The need for effective project management along with experienced and skilled project professionals is more prevalent now than ever. Today’s global landscape is characterised by rapid change, innovation and disruptive technology. The world is more globalised and intricately linked than ever, with events occurring around the world having immediate significant impacts on the entire global value chain. As a result, in today’s business landscape, flexibility and resilience are crucial for success, particularly when it comes to key project portfolios that drive strategic development and organisational change.
Over the last few years, a number of global events highlighted the need for organisations to be agile and resilient in their strategy and operational execution. To maintain a competitive edge, businesses need to deliver large projects and strategic plans with significant speed and finesse. Responsibility for specific strategic projects and organisational change is typically handled by an internal team formed of talented people with other job responsibilities to focus on, or to various outside contractors. Many organisations simply do not have the available in-house resources on the scale required to deal with the pace of change in today’s global business landscape.
So how can organisations maintain a focus on delivering current operational needs whilst driving and executing strategic and organisational development?
This is where Project Management Offices (PMOs) could support businesses in keeping up with the required pace of strategic business development. Using PMO specialists to support critical projects and programmes is a decision to be taken carefully, but there are clear benefits to taking advantage of the breadth and depth of skills and insights of trusted PMOs, experienced in supporting organisations in delivering strategic projects and programme management.
A significant number of projects experience failure due to the inability to deliver a project’s scope or to remain within the budget and expected timeframes. When the number and complexity of an organisation’s projects reaches a certain level, it becomes increasingly difficult to prioritise resources, organise procedures and assess risk. Moreover, managing day-to-day operations has also increased significantly due to the current rate of change and increasing disruptions.
As a result, organisations may find difficulty in remaining connected with the ultimate goals and strategy of a project whilst navigating such a complex and evolving operational landscape. To achieve effective project implementation, executed with speed and finesse, a dedicated and fully focussed PMO can effectively support the delivery of strategic projects. Project Management Offices (PMOs) act as the engine driving the delivery of project undertakings. A good PMO drives communication and discipline, and is driven to align projects to a company’s core strategic objectives.
PMO adds a level of coordination across an organisation’s portfolio of projects that increase the likelihood of success.
Each project is unique, and professional PMOs will need to develop a tailor-made approach for each project, to ensure the effective management and delivery of the project’s scope.
An overall effective PMO will implement consistent methodologies, to ensure compliance with an organisation’s strategy and success across various projects. PMOs should aim to deliver visibility and accountability for project execution, by placing the organisation’s KPIs at the forefront of its strategy. PMOs should be involved in the project from the inception phase, allowing it to support the organisation throughout the full project lifecycle up until implementation.
PMOs are responsible for motivating and driving stakeholders and focus their efforts on specific priorities, which elevates the PMO function into a driver of strategic development and change. The implementation of a well-integrated PMO helps to establish cross-boundary relationships which create significant value to the overall success of the strategic project.
Through the support of experienced Project Managers, businesses can achieve strategic goals by engaging with professionals that have the required experience and expertise to add-value throughout the project lifecycle.
PMOs deploy the right tools, insight and expertise at key stages and work side by side with the organisation to successfully deliver complex strategic projects and programmes. If critical projects are managed well, the organisation will be better equipped with the required agility and speed to manage tomorrow’s disruptions and new challenges.
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