PMO: An Emerging Trend in Indian IT Sector PMO basically stands for Project Management Office.

In last few years, more and more IT companies in India are looking to develop this concept in their organisations. Is it any different from normal Project Management stream? Why do we require a PMO PMO's are basically an extended arm of the Project Management stream. Generally you will require a PMO setup only in large accounts or business units, having multiple smaller projects under it. PMO is expected to 1. Integrate various projects within the account/business unit. 2. Define and roll out common standardised processes accross all the projects.Monitor their adherance. 3. Continously monitor the progress of the projects, analyse and see how the overall unit is performing against the set standards. 4. Monitor, analyse and report on parameters like effecincy, productivity, utilisation, profitability. 5. Prepare and publish Operational and Financial reports for the unit. 6. Drive continous improvement programs within the unit. 7. Suggest best practices within the unit. 8. Act as an interface between the project teams and the senior executive management. They normally directly report to upper management or the executive management and act as one point of contact for all kinds of information related to projects. How does PMO differ from Project Management? 1. Their main objective is to suggest and guide rather than implement and maintain initiatives. 2. Their involvement in execution of tasks is minimal, they just give directions and at the max get involved in Planning stage. 3. They are only responsible for activites listed above, accountability of the unit still lies with respective managers and unit heads. 4. PMO's generally do not have any one reporting into them but have entire visiblity and access from bottom most layer to the top management layer in a particular account or business unit. They are an independent body. How is PMO in India different from PMO's in US?

Concept of PMO in US is quite mature when compared to India, as it has been in practice there since quite long. The members of the PMO in US generally have 15-20 years of industry experience, whereas in India it ranges anything from 5 to 10 years. There are generally three levels of PMO 1. Supportive PMO 2. Controlling PMO 3. Directive PMO 1. Supportive PMO The Supportive PMO generally provides support to Project Management team, mainly with respect to project related information. They are like data repository having each and every information about the projects.Their scope is limited to data collation, analysing data,highlighting key issues,risks and thus enabling the upper project management to take decesions based on the data. 2. Controlling PMO In addition to role played by Supportive PMO, a controlling PMO gets involved in initiating and driving solutions to the problems encountered. They conduct project reviews, monitor unit's progress, provide directions in terms of best practices and concrete solutions to long standing problems of the project. 3. Directive PMO This type goes beyond control and actually "takes over" the projects by providing the project management experience and resources to manage the project. As organisations undertake projects, professional project managers from the PMO are assigned to the projects. This injects a great deal of professionalism into the projects, and, since each of the project managers originates and reports back to the directive PMO, it guarantees a high level of consistency of practice across all projects. This is effective in larger organisations that often matrix out support in various areas, and where this setup would fit the culture. Improving Efficiency With Project Management Software Project management is a term which signifies the management of resources and time to bring out the best in an endeavor. Sometimes this term can also be referred to as program management. Managing a project involves careful decision making strategies and analyzing of raw input data. This is a process which needs accuracy and attention right from the start till the end. The planning and execution stages of a management session are usually divided into smaller sessions and goals so that they can be achieved more easily. With the introduction of computers various management softwares have come into existence and they have reduced the burden of management to a great deal. These

softwares take up the painstaking task of managing events and schedules and charting them. It is just enough to supply then with the raw data and they will take care of the rest. They are pre programmed and they even know the task which has to be given priority to. The main duty of project management software is to ensure that all the project goals are achieved on time and that the resources are used wisely. Some of the softwares have the advantage that they can integrate the work of many users who are distributed throughout the world. This makes team work easier and helps in the collective formulation of plans and strategies. Another feature in modern planning software is the bug tracking algorithm. This helps the users to find out bugs or errors in the process and to correct them efficiently. Usually these bug tracking algorithms are integrated on to the management softwares to make the task of planning and scheduling much more easily. There are softwares available in the market which is tailor made for particular situations. They are known by the name of issue management applications. They are used to tactically deal with specific issues that arise during the planning and scheduling of events. The programs are coded in such a way as to bring the issue to the notice of the user and to deal with it before it turns out to be a bigger problem. Most of the programs that are available allow the interaction of many users without any limit. Also they are secure and will not let any of the information to fall into the wrong hands. Communication is the main aspect which is to be given consideration while formulation plans and strategies. So the management software should have good options for communicating with other members. Communication is vital in all the planning and execution stages and this is what will lead to the successful execution of a project. Planning and scheduling defines the success of a project and this is the key element which is to be given consideration. Good quality software will be able to chart the important matters in the increasing order of hierarchy and it will be able to arrange everything neatly into labels. Timers can be activated for meeting specific targets and if you fall short of time then new plans are formulated by the software to meet the ultimate time limits. These softwares have the additional feature of reminding the user about the tasks at hand. This ensures that no task goes un-noticed and not task is left dragging behind time. It should be able to notify all the members in a project at the same time and should be able to coordinate meetings or conferences. There should be options within the software to discuss plans, share ideas and files and to take collective decisions. In short project management softwares reduce a great amount of time in planning and executing things.