How to Ensure Project Success: Implement a Project Management Office Approach (Part 2)

In Part 1 of How to Ensure Project Success: Implement a Project Management Office Approach, we introduced the Project Management Office (PMO) and the situations where a business needs one. Here in Part 2, we dig deeper into how the project management office approach works in practice, and how it can rescue a project that has gone off track.

What the Project Management Office Approach Entails

The PMO approach pairs the best available people in an organization with a coach who organizes and manages the team to execute the action plan and reach the improvement goals. That structure keeps everyone on track and able to meet the due dates on their assigned tasks, so the project team can deliver the outcome the project was set up to achieve.

One caution: the PMO approach asks employees to volunteer for work outside their regular duties and responsibilities. They need to be willing and genuinely interested in helping. A reluctant participant slows the PMO process down and drags on the rest of the team.

Choosing this approach is the first step. The second is finding someone with the experience to manage the project and the judgment to know what to look for when establishing the team. Done right, the PMO approach keeps budgets and timelines from becoming moving targets that management ultimately kills. Larger organizations that consistently run multiple projects at once often establish a full-time PMO to lend project tools and best practices to individual project teams. Many companies that added a full-time PMO function realized the need only after engaging an experienced PMO consultant who could lay out the benefits this approach provides.

Turning a Troubled Project Around by Establishing a PMO

A project is going sideways when it is:

• not meeting its goals,
• running over budget, or
• falling behind schedule.

When that happens, bringing in an outside resource with PMO experience may be the fastest way to turn the project around and get things back on track. Inglewood's extensive business turnaround practice is built on quickly triaging business issues on very tight budgets and timelines, and we apply our PMO expertise in every turnaround engagement we take on. That discipline is what helps ensure your project's success.

One example: a client had a critical strategic need to expand its operations to the western states, but the board was concerned that the management team did not have the resources to implement the expansion successfully. Inglewood was engaged to oversee both the assessment and the implementation of the effort. The expansion plan was presented to the board, and with Inglewood's guidance through the PMO approach, the client successfully commenced production only three months after board approval.

About Inglewood

Since 1983, Inglewood has delivered practical business acumen to clients facing a wide range of challenges. Our principals bring wide-ranging experience as interim and full-time CEOs, CFOs, and board chairs, and the firm specializes in profit improvement, business turnarounds, interim management, M&A due diligence, expert witness work, and project management.