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Over the past year, we have sponsored several webinars on various aspects of Project Management.  We have taken a practical approach using panels of experienced Project Managers who manage groups of Project and Program managers.Over half of the attendees from our most recent webinar have active PMO's in their organization.  Managing a successful PMO is a difficult.  In the coming months, we will be exploring the day-to-day tactical issues of running a successful PMO organization.  We want to look at structure, process and tools.  That's a lot of landscape, so we will try to focus on areas we believe you as managers are working to improve in your organization.  Some areas being considered for examination include:

·  Project Prioritization - Developing a consistent process to evaluate projects and decide which get done next and which get pushed out.

·  Project Methodology - traditional project management, Agile, Waterfall?  Are you consistent, or using both, or a combination?

·  Accountability - What are the lines of demarcation between the PMO and other parts of the organization?  Who is accountable to the business stakeholder to deliver a project; IT, PMO, or a Project Management group within the function (Care, Product, Engineering for example)?

·  Communication - Even when final delivery accountability is clear, communication over the life of any project often determines how satisfied the stakeholders are at the end.  What is their customer experience?

·  Tools - What role do BPM, Project Portfolio and other tools play in your process?

·  Governance - Does traditional governance conflict with Agile projects?  Do Agile tools make older governance tools obsolete?

What are your ideas?  Do you disagree with this list, and are you passionate about the role of the PMO?  Then we would like to hear from you.  Give us your input to improve our session, or better, participate as a panel member.  Do it now.

If you've missed participating in our webinars, download one today and let us know what you think. 

If you would like to discuss how we can help establish or further develop your PMO or would like to talk about your future business plans and the impact of those plans on your current supporting infrastructure, contact Harry Beane, our Vice President, Solutions.

DR:I started my Telephone career as a Central Office Equipment Installer for New England Telephone in 1967 right out of high school in Boston.  I was with them for about a year when Uncle Sam called, and I did a 4-year stint in the Army.  I returned to NET in 1972, as an Equipment Installer and became interested in telco switch timing and CDR generation in the mechanical switching systems. I earned several test ratings in the early switching systems and installed and tested switches from all of the major switching vendors, AT&T (Lucent), NTI (Nortel) and Siemens.

DR: My expertise is in CABS and it evolved over many years.  In the late 1970s I became involved in a project with AT&T engineers attaching an IBM computer to a mechanical switch to generate error code on tape rather than punched cards.  This evolved further in using a similar system to collect CDR (AMA) data from the switch in lieu of the paper tape. First trials of the system were successful and became known as AMA Teleprocessing (AMATPS).  With all of the methods for recording CDRs in the switching network AT&T developed method and procedures for an organization with the responsibility of sitting between the network and the financial arms of the company.  This group, the AMA Control Center was responsible for the analysis and correction of all billing errors in the system.  This was, in essence, the first Revenue Assurance organization and in New England I was manager. This responsibility expanded with the coming of Divestiture in 1984.  I received a request to work with AT&T in NJ to work on documentation that would explain how CDRs would be generated by the networks and be used to identify and bill the new Interexchange Carriers (IXCs).  It was here I developed an expertise in CABS.

TT: What do you feel is the biggest contribution you've made to a client?
 DR: The biggest contribution I made to a telco client was helping them realize an immediate saving of over $700,000 and realize a continuing expense saving of greater than 80% on their cost of access.  The company was receiving Access and Recip Comp Invoices, hadn't paid the invoices, but was holding the monies in escrow.  The companies that sent the invoices were threatening legal action unless something was done. Using some tried and true validation methods I've learned over the years, I was able to show that the company owed less than 35% of the claimed usage invoiced.  This coupled with working with the client's legal department led to some agreements between the companies that secured ongoing cost savings.

DR: I enjoy fishing and golfing.  Neither of which I'm very good at, but it does help me to relax.