Creating the project office 27. This is a book about improving organizational performance by implementing a project office system that develops project management as a core competency and thus adds value to the organization. A project office consists of a team dedicated to improving the practice of project management in the organization. The improvement in organizational performance is achieved by obtaining more value from projects, making project management a standard management practice, and then moving the organization toward the enterprise project management concept | 238 Creating the Project Office total . As of this writing the Group Program Office has been resized to four to meet current business demands. The three divisions that implemented Divisional Program Offices have two to three people in each office. Lessons Learned Setting up of a program office is all about improving business performance. Rowe believes the processes used need to become second nature to the people running the business. To achieve this they must be very easily integrated into the day to day business. Complicated systems with lots of bells and whistles are generally not acceptable as they distract people and prevent them from being high performers. Rowe also believes that there is not any one system or process that will fit every organization therefore a program office has to be tailor-made for the business. This means that the best people to set up program offices should have a good understanding of the culture of the business. The program office must be closely linked to the top of the business and to decision makers. Progress on projects and programs is often slowed because managers do not understand or have not been communicated with. Therefore one key role of program managers is to be able to influence key senior people. When this ability exists and is exercised roadblocks get removed. A program office should have clear and well understood processes but should not live only by these processes. The role is to drive value for the business and therefore for the shareholders . If PO processes are gold plated and business performance is down then the PO is not doing what it needs to be doing. Rowe says Businesses that are doing this stuff well are getting results by integrating robust changes into the culture of the business they are not shouting from the rooftops that they are running programs with great systems to drive improvement. Project Management in Action The following outline documents a response to the Australian Stock Exchange request .
