Metrics for Project Office Management

By Bob McGannon, PMP

The project management office (PMO) concept is gathering momentum within the project management industry. More and more organizations are reaping the benefits of consolidating their project management functions, thus standardizing methodologies and templates for use in the management and delivery of projects. The Project Management Institute has added fuel to this trend toward PMOs with the release of the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model OPM3™, providing guidelines to increase the maturity and effectiveness of an organization’s project management resources. What is to prevent this positive momentum from becoming a fad that comes and goes? Metrics are the answer - to reinforce the positive aspects of the PMO and its affect on the organization. Not just project management focused metrics however - specialized metrics that is centered on the work and contributions of the PMO.

Measuring the effectiveness of project management in terms of the accuracy of triple constraint management (scope, time and resources) and the number of people coached to attain the PMP® certification is a start. However, positive results from these measurements could easily be contributed to a growing skill set in the ranks of the project managers. Metrics that track the growing contributions of the PMO will assist the management team to validate the ongoing relevance of the PMO. In addition, these metrics can used to justify additional funds and personnel to expand the PMO role within the organization, as appropriate.

Measuring Organizational Influence – Best Practice Adoption and Maturity

The positive influence of the PMO within the organization can best be quantified by its management of change across the enterprise. As OPM3™ provides the project management world with a number of “best practices”, these can be the basis for improvement measurements. What is needed is a metric to track the number of best practices adopted by each business unit within the organization, as well as within the organization as a whole. This provides a set of highly visible metrics that can clearly demonstrate the degree of change introduced and managed by the PMO. Along with these measurements, using OPM3™ and performing the self-assessment on a regular basis can reinforce the positive nature of the changes brought about by the PMO.

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