What We Liked
It is important to recognize that Dennis Bolles and Darrel Hubbard were responsible for leading the Project Management Institute's ("PMI's") core team of its project to upgrade the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge to its 2004 Third Edition. As such, authors Dennis and Darrel are heavily immersed in the Institute's view of project management and this is reflected in much of the text and many of the illustrations.
In this context, the authors have strived to answer the following questions that they say are frequently asked by executives and senior managers, and to do so with practical how-to information:[7]
- What does project management have to do with the overall management of the enterprise?
- How can project management be related to the enterprise's business operations?
- How can project management processes be incorporated or integrated into the business management processes?
- How can project business management benefit the enterprise?
- How can a project management functional organization be incorporated into the enterprise's organizational structure?
- How can mature project business management practices and processes add value to the enterprise's operations?
To this end, the authors have developed a series of "basic models" designed to successfully establish an Enterprise-Wide Project Management Office (EPMO) as the means to integrate project and business processes. An EPMO is defined as an independent business unit function established at the highest level of the enterprise. It has the authority, acceptance, adoption, and autonomy required to establish, monitor, and control the distribution of resources required to successfully apply project business management best practices across the whole enterprise.[8]
The EPMO encompasses the integrated application of: Multiple functional organizational structures; Portfolio project-related management practices and processes; Program project-related management practices and processes; Project management practices and processes; and Business operations management practices and processes.[9] It is staffed with experts skilled in providing project management business practices, processes, and support services.[10]
Statements like that should warm the cockles of any project practitioner's heart! Various other terms are defined according to PMI's official definitions.
The authors justify the establishment of an EPMO with three simple reasons:[11]
- Institutionalization of Project Management Principles and Practices
- Provision of a Global View of the Enterprise's Initiatives and Projects, and
- Optimization of Resources
And there then follows a long list of benefits to the organization that includes such things as:
- Improved product or service delivery time (time to market)
- Incorporation of a systematic project-based product development approach
- A results versus task focus
- Proactive project business management
- Identification and minimization of risks
- Defined resource and timing requirements, and Improved project business management skills throughout the organization
7. Ibid, p xix
8. Ibid, p xviii
9. Ibid, p25
10. Ibid, p10
11. Ibid, p10-11
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