Value of Project Management Offices Questioned

Computerworld - Most companies have established project management offices (PMO) to help them enforce standard IT processes during IT/business projects, according to a recently released report by Forrester Research Inc. But many PMOs continue to spend too much time compiling reports for senior management and not enough time ensuring that projects are delivered on time and within scope.

That could explain why the report found that nearly one-fifth of all new IT projects are completed three or more months late.

"It's no surprise that the presence of a PMO didn't have much effect on project failure rates," said Tom Pohlmann, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester and author of the report "How Companies Govern Their IT Spending," published June 30. The study is based on telephone interviews with 704 North American IT decision-makers between late April and June.

Sixty-seven percent of the respondents said their organizations have one or more PMOs—either inside or outside of the IT department. That's up from 53% last year.

The problem, Pohlmann said, is that too many PMOs serve as "process cops and report compilers" for executive teams and often "lose sight of what they're supposed to be doing—to make sure projects are running effectively."

Dan Garrow, senior vice president of information systems and CIO at Mohegan Sun casino, agreed with the report's findings. "We have a PMO, which has frequently been referred to as the 'PMO police,'" he said.

The IT department at the Uncasville, Conn.-based hotel and casino is "working hard to overcome that perception," in part by trying to enlist senior management support of PMO concepts, Garrow said.

In addition, IT departments have to be more rigid about which projects they're willing to take on, he said. "IS departments are so ingrained with the idea of being a service organization that to say no to a customer is almost taboo," said Garrow. He advocated calling on executive management "to assist and, in many cases, say no on behalf of the IS function so they can maintain the customer relationship with user departments."

For this study, Forrester classified a project as a "failure" if it was delivered one to three months late and affected at least 3,000 end users. According to survey respondents, 19% of their application initiatives were delivered at least three months late, and another 17% were one to three months overdue.

For his part, Pohlmann said he doesn't expect any dramatic improvements in IT project delivery rates, because of IT management apathy. "I think there is improvement that can be achieved, but not from a project management methodology standpoint, because those have been around for years," said Pohlmann. Instead, he said, business units have to be much more involved with IT departments on a project's requirements throughout its entire life cycle.