breakout session overview

PMO Metrics--Why Your Business Leaders Don’t Believe You

Presentation Description

This presentation begins by discussing how we as PMO managers and staff tend to want to measure ourselves (EV, Budget vs. Actuals, etc.) and reviews some of the shortcomings of each of these measures.  We will then discuss ways we can establish meaningful assessments of our work, and how we must evolve those over time and continually asses whether we are measuring the right things.  As we gain more experience and more results that can be traced directly to the PMO, we must adjust and respond to the issues, successes and failures we see in order to maintain and cultivate confidence in the mission of the PMO.  Since modifying behavior in the right ways is the ultimate goal of measuring ourselves, ideas for more meaningful measures, especially in new or re-established PMOs will be presented.  These must be measures that are quantifiable, meaningful to our business areas and project teams, and that result in the behaviors we are trying to promote.  Lastly, we will discuss what happens when executive sponsorship seems to be waning and how to gain back the initial momentum that launched the PMO in the first place.  An open discussion and Q&A session will conclude this session.

About the Presenter

Jim Unander, PMP has almost 30 years of experience in IT, starting as a developer in the dark days of mainframe computing, and has been in promoting effective Project Management since entering the management ranks in the mid-1990s.   He has extensive background in managing high-volume transaction processing systems, managing development and implementation of applications that enable excellent customer service.  He is currently the Director of the Project Management Office for a large professional organization in the Chicago area.

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