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WHY HAVE A PROJECT SUPPORT OFFICE?

Leading-edge organizations are starting to realize the growing importance of good project management practices as a critical success factor in their business. They are recognizing the need for a more formal process to initiate, approve, manage, and support the project portfolio and project managers. The creation of a PSO nearly always accompanies this recognition.

Establishing and maintaining a PSO requires significant investment of both staff time and capital resources. Organizations make this investment because the rewards greatly outweigh the costs. These rewards include:

• improved resource management
• shorter time to market
• better ability to meet internal and external customer needs
• fewer project failures

Without an overall project management infrastructure and methodology, a company will not use its resources wisely. Project managers will likely be assigned to projects which are either too complex or which require less qualified resources. Ineffective sharing of resources among multiple projects will result in both overloaded and under-utilized employees. Either situation builds resentment among project managers, their teams and peers.

An ineffective infrastructure also leads to high project failure rates. According to a 1995 Standish Group report, 175,000 information technology projects with budgets totaling over $250 billion are undertaken by US companies each year and thirty-one percent of these are cancelled before completion. Fifty-three percent will cost almost double their original estimates.

One of the most significant reasons a project fails is its inability to meet ever-changing customer needs. An effective PSO ensures internal and external customers remain meaningfully involved over the entire life-cycle of the project so that the project continues to meet their expectations and needs.

A PSO can also reduce the cost of projects by standardizing common processes such as project approval, reporting and risk assessment, and can ease the administrative burden on project managers, giving them more time to focus on achieving project success.

A PSO also guides the development of individual and team skills and competencies through appropriate training and mentoring. Ineffective teams do not have the problem-solving skills needed to deal with the external challenges they face. Nor can team members interact well with each other to resolve internal conflicts or disagreements. If individuals and teams lack the skills and competencies needed to work together effectively, longer development times and higher development costs will result across the board.