategy is the core of the project plan. The strategy could vary depending on the project purpose and specific project requirements.
The resource allocation and delivery schedule are other two main components of the project plan. These detail each activity involved in the project as well as the information such as who executes them and when.
This is important information for the project manager as well as all the other stakeholders of the project.
Milestone Checklist
This is one of the best tools the project manager can use to determine whether he or she is on track in terms of the project progress.
The project manager does not have to use expensive software to track this. The project manager can use a simple Excel template to do this job.
The milestone checklist should be a live document that should be updated once or twice a week.
Gantt Chart
Gantt chart illustrates the project schedule and shows the project manager the interdependencies of each activity. Gantt charts are universally used for any type of project from construction to software development.
Although deriving a Gantt chart looks quite easy, it is one of the most complex tasks when the project is involved in hundreds of activities.
There are many ways you can create a Gantt chart. If the project is small and simple in nature, you can create your own Gantt chart in Excel or download an Excel template from the Internet.
If the project has a high financial value or high-risk exposure, then the project manager can use software tools such as MS Project.
Project Reviews
A comprehensive project review mechanism is a great tool for project management. More mature companies tend to have more strict and comprehensive project reviews as opposed to basic ones done by smaller organizations.
In project reviews, the project progress and the adherence to the process standards are mainly considered. Usually, project reviews are accompanied by project audits by a 3rd party (internal or external).
The non-compliances and action items are then tracked in order to complete them.
Delivery Reviews
Delivery reviews make sure that the deliveries made by the project team meet the customer requirements and adhere to the general guidelines of quality.
Usually, a 3rd party team or supervisors (internal) conduct the delivery review and the main stakeholders of the project delivery do participate for this event.
The delivery review may decide to reject the delivery due to the quality standards and non-compliances.
Score cards
When it comes to performance of the project team, a scorecard is the way of tracking it. Every project manager is responsible of accessing the performance of the team members and reporting it to the upper management and HR.
This information is then used for promotion purposes as well as human resource development. A comprehensive score card and performance assessment can place the team member in the correct position.
Conclusion
A project manager cannot execute his/her job without a proper set of tools. These tools do not have to be renowned software or something, but it can pretty well be simple and proven techniques to manage project work.
Having a solid set of project management tools always makes project managers' work pleasurable and productive.