Whether establishing a large project, a structure for setting up projects for success or taking your project success to the next level, CPMS has the experience and the collaborative approach that you need to set-up your projects for success.

From simple tool selection to integrated project database & ERP systems enabling resource planning and reporting, to the reporting practices & processes necessary to build continuous improvement into your projects and measurement, we work with you to deliver the capability that suits you best.

Providing a Framework for Your Projects
Providing a sound framework for projects is important because it will helps teams reach the performing stage more quickly and can quide them toward the use of practices that your organisation has discovered work well or are otherwise desirable. Without a framework then each project will either need to develop their own from scratch or else run the risk of reduced team performance with the added risk that this will go unoticed due to unstructured measurement and/or reporting practices.

An organised and strategic approach should utilise a central project office or resource of some sort to ensure projects operate as a network to leverage knowledge, co-operate and share. Without this platform, many projects become unfeasible while others will inevitably waste time, resources and money as they battle to establish themselves and become productive within acceptable timeframes.

Leveraging Your Project Management Practices
To illustrate the benefit of having tried & trusted practices that can be called upon to start up a project quickly and reliably lets look at this through the lens of the franchising concept in the wider marketplace. Franchising has become prolific the world over. While most new businesses fail within the first 2 years of operation, franchised businesses enjoy much higher success rates. It is important to realise that the franchising concept in wider business applies equally to projects within a business. When this concept is understood, it is easy to see why businesses that take a structured approach to projects are in a better position to grow, win more customers, make them happy and make more profit.

Provided there is a central project office (or role of some sort) that is responsible for project expertise at an organisational level then project management opractices can be leveraged. Project measures and reporting practices play a key role in the reduction of risk and the successful control of projects, and should be a key concern at this organisational level along with the distillation and dissemination of good practices as they are found.

Project Management Offices (PMO)
The term PMO is used here to describe a central role - whether virtual or real, full-time or part-time, in-sourced or out-sourced, a central project office or role of some sort is necessary if project management practices and expertise are to be developed at an organisational level. Projects are such an important way of doing business these days that many organisations are tending towards being more like 'a collection of projects' than anything else. As this is true to some extent of a great many organisations then it becomes apparent that the practice of managing projects within each organisation is what sets them apart. It also becomes apparent that the centralised project management practices are the glue that holds project based organisations or departments together.

Without a central role (or central project office) project managers have no scoping, budgeting cost, or procurement management guidance, no risk management standards to adhere to, no structured reporting practices and no-where to pass on knowledge in the closeout phase of the project. This not only slows projects down but it places them and the organisations that fund them in a higher risk category for project failure and/or cost and schedule overruns.

Research has shown that project offices offer the most benefit when placed at the highest level possible within an organisation because they can then integrate the expertise and resources across the board. Wherever PMOs are placed within an organisation however, they do offer a distinct benefit to all projects below them.

The PMO is concerned with:-
o Increasing an organisations project mgt capability & project success rate
o Standard project performance measures and reporting practices/systems
o Project documentation management
o Setting up projects for success
o Benchmarking
o Providing templates, processes & tools to projects
o Continuous project/program improvement from lessons learned
o Eliminating the re-invention of the wheel by projects
o Standardising PM processes / handbooks
o Partner / sub-contractor management strategies
o Delivering resources to managers
o Helping to reduce project risk by sharing knowledge and practices
o Knowledge sharing across all projects
o Ensuring a high standard of management practice
o Maintaining awareness of industry 'best practice'
o Recovery of projects which are struggling
o Rewarding & recognising good practice
o Giving project and program managers a base and a career path

CPMS can help you achieve your goals so call to discuss your needs.

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