How to Maximize the Impact of Your Project Management Office

PMI's President & CEO Mark A. Langley spoke to American City Business Journals about how an appropriately structured, resourced and funded project management office (PMO) can be the critical link between strategy and implementation. 

It's no secret that well-implemented strategies are essential to any organization's ability to grow and succeed.

According to Why Good Strategies Fail: Lessons for the C-Suite, an Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by PMI, 88 percent of organizations said implementing strategic initiatives successfully would be 'essential' or 'very important' for their competitiveness over the next three years.

Yet 61 percent of firms struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and implementation, and just over half of strategic initiatives are successful.

An appropriately structured, resourced, and funded project management office (PMO) can be the critical link between strategy and implementation. A PMO is responsible for maintaining the standards for project management within an organization, including supporting the execution of project work; it can effectively do so by implementing proven practices and providing a central point of contact for all project managers.

PMOs can also provide training, mentoring, and capability development for project personnel, facilitate knowledge transfer, and perform portfolio management functions to ensure strategy alignment and benefits realization. Read More