2010 Seventh International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology

A PMO Installation for TI Project Management in a R&D Institution

Aletéia Xavier Bettin Carlos Miguel Tobar Denise P. Prado Íris Bento da Silva
Eldorado R. Institute PUC-Campinas Eldorado R. Institute UNICAMP
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract Considering the results of the global crisis that

began in 2007 and hit organizations all around the
The search for standardization to productive world, the Eldorado Research Institute (ERI), which
processes improvements gets sharp during periods that deals with Information Technology (IT) in Brazil,
are marked by global economic crisis. To look for opted to review its organization and its procedures
alternatives aiming at staying present and competitive, concerned to project management, aiming at analyzing
considering new market requirements was the reaction and understanding why rates related to adherence – or
of a research and development institute that works with NC – specially in the hardware department, have
Information Technology. This scenario triggered the presented unsatisfactory results if compared to the
motivation to perform the effort described in this other departments.
article. This institution was chosen for a case study During that analysis it was perceived that the
that aims at observing if there was an increase of procedure to manage projects had been defined,
compliance rates to the project management process assessed and institutionalized considering the specific
that is adherent to the ISO 9001:2000 standard, with reality of software development, thus it was not
the focus on the hardware department. The compliance adequate to a hardware department.
increase was imagined to be the result of the The necessity of a deep assessment on the adopted
installation consequence of a Project Management practices arose the interest to perform the effort that is
Office (PMO). The performed actions for the PMO described in this article.
structuring were observed and documented, as well as Targeting larger adherence of hardware projects to
the correlation of process compliance data from a two the management procedure and better results, the
year period of developed projects, proving the impact adopted actions for the formalization of a Project
of the PMO performance in projects outcomes. Management Office (PMO) inside the ERI were
recorded and the correspondent results were analyzed.
To install a PMO in an organization, it is necessary
1. Introduction a change in the managerial structure. The workflow and
the project coordination began to be managed in a
The ISO 9001:2000 [1] is an international standard, horizontal way, no more in a vertical way as happens to
some kind of quality certification, which defines the be in a traditional management [2], in accordance to
requirements to a Quality Management System (QMS) the best managerial practices for projects compiled by
of an organization to insure standard existence for the the PMI® [3] and made available in a publication
key processes of the enterprise. Once the standard named PMBOK® [4].
procedure is defined, it is necessary to plan an audit While the PMO concept spread during the 90s, a
agenda – which is defined in the standard as activities PMO installation became necessary considering the
that aim at if the QMS is effectively being implemented growth of the project quantity and the corresponding
and maintained and if it is in accordance to the planned complexity, which requires a centralization of
dispositions of the correspondent specification. information [5]. Nowadays the PMO has the
During an audit, any inadequateness of assessed responsibility to maintain all intellectual property
items is named a non compliance – NC, which if concerned to project management and to actively
identified should be registered, treated and followed up sustain the strategic planning of the organization [2].
until it is closed.

978-0-7695-4241-6/10 $26.00 © 2010 IEEE 376

DOI 10.1109/QUATIC.2010.67
 That information centralization turns out to be an projects totalized 20. The same happened with
essential part of a relationship network with complex hardware projects.
correlations that allows the connection of the enterprise The quantity of projects and audits were defined due
strategy to the project and related structures [5]. This to the total quantity of audits performed on hardware
way, the decisions turn to be made accordingly to facts, projects during 2008, i.e., 20 audits over 6 projects.
being more reliable and precise. The adopted severity criterion consists of three NC
In the second section the case study under analysis options. Severe is a failure that put in risk the
is presented. In the following section it is presented a maintenance and/or the obtainment of certifications,
PMO installation effort inside a research institute. In which should be treated as top urgent. Moderate is a
the fourth section data is presented on the obtained failure that characterizes a non accomplishment of
results after that installation. In the last section deadlines or periodic activities, which are not in
conclusions are presented. accordance to predefined organizational goals. Minor
is a failure that points out to an activity of lower
2. Case Study Presentation importance that was not performed, according to the
organization process.
Since the beginning of its operations in 1999, the During 2007, most of the projects – 69% - were
ERI had progressively established a QMS considering developed by the software department, using most of
all of its activity flow. This effort result was an ISO the organization collaborators – 57% - who worked in
9001:1994 certification and the periodic revaluation of this department. Project duration was of more than a
the certification according to the ISO 9001:2000 year for the majority of software projects (55%). On
specification [1]. the other hand, the majority of hardware projects
At the beginning of the observation presented in this presented a relatively shorter duration, less than a year
article, ERI had 385 collaborators. From this amount, (66%).
approximately 90% worked with operations, which the
majority being divided between the software and 3. Presentation of the PMO Model
hardware departments, with 57% and 23% respectively.
Being the second largest department in the To assure that the PMO was effective, it was
organization, hardware became the focus of the considered essential its establishment with an
observation. independent reporting concerning the remaining
Figure 1 presents the performance percentage departments directly to the main managerial posts.
obtained by software and hardware projects concerned Considering the specific necessities of ERI, the
to non-compliance to the project management PMO performance involved the following five main
procedure during 2007. The data shows that the fronts:
performance of the software department is significantly • Procedure: It was defined and institutionalized a
better than of the hardware department – considering procedure concerned with project management
the total quantity as well as the severity of the items that, through a flowchart defined over a matrix
mentioned. with rows and columns, identifies who are the
responsible and what are the process groups that
are presented in PMBOK® [4]. This procedure
also defines that the verifications/audits are PMO
responsibility.
• Tools: It was defined the standardization of tools
related to project management, being the PMO
the one responsible by its administration (access
Figure 1. Distribution of non-compliances to control) and execution. To grant that the several
the process – year 2007. hierarchical levels had access to all information,
it was adopted the Microsoft Office SharePoint
The data was obtained considering the number of Server 2007 [6] collaboration tool, which is
NC that were identified during internal audits, considered one of the most complete and very
consisting a sample equivalent to 38% of the ongoing well evaluated solutions, if compared to other
projects in 2007, half of which were software projects available options in the market [7].
and the remaining of hardware projects. The sum of • Training: Training was defined and offered along
considered audits performed on the selected software with qualifications, regarding project

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 management, to project managers and their Figure 2 presents a graphic where are compared the
technical staff. number of considered audits and the correspondent
• Contract Management: The information number of recorded NC throughout 2007 and 2008. It
centralization concerning contractual questions is possible to see a reduction in the quantity of NC
was defined in the PMO. The project documents from 2007 to 2008, i.e., from 79 to 66. Considering an
regarding contracts began to be stored in an area average number of NC by audit, it is possible to arrive
inside the SharePoint, with control access. to a performance of 1.98 NC by audit in 2007 and a
Financial planning, project opening and rate of 1.65 in 2008. Thus, the reduction is
extensions as well as the client interface for approximately of 16.5%.
validation and approval of documents stayed
under responsibility of the PMO.
• Project Management Support: It was defined as
PMO responsibility the disposal of human
resources (project support) with vast knowledge
on the managerial procedures defined by the
organization and on the project management
practices of the PMBOK®.

4. Evaluation and Discussion of Obtained

Results Figure 2. Distribution of non-compliances to
the process, in 2007 and 2008.
It was observed that, before the PMO deployment,
the information relating to the projects were spread out, Another analyzed data is concerned to the
making it difficult to effective consolidation of data distribution of recorded NC to the project management
and its corresponding management. With the PMO process of software and hardware projects. Comparing
installation, comes to be a standard assistance for an the 2008 data to the earlier year, as can be seen in
effective management, counting with information Figure 3, it can be observed a growth of 6 points in the
centralization and transparency, good practices percentage of NC that were considered as minor in
dissemination across projects and resources involved, severity terms. This same growth in percentage points
and institutionalization of a single platform work. The can be observed concerning moderate NC. Besides this
obtained results are discussed and analyzed bellow. growth, it can be observed a 12 point reduction in the
percentage of severe NC. Something highly significant
4.1. Evaluation considering that those NC correspond to the critical
ones and, consequently, they are the most preoccupying
In 2008 it was observed an increase in the total for the project management as well as for the
number of on-going projects that followed the project organization.
management procedure. Concerning 2007, the
percentage of projects in the hardware department had
grown from 28% to 33% of the whole, while in the
software department it was observed a reduction from
69% to 53%.
It is important to highlight once more that the
sample size of considered projects, concerning 2007,
was equal to the number of on-going projects in the
hardware department in 2008. This net quantity was
established considering audited projects: 20 audits
were performed on 6 projects in the hardware
department, while there were 47 audits on projects in Figure 3. Performance comparison of non-
the software department. The sample size of 20 was compliances to the process, considering
used on the 2008 software projects and on the 2007 severity in 2007 and 2008.
audited projects, half from the hardware department
and half from the software department.

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 Through Figure 4 it is possible to compare the
distribution of NC between the software and hardware
departments. Concerning sever NC, in the software
department there was an increase of 14 points from the
percentage of 2007 to the one of 2008, while in the
hardware department it can be seen a reduction from
38% to 12%, respectively percentages of 2007 and
2008. Concerning moderate NC, there was an increase
of 6 points in the software department, while it can be
observed that the hardware percentage remained steady
in 15%. Considering minor NC, it can be observed an Figure 5. Project proportion considering
increase of 2 points in the software department, from duration, in 2007 and 2008.
2007 to 2008, while in the hardware department there
was an increase of 4 points in the same period. In the software department, it is also worth to
mention a profile change in the project profile. While
during 2007 55% of software projects presented a
duration greater than one year, in 2008 this percentage
decreased to 21% of that department projects.

4.2. Discussion

Observing the data of NC to the process,

considering the severity of failures and the performance
of the software and hardware departments along 2007,
it could be observed that software results became worst
Figure 4. Comparison of non-compliances to in 2008. During the analyzed period, the software
the process, by department in 2007 and 2008. department continued to follow its specific project
management process, named the Software Process
It is worth to mention that the percentage growth of Portal. Thus, all resulted changes from the PMO
projects in the hardware department, considering the establishment, especially those concerning the project
whole picture of the organization, did not happened procedure, did not interfere directly in the software
due to the reduction of software projects. Between department.
2007 and 2008, it was observed a real increase in It is worth to note that the numbers presented in
project demand in the hardware department of about Figure 5, regarding project distribution according to
33%. Besides the growth in the number of projects, current duration, suggest a reduction in project
there had been a reduction in the number of duration. If confirmed such tendency, it justify a more
collaborators between these two years. In 2008, the specific PMO action related to the Software Process
software department counted with 14% less human Portal.
resources than in the previous year, while the reduction Motivations for the numbers presented in the
in the hardware department was of 19%. This whole previous section are the following, considering the
picture was not considered in the NC analysis, because results of PMO actions:
not all of the hardware projects were audited during A. A reduction in the managerial effort happened
2008. with the presentation of a new project
Concerning current duration of projects, Figure 5 management procedure in the form of a
shows that the profile of the hardware department in flowchart. This resulted in a faster data
2008 was almost equal to that of 2007, i.e., 33% of all comprehension, because it reduced the required
projects (audited or not) kept presenting duration time for a project manager to read and understand
beyond 12 months and the remainder, the majority, which activities were her responsibility. In
were projects with shorter duration, less than one year. addition, the procedure got simpler due to lesser
requirements upon the projects.
B. The procedure revision and its restructure in the
form of a flowchart provoked the PMO to worry
with matters other than the project manager and
her understanding of the procedure.

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 C. The selection of a unique tool provided a L. The auditor, one of the PMO resources, was
standardization that turn easier to register allocated to one project to conduct periodic audits.
evidences of activity execution and consequently With the proved higher adherence to the process,
reduced related NC. audits began to be performed in a sampler fashion.
D. There was an effort reduction for the auditor due Because the auditor randomly defines the project
to her knowledge on the tool structure and on the to be audited, all projects must maintain the focus
standard place were evidences were stored. of their adherence to the process, justifying the
E. The procedure revision resulted in simpler and number of internal audits.
better organized structure, reflecting the reality
for project management throughout the several
organization sectors.
F. The information dissemination allowed that
several NC were not registered due to the lack of
grant for information alignment. The aim always
was to avoid that the project manager kept
performing an activity in one way although this
activity had been modified without her
knowledge.
G. The PMO brought out all project information of
the sector called to a training effort. At the end of
the training, PMO personnel displayed a
dashboard with information on current project
status, considering the activities that were Figure 6. PMO action combination and
documented in the new procedure focus of the obtained results.
training. This action provided the identification of
pending and incorrect issues and a rapid solution, Figure 6 illustrates the relationships between the
avoiding NC to be registered. proposed PMO fronts for its activities. Alphabetic
H. The control transference on administrative data to marks are concerned to the letters used in the
the PMO, concerning contract management, turned motivation itemization presented bellow and the arrows
lighter the effort required from the project point to the front that was impacted by the related
manager. motivation. Some motivation do not impact directly
I. For a centered management control, through a site any of the PMO fronts, which is the case of motivations
created with the selected tool for project identified by B, F, H, I e K, however is was perceived
management, the PMO got responsible to alert the that all of them are beneficial to the resources
executive management on any pendency related to supported by the PMO department, such as executive
project management or any possible exposition of and project managers.
the organization, regarding contractual or financial
documentation, project spending beyond planned, 5. Conclusions
or problems with clients.
J. The benefits from the Project Support activities In this article a case study is presented, which was
began to be observed at medium time frame, once based on the analysis of a PMO establishment inside a
to perform all her duties related to one project R&D institute, aiming at the verification if an observed
something like 8% of her allocation time is increase in compliance rates to the project management
necessary, i.e., one PMO resource can attend the process, regarding hardware projects, was due to PMO
demands of 10 to 12 projects simultaneously. actions.
Being in touch with different projects, allows the PMO actions involved five main fronts, through
Project Support to be able to propose which it was possible to provide support and access to
standardization and creative solutions for different information related to project management, in order to
projects. attend mainly executive managers and project
K. It was observed that one of the most used managers. In each front the PMO got responsible by a
resources by the Project Support is the template, set of actions that interlinked resulted in an effective
which reduced the possibility of NC to the process pro-active department.
and consequently helps the project manager. The model of the established PMO caused a more
accurate control upon general information and began to

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demand less effort to follow and report project status. management through the PMO, Int. Journ. Proj. Manag. 25,
The PMO establishment contributed to a significant 2007, pp. 328-336.
reduction in the number of recorded NC.
The hardware department was directly benefited [3] Kerzner, H., Advanced Project Management: Best
Practices on Implementation, 2nd edition, Hoboken, NJ: John
because there was a recorded 26.6% reduction of
Wiley & Sons, 2004.
severe NC between 2007 and 2008. The presented
numbers point out to a better compliance rate to the [4] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft
project management process. Concerning this picture, it Corporation. Available at: http://office.microsoft.com/pt-
happened at the same time another reduction in the br/sharepointserver/HA101732171046.aspx#1
number of collaborators. It is possible that the
hardware department presented improvements with less [5] Project Management Institute, Project Management
human resources. Institute (PMI) Home Page. Available at: http://www.pmi.org

[6] Project Management Institute, A Guide to Project

6. References Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK® Guide, 3rd
edition, PA, USA, 2004.
[1] International Organization for Standardization, ISO
9001:2000, Quality Management Systems Requirements, [7] Xu, J., Zhang, J., Young, J., Harvey, T., A Survey of
2000. Asynchronous Collaboration Tools. Information Technology
Journal, ISSN 1812-5638 Asian Network for Scientific
[2] Aubry, M., Hobbs, B., and Thuillier, D., A new Information, 2008.
framework for understanding organizational project

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