Organisations today share a common mandate: maximise the business value of project investments. Without the right processes and systems in place, organisations will find it tough to identify, justify and prioritise IT projects.
"Most organisations select and fund projects based on only a few, if any criteria. Projects are often funded solely on the perceived merits or their project owner's political clout. Once the top projects have been prioritised, projects are funded until the budget has been completely allocated," says Paul Viviers, founder and managing director of PM Sight and host of the Executive Breakfast, 'Why PMOs Fail?'.
"Little rigor is included in the prioritisation and the overall ranking is purely subjective. In addition, important criteria that may directly impact a project's success are not taken into consideration. In most cases, corporate strategic factors are rarely considered or are deemed irrelevant to the project selection process."
Therefore businesses that want to improve project outcomes as well as provide critical project information for executives, or institute an analytical project decision process, are turning to the creation of a PMO.
The 'Why PMOs Fail?' executive breakfast agenda is truly geared for top-tier management and PPM practitioners in business and government, providing an informative value proposition to help the industry more efficiently and effectively deploy PMOs to achieve the overall business objectives. Approximately 40% of all registered attendees are business executives, divisional heads, programme directors or project directors.
The 'Why PMOs Fail?' executive breakfast agenda offers organisations' decision-makers the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas in an industry-focused environment.
Viviers will facilitate the executive briefing, and guest speaker Brian Ferreira, Group IT PMO Manager for SBSA, will share his experiences and practical learnings from having established successful PMOs.
Viviers said that an efficient PMO provides the necessary overview and co-ordination to deliver projects on time and on budget by managing and reporting on schedules, resources, risks, costs quality, scope and risks across all projects. At the heart of the PMO is its relationship with the executive and management team, the aim being to enable the business to co-ordinate and incorporate complex multi-project initiatives across an entire enterprise.
The formation of a PMO is not only designed to drive top-down accountability: it also supports the completed operational framework for managing a multi-project environment. In effect, a PMO is an information repository that provides the visibility needed to understand the health of ongoing projects and the potential impact of planned projects - and ensures that all projects are evaluated in the same manner. Without a PMO "knowledge centre", executives and the management team are hindered in their ability to make the necessary collective decisions based on the right information.
The executive breakfast will be held on 20 March 2008 at Microsoft in Bryanston. To register, visit http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032370802&culture=en-za.
For more information, e-mail Paul Viviers paul@pmsight.co.za or phone +27 11 656-0980.
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