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A COO's Take on PMOs
Nicole Chestang is COO of the Graduate Management Admission Council, which created its first project management office in 2004. The impetus: the decision to transition the development, administration and delivery of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) to new vendors, which would affect all organizational operations.
What drove you to create a PMO?
A number of parallel projects and initiatives had begun related to transitioning the development and administration of the GMAT to the new vendors, but with limited cross-departmental communication or coordination. A high level of interdependency was just beginning to be recognized by the organization; and managers were concerned that without a plan, GMAC risked not meeting its transition objectives.
What was the first step in building the PMO?
Understanding that there were several PMO models that could be adopted. Our executive team decided to pilot a customized PMO structure in 2005. The pilot would be used as an opportunity to learn about the pros and cons of having a PMO: what support and resources would be needed, what capacity the organization ha[d] to work with in this framework. Two staff members from the IT department were moved to form the new function, reporting to me.
What concerns did you have?
My greatest concern was ensuring that the organization supported the idea. We spent a great deal of time with our management team, listening and responding to their feedback. They were concerned that the PMO would be a roadblock, increase bureaucracy, go against the culture of GMAC, encroach on departmental authority, be an additional burden on the project manager, and be too much for GMAC with the GMAT transition.
Did the PMO meet your expectations?
PMO staff exceeded expectations. A process was established to monitor project progress through our PMO steering committee -- a group of department heads charged with reviewing project proposals and assisting the PMO in selecting, prioritizing, and monitoring the council's entire portfolio of projects. Project managers were asked to report weekly on status and to identify and escalate issues.
In addition, both the PMO department head and analyst took on the role of project manager on two long-term, enterprise-wide projects that were in trouble and needed support. Both projects were successfully turned around to the satisfaction of the executive sponsors and key stakeholders. It is important to note that all critical launch dates for projects related to the GMAT transition were met.
--T.K.
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All Hands on Deck
Andrea Fetsick, PMO director at the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a $50-million nonprofit education association in McLean, Va., recalls a massive project three years ago to develop a system that supported GMAC's online products and services. Although GMAC completed the large project, "it didn't go as well as hoped," Fetsick says. Scope creep and untrained project managers were the main culprits. "It was the tipping point for us to think about project management in a more serious and formal way," Fetsick says.
And so GMAC hired a consultant to assess the project management skills of some 40 GMAC employees and propose a better organizational structure. Project Solutions Group Inc. (PSG) of Marlborough, Mass., found that GMAC's troubles stemmed from not having a PMO.
Two years later, GMAC launched a PMO pilot; it eventually became a full-fledged department within IT. Led by Fetsick, a 10-year company veteran, this two-person unit centralized project management reporting and training. Now project managers on all active projects must submit a progress report to the PMO on a weekly basis.
Fetsick's PMO was put to the test last year, after GMAC struck a partnership with vendors to expand the global reach of its Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) exam and to strengthen test security. Pearson VUE now administers the exam through its worldwide network of test centers, and ACT Inc. develops the test. This new arrangement frees GMAC to take on more responsibility for building relationships with schools and test takers. And internally it sparked change in products and services and everything that is affected, Fetsick says. "For example, with the help of the PMO, the organization went through an extensive process to create a new set of data privacy policies that are required by each country that we test in."
GMAC's PMO delivered strong, early results. "We could show the tie-ins with other aspects of the business. We could take a broader view," Fetsick says. Out of the 20 or so active projects last year, 16 have been completed within their target dates and the others are tracking well. GMAC's PMO continues to develop its cost- and schedule-tracking metrics in order to better define a project's success. "Completion is not necessarily a good metric for a PMO," Fetsick says.
Fetsick's experience also shows that PMOs that arise out of crisis gain one key success factor out of the gate: senior management buy-in. When GMAC's challenged IT project concluded, four meetings with top executives and directors followed. "Everyone agreed something needed to be done," Fetsick says.
But maintaining that buy-in can be a challenge, no matter how strong your initial business case. Beverly Prohaska, IT director at WAI Global Associates, a $220-million manufacturer and distributor of after-market auto parts in Royersford, Pa., came to the company just over a year ago specifically to improve its project management practices.
Prohaska didn't have to sell the PMO concept to executives initially -- "they were starved for some type of framework" -- but she's had to sell it ever since. Keeping them engaged is part of her job.
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