How do you establish capacity planning in project management and master its challenges? In this article, you will learn how to succeed in capacity planning in the project environment with practical tips. Here is an overview of the topics:

• Capacity planning definition
• Benefits and risks of capacity planning in project management
• 4 steps to successful capacity planning in project management
  • Step 1: Necessary processes with the right staff
  • Step 2: Complete and up-to-date project data
  • Step 3: Identify the actually available capacities
  • Step 4: Consolidate capacities and requirements
• Findings of the PMO Survey 2020 regarding capacity planning
• Conclusion and checklist: Capacity planning in project management

Let us begin!

Capacity Planning Definition

Strategic capacity planning is concerned with the predictive provision of appropriate resources in the form of employees with the necessary skills. It must ensure that appropriate employees can implement strategically relevant projects at the right time.

Note: The terms “(strategic) capacity planning” and “strategic resource planning” are synonymous.

The tasks of capacity planning in project management are usually taken on by portfolio managers or the Project Management Office (PMO) in coordination with:

1. Project managers (requirements regarding skills)
2. Team leaders (overview of available resources)

The figure below illustrates the responsibilities of the roles in the project environment of a company.

Benefits and Risks of Capacity Planning in Project Management

You can gain numerous benefits from employee capacity planning. With capacity planning, you:

• Make sure you reserve the most resources for the most important projects – rather than staffing unimportant ones
• Obtain a complete overview of all resources and their assignments to projects and basic load; this will keep you informed about the overall resource utilization at all times
• Know which additional projects you can start and carry out
• Identify resource bottlenecks in good time and can react to them according to corporate strategy
• Avoid resource conflicts, as they do not even arise

With inadequate or without capacity planning, you run various risks:

• Due to inadequate resource allocation, projects are not finished on time
• Project costs may rise, as there are too few appropriate resources
• Some business opportunities you cannot exploit, as the required skills are not available in good time
• You have significantly increased coordination efforts to resolve resource conflicts

All of this can result in dissatisfied customers, hence the importance of capacity planning!

4 Steps to Successful Capacity Planning in Project Management

This is how you reach your goal of successful capacity planning in four practical steps:

Step 1: Necessary Processes with the Right Staff

The strategic planning of capacities depends on:

• Dynamics at your company
• Your industry
• Number of projects
• Number of resources
• Duration of projects

Different companies tend to undergo the strategic process of capacity planning at different intervals:

• One to four times a year for companies developing and making products
• Possibly monthly for companies offering services
• Only on occasion for companies planning few major projects

Those involved in the strategic capacity planning process are:

• Management with strategic targets
• Team leaders and heads of department who must provide resource information
• Project managers who must update ongoing projects by the due date
• PMO preparing new projects properly and controlling the overall process of capacity planning

Make sure all data is complete and up to date by the due date. For this, all involved must pull together in unison.

To achieve this, you need a PMO that has the relevant competencies.

The PMO:

• Defines processes
• Trains the people involved
• Motivates them to perform their tasks in good time

The PMO may also support the project managers and team leaders in executing their tasks. This depends on the type of PMO you have.

Our tip: For successful strategic capacity planning, it is vital to have the support of a strong PMO with backing from top management.

Read this to find out more: PMO Setup in 4 Simple Steps

Promote the benefits of cyclical coordination (at set intervals) to all participants. This will motivate them to get involved. It is crucial to fix the intervals for coordination individually. They depend on your company’s possibilities and necessities.

Moreover, you must be minute in defining how to prepare as well as conduct planning and decision meetings.

You must manage to make all relevant decisions in a matter of hours. At the same time, the decisions on project start and resource availability need to be well founded. This will only work out if you have a clear agenda and stringent moderation in the context of a regular project portfolio meeting.

Our tip: See to the publication of the results of the project portfolio meetings. Employees tend to expect a lot from the PMO’s work and its controlling influence in the interest of better resource management. This is where there is a lot of potential for good news. If you sell it well.

Step 2: Complete and Up-to-Date Project Data

First, you register all projects with the essential information in a central database. This requires details such as:

• Name
• Project manager
• Sponsor
• Start
• Finish
• Traffic light indicators for status and resource requirements

For ongoing projects, the realistic remaining effort is most relevant – based on the current situation.

For new projects, it is necessary to meet the minimum requirement for resource planning. This means you must plan all required skills – not necessarily people – per month or quarter.

It is definitely not enough to look only at the total work without the distribution over time.

This is exactly where it starts to get complex.

Find out your optimum specificity by beginning with the roughest possible but still complete planning.

Our tip: Everyone asks for detailed planning, as it appears to be the better basis. But consider that this requires a higher planning effort. This effort will have to be made again and again in the future. So find out your optimum specificity. What is important above all is complete planning.

Prioritization of Projects

If there are more project proposals than the company can carry out, you need to prioritize them. This allows you to decide which new projects you can start.

There are various methods of prioritizing. They can be suitable to a greater or lesser extent – depending on the number of projects and decision-makers.

You might also like our Project Portfolio Management 7-Step Guide.

Eisenhower’s rating according to importance and urgency is one way. It will help you to get good results quickly.

But the easiest way is to make the decision-makers prioritize the list of new projects.

Our tip: Turn to the relevant decision-makers when determining weight and urgency of the projects.

If there are many decision-makers as well as many projects, you might have to consider a different course. You might need to establish strategic drivers. These must be prioritized and weighted and assigned to the projects accordingly. This will allow the system to calculate a prioritization.

Check on all accounts if the most effort is going towards the most important projects.

Here is how you do it: you match the importance of the drivers to the corresponding efforts of the assigned projects.

Identify unimportant projects which it might be best to discontinue. This can free up resources for more important new projects.

Observe the dependencies among the projects, too. Some development projects can only start once the results of basic projects are available. Maybe you have also planned several alternative scenarios. Naturally, only one of these needs to be implemented.

Simple Excel lists soon prove to be inadequate when it comes to prioritization and dependencies. Professional capacity planning tools provide excellent support for these challenges.

Our tip: When implementing new kinds of projects, e.g. in the R&D area, you often face unknowns or various approaches to a solution. Resource requirements tend to be relatively uncertain or rather different from case to case. We recommend you divide such projects into research and implementation. This allows you to limit the uncertainty in the research part via a time budget. Based on the results of the research you will be able to plan the implementation part anew and in a more precise way.

Further reading: PMO Tools for Successful Multi-Project Management

Step 3: Identify the Actually Available Capacities

It does not make sense to analyze each person individually. While this would be desirable, it would be too much effort. It would be confusing, too.

Displaying the total capacity of all employees in one chart is not wise either. Employees have different skills which you must deploy as required.

A clear and sensible level of detail can be obtained by consolidation at skill level. Some companies also form teams according to skills. In some circumstances, this permits planning at the level of these teams. In most cases, this is easy to implement.

Read this article to find out about using skills management in resource planning.

The level of detail regarding the skills should bear relation to the effort. The capacity plan must remain easy to understand at all times. The above principle also applies here: as rough as possible, as detailed as necessary.

Moreover, you must use the actual availability for projects in your calculations. There are two options to achieve this:

1. You deduct basic load or absences and operations from the total resource capacity
2. You compare the basic load and the projects with the full capacity

This is ultimately a matter of tools and the decision-makers’ preferences.

How the basic load or operations are dealt with is an important factor for planning precision. To keep it simple, you can use a flat estimate across the entire year.

But it is preferable to retrieve the team leaders’ planning on a monthly basis.

Our tip: Be sure to involve the team leaders in your project capacity planning. Provide them with a suitable tool for tactical resource planning. The tool should be capable of transferring the team leaders’ data to the project and portfolio management system. Team leaders have an interest in planning all activities outside of projects anyway. It can be simple to transfer their data from Excel into a professional tool.

Reading tip: 6 Steps to Resource Planning Implementation

Step 4: Consolidate Capacities and Requirements

At this point, you have the capacities for each skill and the requirements from the projects at hand. Now, you must examine how these fit together.

Find out about 7 success factors for multi-project management here.

In order to control them, all skills and their utilization must be viewable on one page in an appropriate way. After all, a project usually involves various skills.

With every change you make, the effect on all skills should be visible at once. This requires appropriate resource diagrams showing multiple skills on one screen.

When you add new projects to the portfolio, this must be in line with their priority and remaining availability.

Your approach must be similar to filling a glass with stones and sand. You add the large stones first, then the pebbles and at last the sand. Shaking and rattling helps the sand to fill all the gaps.

You may have excess capacity for some skills. In this case, identify tasks for the sales department or product management. Or you might identify potential for retraining. In times of ever-changing environments, this is a valuable insight – if it comes at the right time.

Learn more about Resource Management – Basics and Methods here.

A more common problem will be resource or skill overload. There are some simple and logical ways of resolving these:

• Compensate for the missing capacities with the aid of internal or even external resources
• Change the priority of the projects or drop some projects altogether
• Postpone the projects far enough into the future that they fit into the given resource situation

For all three options, you will need an optimum database at any rate.

But be aware that the database is based on personal estimates. And that it is exposed to political currents.

There is one difficulty you will face time and again when communicating about the workload of the teams. You must make it clear to all involved that the glass is full and nothing new can be taken on.

One trick: Ask this simple question whenever too much is expected to go into the portfolio: what can we remove to make room for the new? This will create the necessary awareness among all stakeholders.

You could also ask what part of “no” they did not understand.

Enjoying a drink together can help as well. This will relieve pressure and improve the atmosphere. After all, there is always room for this in a glass filled with stones, pebbles and sand!

Reliable Data Is the Basis of Successful Capacity Management

No matter whether they are about bringing in external resources or postponing projects: the decisions remain human decisions. But you should always make these decisions based on the best possible data.

To obtain this data, you need suitable software tools for capacity planning. Without the appropriate portfolio management software support, which also helps with strategic resource planning, you will find the tasks involved hard to master.

Are you working with tables in Excel or something similar? Are you dealing with a certain degree of complexity and amount of data? In this case, you will only achieve the best outcome in capacity planning and decision-making with a lot of effort – or not at all.

Our tip: Define your precise objectives and requirements before investing in a tool. Plan a phased introduction of the tool to avoid overwhelming those involved. Only then does the purchase make sense. And you are on the right path to higher resource efficiency.

Reading tip: Requirements for resource planning software for the roles involved

Findings of the PMO Survey 2020 regarding Capacity Planning

In the context of a comprehensive TPG Survey on the state of the PMO in 2020, we derived an interesting result from the responses of 330 companies with a PMO.

Learn more about the challenges of resource management – capacity planning as well as tactical and operational resource planning.

Companies that can be classed as high and top performers have implemented strategic capacity planning much better than low performers.

In the case of the low performers, strategic capacity planning almost does not feature among the responsibilities of the PMO.

In addition, top-performing companies were half as likely to name lack of resources as a reason for unsuccessful projects.

The top performers did not name insufficient staff qualification as a reason for unsuccessful projects either. This was because they were clearly better positioned in terms of skills management than the other performance levels.

What we can take away from this: strategic capacity planning and good skills management clearly pay off in the pursuit of project success.

Conclusion and Checklist: Capacity Planning in Project Management

This article has introduced four important steps to successful strategic capacity planning:

• Step 1: Establish all necessary processes with the appropriate staff – from top management and the PMO to team leaders, department heads and project managers.
• Step 2: Provide for complete and up-to-date project data and prioritize your projects.
• Step 3: Identify the capacities that are actually available at skills level. To do this, define the basic load and confer with the team leaders at regular intervals.
• Step 4: Consolidate the requirements (step 2) and the capacities (step 3). Identify underload as well as overload and try to balance them.

In addition, you have learned about two further important parameters. These can make for successful resource capacity planning in project management:

• An efficient PMO with backing from top management
• A suitable software tool to provide a solid database

Find the most important points summed up in the following checklist:

Checklist Capacity Planning in Project Management

• Appoint a PMO with the appropriate competencies
• Identify the roles and individuals involved
• Promote the benefits of strategic resource / capacity management
• Warn stakeholders of the risks of going without capacity management
• Ensure a coordination process with meetings at set intervals
• Keep all ongoing and new projects up to date
• Control the priorities of the projects
• Consider the dependencies between the projects
• See to complete resource planning by the team leaders, i.e., team capacity planning
• Be exact in preparing and conducting planning sessions
• Create a clear overview by means of a dynamic chart with project lines and resource diagrams
• Introduce the topic step by step to avoid overwhelming those involved
• Provide each role with the appropriate IT tool

Our final tips

Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

Is there anything you would like to add regarding project capacity planning? What gives you a headache? We’ll be happy to respond to your comment below.

Der Beitrag Capacity Planning in Project Management – 4 Important Success Factors (with Checklist) erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

In this article, which includes many practical tips, you will learn about the fastest way to achieve functional and accepted project portfolio management in your company using our 7-step guide. A strong PMO plays an important role in this.

The following topics will be discussed:

• Project portfolio management definition
• Why implement project portfolio management? Important arguments
• The 7-step guide to optimizing your project portfolio management
  • Step 1: Define criteria for projects
  • Step 2: Define a process for project initiation
  • Step 3: Define a method for prioritization
  • Step 4: Start with a complete overview of running projects
  • Step 5: Compare the planned new projects with the remaining capacity and budget
  • Step 6: Keep a constant eye on project handling
  • Step 7: Close projects with a regulated project closure process
• Conclusion: Project portfolio management 7-step guide

Let us start with the definition of project portfolio management:

Project Portfolio Management Definition

Project portfolio management (PPM) ensures that you work on the right projects as a company – i.e., you have the optimal mix of projects to achieve the company’s goals. The project portfolio management process encompasses:

• Assessing the project pipeline
• Selecting projects based on their urgency / importance
• Allocating resources
• Monitoring the progress and goal achievement of all projects.

Portfolio management is a regular task that is usually supported by a PMO.

Why Implement Project Portfolio Management? Important Arguments

The five most important reasons to implement project portfolio management are:

• Focusing on “feasible” and “economically viable” projects
• Having a complete overview of your portfolio
• Benefitting from a clear preparation for selecting the projects
• Making your decisions based on priorities in accordance with corporate strategy
• Planning your capacities ahead of time

To be able to quantify the benefits of a new PPM tool, try ROI calculation.

Often, another question comes up:

What Is the Difference between Project Portfolio Management and Multi-Project Management?

In our view, project portfolio management addresses the strategic aspects of the enterprise-wide project portfolio. The motto for this is: “Do the right projects.”

Multi-project management, on the other hand, encompasses only a subset of all enterprise-wide projects, e.g., those included in the project list of one organizational unit and not assigned to a program (cf. program management). The corresponding motto for each individual project is: “Do the projects right.”

There is no one universally applicable definition of both terms, however.

The 7-Step Guide to Optimizing Your Project Portfolio Management

To be able to assess a portfolio of projects, you must first have information on every individual project. Based on these factors, you subsequently rate your projects.

For each project, ask the following questions to begin with:

• What is the strategic relevance of the project?
• What is the cost?
• What are the resource requirements?
• What deadlines must be met?

The challenge of project portfolio management is to determine the optimal combination of your projects in the portfolio, usually using strategic criteria (business drivers). Thus, you decide:

• Which projects to implement next
• Which ones are less important and will have to wait

In the subsequent 7 steps, you will learn in detail how to implement the project portfolio management process to set up a successful portfolio environment.

Step 1: Define Criteria for Projects

Not all initiatives are projects. Much can be handled as part of operations. With a project-worthiness analysis, you can determine the threshold at which an initiative should be treated as a project at your company.

You can differentiate projects based on the project type (minor / normal / major project). This will allow you to define the methods to be used.

The project-worthiness analysis determines when an initiative should be treated as a project

Simply use this approach to determine when an initiative should be considered a project. Only then is it to be added to the project portfolio selection process.

Design your individual project-worthiness analysis according to your requirements. Possible criteria for this could be:

• Number of departments involved
• Size of the project team
• Staff costs
• Amount of investment
• Duration
• Inherent complexity
• Novelty for the project team
• Quality risk
• External effect

Our tip: Download the free Excel template for your project-worthiness analysis. You can easily adapt the template to your needs.

Step 2: Define a Process for Project Initiation

At any rate, you should ensure one thing when selecting the portfolio: incorporate all projects requested internally or externally. Therefore, define a standardized process for initiating projects.

It is best to use central idea management software for the standardized recording of tasks, ideas, and project requests. Specify a methodical approach including:

• Workflows
• Permissions
• Criteria for the steps of approval

Reading tip: How to implement idea management – benefits and success factors.

And see to the appropriate quality of planning for new projects.

Find answers to the following questions in your project portfolio process:

• How do we collect project proposals or ideas?
• In what way do we assess potential projects?
• How do we approve them? And who is involved in this?
• Which PPM tools do we employ?
• How do we ensure that all involved know about the process and actually live it?
• How do we guarantee the quality of the new projects’ rough planning?

Our tip: Make sure the project portfolio process you design is as simple as possible. This will ensure acceptance and is especially important if you are performing project portfolio management as PMO members. Additional change management will further increase acceptance.

Read article on the importance of Change Management in Project Management.

Step 3: Define a Method for Prioritization

The next project portfolio management task is the prioritization of projects. Prioritization is not a one-off activity. Whenever the circumstances change, you must adapt your priorities. You can determine the strategic relevance of the projects by assigning business drivers proportionally.

These drivers must be clearly separated and distinct in meaning. Possible drivers can be:

• Increasing product quality
• Achieving a higher customer satisfaction
• Increasing staff satisfaction
• Achieving higher cost efficiency
• Expanding into new markets

What is more, the drivers need to be complete from a strategic perspective. In this case, complete means that the drivers should be as few as possible but as many as necessary.

Subsequently, you define the drivers’ importance among themselves.

Our tip: Choose at least 3 strategic drivers but fewer than 10. This will ensure good handling and a meaningful overview on a sensible basis.

Step 4: Start with a Complete Overview of Running Projects

First, you record all running projects with their essential information. To do this, use a central, database-assisted list in your project management software. The required project information should include at least:

• Start
• Finish
• Effort
• Cost
• Sponsor
• Project manager

Assign the relevant strategic business drivers to each of the existing projects.

Proceed by checking whether the most effort actually goes towards the most important projects. To this end, compare the importance of the drivers with the corresponding efforts of the assigned projects.

Identify unimportant projects it might be best to stop. This can free up resources for more important new projects.

Our tip: It is hard to present the financial value of a project that does not produce direct revenue. So it is best to put the initial focus on the importance resulting from the strategic drivers. You can always add a financial evaluation later. You can also divide the project portfolio into projects with revenue and those without.

Reading tip: Microsoft Project Management Tool Overview

Step 5: Compare the Planned New Projects with the Remaining Capacity and Budget Available

In the next step, you add your new list of desired additional projects to the portfolio of running projects. Appropriate portfolio management software provides optimal support for this task through a transparent overview of projects and resource utilization over the relevant period.

Compare the new projects’ effort and cost planning with the remaining capacity and budgets available. This is about finding out which project could start when.

It will be necessary to plan all new projects roughly. Thus, the resource requirements along the timeline become apparent. Planning should not be down to the level of individual people but to skills. This will keep the effort lower for you.

Learn why to use skills management in this article.

Of course, you will have to assign the new projects to the strategic drivers. Otherwise, it will be difficult to prioritize the new projects with the highest strategic contribution.

Only include small projects with low strategic contribution at the end, to fill in the gaps.

Our tip: Make your plans as rough as possible but as detailed as necessary. This step requires very little. The following principle applies: it is better to make a complete and rough plan than an incomplete and overly detailed one. In other words, it is preferable to have ALL projects show up in the overview, at least roughly. Leaving the list incomplete is not advisable. In that case, an overall statement on feasibility would become impossible, as the data would be incomplete.

Step 6: Keep a Constant Eye on Project Handling

The penultimate project portfolio management task is constant control. You should ensure at all costs that the data for all projects is:

• Regularly updated.
• Reported back to the central PPM solution.

The current data is the basis you need, if you ever want to determine:

• Whether new projects can be started in the future.
• When these projects should be started.
• What kind of projects these could be.

You should monitor the portfolio continuously. Also, keep checking the priorities of running projects.

Whenever strategic guidelines change and ongoing projects are not in line with the new strategic direction, you should not rule out a project termination.

Our tip: Arrange for a monthly project portfolio meeting. The latter has to be prepared well by the PMO. As for projects that need to be stopped: rather a calamitous end than an endless calamity.

Step 7: Close Projects with a Regulated Project Closure Process

You should have every project undergo a closure process. The latter includes a final project review with a target-actual comparison of costs and results.

In addition, you should:

• Communicate the Lessons Learned
• Archive the project properly
• Officially discharge the project manager responsible (relieve him or her of the responsibility for the finished project)

After that, everyone is aware that a project has been declared closed. And that the staff can now be assigned to other projects.

Our tip: In the interest of good company culture and communication, consider this: successfully completed projects could be a reason to celebrate. Alongside the results and successes, you would be able to present Lessons Learned. This occasion would give you an opportunity to increase the responsible project managers’ motivation for future projects.

PPRM Tools for Modern Portfolio Management

There are several powerful products for advanced (multi-) project, portfolio and resource management (PPRM) – in the cloud or on premises. These will make your work in a multi-project and portfolio environment much easier.

Our recommendation: take a look at TPG ProjectPowerPack, our tool based on Microsoft 365 and Power Platform. This modern environment provides you with:

• Different portfolios with any number of projects and key performance indicators
• A customizable overview of projects with predefined views for your own, ongoing, completed and all projects; a bar chart for each project’s duration; you can also create and save your own views
• Priorities for portfolio compilation calculated from driver values that can be individually defined; priority dashboard for projects and drivers; the option to sort project and project proposal lists by priority, even in portfolios and programs

Der Beitrag Project Portfolio Management: 7-Step Guide + Download erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

• PMO setup – Just think of it as a normal project
• PMO setup – Step 1: Current status – analysis & general concept
• PMO setup – Step 2: Preparation and specification
• PMO setup – Step 3: Implementation of the plans
• PMO setup – Step 4: Make the PMO an integral part of normal operations
• Change management – A key success factor right from the start
• Conclusion – PMO setup

After discussing the recommended four steps, the article concludes by describing which PMO success factors will help you obtain buy-in from the affected stakeholders.

But let us get started now.

PMO Setup – Just Think of It as a Normal Project

Deciding to create a project management office means launching a new project. The methods used are the same as for any other project:

• You start by analyzing the current situation.
• Next, you develop a specific plan.
• Then, you implement this plan and integrate it into the normal operations.

Throughout the phases, your smart change management strategy is used to help bring the stakeholders on board. This promotes the project’s acceptance and helps ensure its success.

Please note, however: You will need to adapt your strategy for PMO setup to the current situation and your company’s level of experience in project management. This is a challenge for every organization, as you will soon discover, because there is no one-size-fits-all approach to either the PMO or the process itself.

So, you may find it helpful to use a generic, incremental approach to PMO setup, as it will serve as a point of orientation. The following graphic provides an example.

In this generic framework, PMO setup involves these four steps:

1. Current status – analysis & general concept
2. Preparation and specification
3. PMO implementation
4. PMO normal operations

In addition to these four steps, it helps to have a good change management program for interacting with the people affected. This is because most people, at least initially, are skeptical about any proposed changes. So, be prepared to face resistance to your project again and again. You will need to convince these people / stakeholders.

Reading tip: Why Have a Project Management Office (PMO)?

Visible support from top management is essential, so make sure you have it. It often helps convince the other stakeholders.

One more tip: Right from the start, begin collecting proof that establishing a PMO is having a positive effect on the projects. This evidence will help you counter any possible criticism.

Now let us take a look at the individual steps involved.

Step 1 for PMO Setup: Current Status – Analysis & General Concept

The first step in PMO setup is to analyze the current situation. Take a look at the PM methods, processes, and tools used so far. Scrutinize the most important current projects for weaknesses.

In our experience, it is important to check for these key items in this phase. If you determine that any of these are (still) missing, you can make introducing these the first objective of your newly established PMO.

1. Project-Worthiness Analysis – What Do You Consider a “Project”?

Start by defining what exactly should be handled as a formal project. Only things clearly defined as a project fall under the jurisdiction of the PMO.

Ask yourself: what activities are better handled as part of the normal operations and are therefore under the jurisdiction of the individual departments?

A project-worthiness analysis tailored to your company will help you make this decision.

Free download: Project-worthiness analysis template (MS Excel). You can easily adapt the template to your needs.

2. Prioritized Project Lists – Which Projects Are Currently Being Pursued?

One of the key objectives is to obtain a complete list of all the projects. It must be up to date, detailed, and ideally also prioritized. Without a complete list, you will have no idea what people in the company are really working on.

Let us be honest: are you sure that your list is complete? 

Our experience has shown that few companies actually have a complete list at this stage. Even if it takes a few weeks to prepare the list, it will be well worth the effort and a great help to everyone involved.

The graphic above shows the TPG PPM Paradise. Individual projects are automatically added to the project list. This list provides the up-to-date and accurate information needed for the portfolio reports on which management bases its decisions.

Users of agile methods, please note: PMO setup is essential if you have multiple projects running concurrently, even in an agile environment. Having a complete, accurate list of all the projects is essential for every decision-maker.

Things to keep in mind for the project list and / or tool used to prepare the list:

• It must accept any number of user-defined fields.
• It must have a function for sorting, filtering, and grouping the entries by field.
• It must provide different views based on user permissions.
• Ideally, it offers workflows for adding new projects.
• It must allow you to configure the links to detailed information.
• The list must be pre-filled with key historical data.
• This historical data must be sufficient to detect future trends.
• This history also serves as evidence of the PMO’s contributions.

Our tip: Make sure that every single project is included on your project list. Avoid having any stealth projects that secretly steal your resources. Your primary responsibility as project management officer is to ensure that the list is always complete and up to date!

3. Control Environment – Can We Make Valid Decisions?

Another thing to consider is the control environment. It should include key elements such as:

• Project order (project objective, budget, time frame, etc. with signature)
• Project status report (detailed with traffic light status indicators)
• Final project report (project’s overall result)
• Lessons Learned (What went well and what did not?)

Our tip: In this first phase of establishing a PMO implementation, you need to ask many questions: How helpful have previous project status reports been? What was their intended purpose for each of the stakeholders? What things could be optimized?

4. Processes – Are They Effective and Efficient?

Remember to take a close look at your company’s existing project management processes. It is vital that you check the effectiveness and efficiency of the tools and methods being used.

One important factor is your company’s organizational structure (line / matrix). Take a close look at the training opportunities and career paths available to those involved in project management.

Your findings will help you determine the level of project management maturity in the company. Make sure that you document this.

Not everyone in the company will be enthusiastic about the creation of a PMO, so you will need all the good feedback about positive changes that you can get.

Our tip: Start your work as project management officer by documenting the company’s level of project management maturity. This can help you achieve some quick wins and later clearly demonstrate the improvements and added value.

5. Stakeholder Analysis – What Does Each Person Want?

Knowing what everyone wants will help you define the PMO’s goals. The stakeholder analysis is a helpful tool in determining: What are the PMO’s interest groups and what do they hope to gain from the PMO?

Possible stakeholders range from managers and executives as well as decision-makers and team leaders / Scrum Masters, to project managers / Product Owners, the controllers and, finally, the employees.

The PMO is a service provider whose success depends on the satisfaction of its “customers”, namely, the stakeholders in the project environment. Each of these stakeholders has their own expectations of the PMO.

Our tip: Start by doing a good stakeholder analysis to ensure that you have a clear understanding of every stakeholder’s expectations of the PMO. This will let you set the right goals and lead to greater acceptance of your work.

6. Gap Analysis – What Does the Target / Actual Comparison Show?

After you have analyzed the current situation and defined the expectations, it is time to do the gap analysis. This analysis depicts the gap between the current status and the desired status of project management in the company.

The information can then be used to create a prioritized list of recommended actions. The list should also include measures that can be quickly and easily implemented, so-called “quick wins”.

Here are a few ideas for quick wins when you set up a PMO:

• A clear project-worthiness analysis
• A signed project order for each project
• A prioritized list of projects
• A good stakeholder analysis
• An up-to-date project status report

You can sustainably close some of the gaps defined in your gap analysis by, for example, defining a PM maturity model that can be introduced in stages.

Our tip: Complete the quick wins identified on your list as early as possible. These early successes will help boost the PMO’s acceptance.

Step 2 for PMO Setup: Preparation and Specification

The next phase involves developing the concept. Here you define the PMO’s work, its position in the hierarchy, and its competencies. The PMO should have a clear understanding of its mandate and the services it is expected to provide.

The scope of services is often broad, and the stakeholder expectations are high. Possible PMO services can be seen in the following list.

• If training and coaching are the focus of the newly established PMO, then it will organize professional development activities for the project managers and project teams.
• The PMO’s project services activities will consist mainly of providing support. For example, it can host workshops or temporarily assume the role of project controller.
• If methods and processes constitute the PMO’s core competencies, then it will focus primarily on these and make suitable IT tools available to those needing them.
• Multi-project management monitors the progress of various projects and defines the control measures. In this case, the PMO gathers project information and prepares this for the decision-making committees.
• The Strategic Project Management Office (sPMO) is responsible for setting up and managing the projects. It chooses the projects and prioritizes them. The PMO also conducts cost-benefit analyses and defines the overall conditions for project management.

Once you have established a PMO, it is a good idea to start by focusing on only one or two of these responsibilities. You want to avoid over-burdening the organization. Make sure that everyone is aware of the PMO’s mission.

A newly established PMO is still a “strange newcomer” in their midst. It will take a while for everyone to accept it as an integral part of the organization.

Stakeholders often tend to overburden the PMO with activities.

It is important to remember that the PMO will not be able to please all the people all of the time. It has one key responsibility ‒ the one derived from the stakeholder analysis ‒ and this should always be its primary focus.

Our tip: Ensure that the PMO’s mission is one that is both practical and tailored to your organization. Get stakeholder input and agreement on this. Doing so ensures that the PMO’s scope of responsibilities is realistic.

Other key requirements:

• Communication: Make sure that everyone knows that a PMO exists and what its responsibilities are. This ensures that everyone’s expectations are clear.
• Internal marketing: Publicize the PMO’s services so that people actually request and use these services. To be truly accepted as part of the company, the PMO has to offer clear benefits.
• Staffing: The PMO staff must have the necessary qualifications and motivation ‒ this is vital. The employees must be service-oriented and have the required interpersonal skills but also be able to say No when necessary.

If you have already been using change management to facilitate the transition from one phase to another, its role will grow in importance in the next stage of your PMO implementation.

Our tip: Ensure that the new PMO’s scope of responsibilities is clearly communicated to all the stakeholders. One idea is to set up a PMO homepage on your company’s intranet with information about the PMO team, its services, and project management workflow processes.

Step 3 for PMO Setup: Implement the Plans

If it has not happened already, this is the stage in PMO setup, where the PMO staff receive their final training and are helped to prepare for their duties.

You will need their expertise to implement the PM processes and methods defined in the concept phase step by step. This generally includes agile methodology as well as the traditional together with hybrid approaches that combine these two methods.

Our tip: Select a senior employee to lead the PMO. Choose someone with good organizational skills and many years of project management experience. Make sure this person also has the truly necessary interpersonal skills.

Project Launch – Traditional, Agile, or Hybrid?

One of the PMO’s responsibilities can be to decide whether a project should be handled using agile, traditional, or hybrid methodology. It can define criteria for the degree of uncertainty in the requirements as well as which solution should be used based on this uncertainty. A Stacey Matrix can be helpful here.

Please note: Do not expect your project managers to switch between agile and traditional too often. Our experience has shown that this can jeopardize satisfaction and process stability.

Methods – Which Are Vital?

Traditional methods that the PMO must use in any case are:

• Project order (as a refence)
• Status report
• Final report with Lessons Learned

The following graphic shows several other methods common to traditional project environments that the PMO may need to consider. The PMO also provides a suitable IT infrastructure, offers training, and assists users in applying the methods and tools.

Processes – At What Intervals Should These Occur?

One of the PMO’s key responsibilities can be summarized as:

The PMO ensures that everyone knows what is important and right.

In traditional as well as agile project environments, the PMO is responsible for ensuring that the required processes are carried out at the right intervals. The right information needs to be made available with a regularity that ensures it is both up to date and reliable enough for good decisions.

The following graphic shows how to collect and disseminate information in such a way that this is shared with the organizational levels involved as often as needed.

Recommended reading: Comparing Project Management Methods: Agile, Traditional, or Hybrid? – What you should know about how agile differs from traditional and hybrid methods, and how to decide which method is best for your needs and when.

Portfolio Meeting – What Do You Need to Keep in Mind?

The PMO is responsible for ensuring that the portfolio meeting, whose purpose it is to monitor and manage the multi-project environment, achieves its objectives. The key is to have all the necessary information readily available and up to date. Having this information is a prerequisite, as it enables the decision-making committee to make fast, reliable decisions based on the most current data.

To ensure that the project information presented in the portfolio meeting is up to date, a weekly plan can be used, for example. This enables you to remind the project staff and project managers on time to provide the necessary information in accordance with a periodic deadline.

Make sure that everyone submits their input before the editorial deadline, 2-4 hours before the meeting begins. This gives you enough time to be well prepared, and it avoids any last-minute changes.

What kinds of topics are discussed in a portfolio meeting? Here are a few typical items:

• Project conclusions (final reports, successes, and lessons learned)
• Information on new projects (project orders)
• Information about key projects (status reports, risk analyses, milestone trend analysis [MTA], etc.)
• Upcoming decisions to be made
• Presentation of the resource situation
• Solutions to resource overload / underutilization

Before the portfolio meeting ends, you should discuss and reach an agreement on how the information about the meeting’s key conclusions will be communicated to the staff. This helps ensure that the employees feel well-informed about the decisions that affect them.

The project portfolio meeting is the place to discuss any project problems, such as those showing a red alert. Having the right tools lets you “drill down” from the project portfolio level into the details of any individual project. The PMO is responsible for providing the tools needed to do this.

A solution according to the TPG PPM Paradise model provides this capability:

At the end of the portfolio meeting, you should finalize the wording and approval of the information about the most important results for the workforce. This ensures that employees feel well informed about decisions that are relevant to them.

Resource Management – What Is Everyone Working On?

One of the PMO’s key duties is allocating resources to the various projects.

A prerequisite is, therefore, having a complete overview of each employee’s activities – both project-related and non-project-related.

However, do not make the mistake of being overly detailed in your resource planning. Find the right degree of granularity. For example, you do not want to make your plans so detailed that one person calling in sick throws off all your plans.

Our tip: Aim to make your resource plans as good as necessary for decisions to be made at the portfolio level. More details are unnecessary.

Resource management involves all the levels:

• Decision-makers (which projects are (still) possible, given the resource situation?)
• PMO (prepares the resource utilization overview for that time period so that portfolio decisions can be made)
• Team leaders (schedule the team members and their operational and project-related duties)
• Project managers (work with the team leaders to coordinate the procurement of the resources needed for the projects)
• Team members (report the hours worked, progress, and remaining work to be done)

Recommended reading: Resource Management in Project Management – Basics and Areas for Beginners

Knowledge sharing is also a key success factor in minimizing the risk of resource bottlenecks and project delays. Avoid having “gurus” ‒ experts who prefer to work alone and not share their knowledge ‒ as these can become a resource bottleneck. The problem here is that the project can come to a standstill if this person is suddenly unavailable.

As project management officer, it is your responsibility to ensure that this critical knowledge is shared by several people in the team. This helps you avoid any unnecessary downtime in the project. Make sure that your company’s team leaders understand this as well.

Step 4: Make the PMO an Integral Part of Normal Operations

After establishing a PMO, it becomes part of normal operations. If the PMO was implemented by an external consulting firm, it is now time to transfer responsibility to company employees.

In some cases, it may be advantageous for the PMO to retain the consulting firm’s services as needed for specific questions. Depending on what progress has been made in developing the necessary expertise, you may want to consider providing coaching for the company’s project managers and possibly also the project management officers.

In this phase, continue to optimize your processes and methods. Good communication, right from the start, is the key to fostering acceptance of the changes.

Another important point to remember when highlighting the advantages of having a PMO: the company’s corporate culture plays a key role in the PMO’s success. Because ensuring transparency in the project environment is one of the PMO functions, its success will also be measured by this benchmark.

Our tip: When judging your PMO’s long-term success, ask yourself what degree of transparency the company actually wants and whether everyone involved is really trying to be more open about everything.

Change Management – A Key Success Factor Right from the Start

Throughout all the phases ‒ from the analysis of the current situation to the transition to the PMO being part of normal operations ‒ change management is done concurrently to all the other work. As explained above: it is important to demonstrate the benefits of your newly introduced PMO to all the stakeholders as quickly as possible to convince them of its advantages and thereby gain their acceptance.

This is generally achieved in three phases:

Phase 1: If the PMO can show some quick wins, the stakeholders will initially be happy that someone is finally tackling the issues that need to be taken care of. They will then be more willing to accept the PMO.

Phase 2: In this next phase, after the new structures and expertise have been introduced, reality sets in. As everything becomes more transparent, people become more skeptical. They begin wondering what effect the new PMO (and its objectives) will have on them personally and whether any of these effects will be detrimental.

Phase 3: If the implementation is successful, people will eventually recognize the advantages of having the PMO. Their previous skepticism will be transformed into positive collaboration. Now, the PMO can gradually introduce a new project management culture within the company and bring it to life.

The below info-graphic is based on a German-language podcast episode on the TPG Podcast. It describes the four steps outlined above in a little more detail.

The 10 steps from the podcast illustrated in an info-graphic: Feel free to share it on your social networks:

Conclusion – PMO Setup and Success Factors

This article has helped you understand that PMO setup is best handled as a project. After project initiation comes planning, implementation, and then regular operation. You have also learned that there are other factors, beyond simply following the right steps, that can influence the success or failure of your endeavor:

• Smart change management
• Having the support of top management
• A desire for more transparency within the company

Remember that even the best PMO cannot be successful unless the stakeholders recognize the value of this new organizational entity and are willing to actively cooperate with it. Once you have their recognition and willingness to collaborate, you will have the acceptance necessary for the PMO to be successful.

This is the list of 10 key PMO success factors for PMO setup:

1. Honest analysis of the PM weaknesses
2. Complete stakeholder analysis
3. Clear differentiation between project work and general operations
4. Determination of baseline expertise so that progress can be measured and documented
5. Achievement of quick wins
6. Clear definition of PMO duties and expertise
7. Manageable scope of responsibilities
8. Clear communication of the PMO’s mission
9. Use of change management right from the beginning
10. Visible support from top management

Our final tips:

Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

What words of advice would you give someone trying to set up a PMO? Please leave us a comment.

Der Beitrag Successful PMO Setup in 4 Simple Steps (with Downloads) erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

This article introduces you to the requirements for reports in project, portfolio and resource management. You will learn what information is relevant for the stakeholders and how reports contribute to fast decisions. In addition, you will get tips for efficient data collection and data quality checks. Lastly, there is a checklist of the ten most important questions to help you set up your reporting system.

We will look at the following topics:

• Why project management reports should be at the beginning
• Requirements for PMO reports in project management
• PMO reports for different stakeholders at the company
• Reporting periods in the project environment
• What reports make sense?
• Selection in the multi-project environment
• Possible contents for reports of individual projects
• Efficient data collection as the basis for PMO reports
• Ensuring data quality
• Checklist on reporting and determining factors
• PPRM tools for modern PM reports
• Conclusion – PMO reports for project and portfolio management

As part of the article, you also receive a checklist on reporting and examples of possible content for individual reports which would be useful for you as the PMO.

Let us begin with who is responsible for the contents of reports.

Why Project Reports Should Be at the Beginning

The Project Management Office (PMO) is responsible for the reports in project and portfolio management (PPRM).

This task encompasses not only the structure and the selection of the information presented. Among the PMO functions there is another important task that is not always easy. The PMO has to ensure the quality of the reports with regard to currency, correctness and the requirements of the target groups.

In a study, Gartner arrived at the following conclusion:

PMOs often do not provide the data senior managers need. This creates a gap between expectation and reality. More data is not automatically better. PMOs should adapt their reports step by step to make sure they really support executives. Senior managers do not have much time. They need short, precise and clear information. The PMO should collaborate with them and provide exactly that.

Source: “Seven Best Practices for an Effective Project Management Office”, Gartner, 2016

The problem: when introducing project and portfolio management solutions (PPRM) the reporting topic is often considered too late.

Does that sound familiar?

It would be ideal if your PMO reports came right at the beginning. In such a case, the PPM system would be planned around the reports and the needs of their users and be supported by PPM project tools.

Reading tip: ROI Calculation for PPM Tools: Making Informed Decisions

After all, only very good project management reports make you realize what is happening and what needs to be decided with more or less urgency. You will only get the most out of your PPRM system, if you focus on the essentials and take into account what the recipients of the reports expect.

But this is only half the battle. To enable you to react to the developments in the project environment really fast, your reports need to be up to date and flexible, too.

Below, you will read about the requirements for reports in project, portfolio and resource management.

Requirements for PMO Reports in Project Management

These days, IT solutions allow you to present reports in project management quickly on the screen, both in color and in the desired level of detail. When it comes to what information e.g. a PMO envisions for the company, we know from our consulting experience that classic fixed notions for project management reports come into play. They are expected to be:

Accommodating these wishes in a single document is not easy. The actual reporting requirements are more realistic. They can be summed up in one sentence:

Actual reporting requirements in a nutshell: you must make relevant information available to the right people in a meaningful and efficient way to control projects optimally.

So, you should always ask yourself the following questions when setting up a reporting system:

• What do I aim to plan and control?
• What information will I require for this?
• Which level of detail makes sense?
• What do I want to achieve with which report?
• Who will be working with the reports afterwards?
• Will the target group of the reports be able to grasp the contents?

Our tip: Honest answers to these questions are an important prerequisite for your future reports. Their creation needs to be efficient, without unnecessary data baggage. A prior stakeholder analysis to determine the needs of the different roles is advisable at any rate.

PMO Reports for Different Stakeholders at the Company

As a rule, every company has several different levels requiring different reports. The higher up in the hierarchy, the more condensed the information needs to be.

Still, a drill-down to the details needs to be possible on demand. This allows users to comprehend the consolidated report information in the case of inquiries.

Decision-makers

Top management requires consolidated information for management control on a regular basis. For instance, they consider the adherence to the strategic focus, risks or investment risks.

PMO

The PMO is the body that often prepares the reports on projects and resources at portfolio level for top management. It requires a project list with the status to be able to check with project managers when this seems necessary. Any escalations identified are reported to the top for decision-making.

Team leaders

Team leaders are responsible for their resources. For this, they require the corresponding overviews of their teams’ workload and availability. In addition, they need to be able to make reliable resource commitments for projects to the project managers.

Project managers

When planning individual projects, the project manager uses e.g. the status report, the work breakdown structure, the milestone overview or possibly a Milestone Trend Analysis.

Project team members

Project team members want to see their work packages. What is more, they are interested in who else is working on the project and in time tracking. This is less about classic reports but more about available information.

Note: To demonstrate the benefits your PMO provides you should define a set of key performance indicators and align them with your stakeholders. The right PMO KPIs will assist you in this endeavor.

Reporting Periods in the Project Environment

Reports are the basis for coordination meetings. They help us understand what is happening at the company at this moment. And where decisions are at present necessary.

The higher up in the hierarchy, the more condensed the information and the less frequent the reporting.

The figure below clarifies how the reporting periods at the individual levels result from the individual meetings. Relative to the hierarchical level, the information becomes increasingly condensed while the frequency of reporting decreases accordingly.

What decisions may or must be made where? Subject to this, you must ensure that the required information is available in the form of meaningful reports.

In the process, you also need to decide which element is useful for which report. You do not need a wealth of data in every report, but its message must be easy to understand. You must aim for maximum clarity and intelligibility in your reports.

What Reports Make Sense?

The question of which reports are useful always requires a very individual answer. The figure below provides an overview. It shows which reports make sense across the hierarchies. Naturally, this depends to a large extent on your company’s:

• size
• processes
• industry

Unfortunately, there is no ONE project management report that is right for all. While reports tend to look similar, you must always adapt them to the respective processes and needs of the company. This always depends on the intended use and the recipients.

It might help you to work out the reporting requirements and their possible implementation in a workshop with important stakeholders and the support of an experienced PMO consultant.

Below, you will find an overview of possible reports from the PMO environment.

Report Showing a Portfolio Dashboard (Example)

Project Pipeline Report (Example)

Report for Resource Utilization & Roadmap (Example)

Project Status Report (Example)

Learn more in our article on contents and creation of the Project Status Report.

Report for Team Planning and Utilization (Example)

Project Overview as an Interactive Website (Example)

Current Status of the Portfolio (Evolution-Over-Time Perspective, Example)

Current Developments (Example)

Review of the Portfolio (Example)

Earned Value Indices (Example)

Find more information on Earned Value Analysis in this article.

Our tip: As the PMO, it is wise to keep an eye on the number of reports. Over time, this is very likely to increase, as new ones tend to be added continually. A periodic consolidation can ensure that your reporting retains its efficiency as a whole.

Selection in the Multi-Project Environment

Often, the PMO is responsible for the preparation of the portfolio meeting. In a multi-project environment and in project portfolio management, the selection of projects is a particular challenge. From the project portfolio, which can be very substantial, you need to specifically select certain projects which are to be covered in the time available for the portfolio meeting.

The right selection process ensures that the need for decisions is identified early, enabling you to make the necessary decisions in the time available.

The following list provides criteria by which you in the PMO could make a project selection for the project portfolio meetings:

• Declared need for decisions (manually set indicator)
• All projects with status RED (Overall, resources, schedule …) + 3 YELLOW + 3 GREEN (as samples to check for data quality, more detail further below)
• All projects in the top 3 risk categories
• Top 10 in terms of variance (cost, schedule, work)
• Top 10 strategic contribution / priority
• All projects above a threshold value (order / investment volume, contractual penalty …)
• Problem areas (technology, regions, project manager, product categories …)

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Possible Contents for Reports of Individual Projects

What information should you provide in the reports of individual projects? Suggestions for results, deliveries and states could be:

• Achievement of milestones (standard milestones)
• Completion of phases (phase model)
• Acceptance of deliveries planned / effected (payment milestones)
• Completion of work packages / deliveries (definition of “done”)
• Completion of tasks (not started / in progress / completed)
• List of open issues (open / started / completed)
• Earned Value Analysis (Baseline and %Physical Complete)
• %Complete (no appropriate statement below 100% … 99% syndrome, i.e. the danger of the permanent 99% value)

For quality assurance, the report should include plausibility checks, such as:

• Comparison between remaining effort and reported stage of completion
• Relation between %Cost / %Work / %Time / %Physical Complete (relation of the values to each other)

To determine the plan-actual variance we recommend the following information:

• Deliveries: Plan / actual of quality, scheduling, effort, cost
• Work outstanding: Clarity of proof of concept, work / budget, cost / budget, schedule / plan
• Resources: assign, shift, withdraw

When it comes to decisions on the next steps, the following information is helpful:

• Order / follow-up: entered or not (continue regardless?)
• Budget: available or too low (continue only after increase?)
• Resources: committed or too few (escalation or postponement?)
• Risk situation: manageable or unfavorable (any known alternatives?)
• Chosen option: Method A or B (documentation of the decision including reasons)

Once your PMO has prepared the meeting, it is important to ensure one thing. During the meeting, the necessary data to provide answers to the decision-makers’ questions must be available – preferably at the push of a button.

Our tip: The report after a meeting is also an important medium. Communicate the results of the meeting to all parties concerned. This is the only way to make them adjust their further actions to the results of the meeting.

Find further detail about report contents in our PPM Report article.

Efficient Data Collection as the Basis for PMO Reports

At many companies, collecting the data for the reports takes longer than the actual analysis and preparation. For you, too?

You can handle this much more efficiently once you do not have to collect various Excel files and consolidate them.

It is best to work with a suitable database from the start. This database should allow you integration with other systems through integration middleware and central data evaluation for reports. This leaves you with more time for the analysis of the reports. The analysis in turn enables decision-makers to make well-founded and fast decisions based on up-to-date data.

Get to know the results of a survey on PMO / PPM Tools conducted by TPG in 2024.

Ensuring Data Quality

The PMO is also responsible for ensuring the reports’ data quality. But how do you recognize whether the data of a project report is complete, correct and up to date?

The challenge is to determine which projects vary from the plan, e.g. with the aid of plausibility checks. Is the stage of completion, which the project manager indicated in the project report, actually correct?

Among other things, the following information can help you check whether the data is complete, correct and up to date:

1. Complete

• All projects (vs. operations)
• All deliverables per project
• All relevant resources with all activities (project availability)

2. Correct

• Check for planning plausibility
• Complete coverage of all cost types and efforts
• Stage of actual completion

3. Up to date

• When was the data entered?
• At what time was the transfer of data from external systems?
• When were the reports created?

Our tip: Use samples to improve data quality. Project managers have a tendency to make their reports look particularly inconspicuous. As the PMO, you should therefore pick out a few projects with green status alongside those with red and yellow status indicators. This takes away the certainty from project managers that a green traffic light will keep them “off the radar”.

Checklist on Reporting and Determining Factors

Do you want to modernize your PMO reporting? This checklist with the ten most important questions can help you to think in the right direction:

Checklist: The 10 Most Important Questions on PMO Reporting

1.   Who should have permissions for what?
2.   How often should the data be updated?
3.   How often should the reports be issued?
4.   Do the reports have to be available online or offline?
5.   Do you require ad-hoc analyses?
6.   Will the reports need to be printed?
7.   Should there be an option to comment on reports?
8.   Does the data need to be historized?
9.   Will the reports need to be archived?
10. Do you wish to be able to modify reports?

Below, you will find a few additional notes on some important points from the list.

Permissions control who is allowed to see what. If you decide for too much complexity, adjustments can become very complicated when people change roles. It is also important to involve the employee organization regarding the internal resource data.

Comments in reports should point very clearly to issues that require particular attention. This enables readers to grasp critical points quickly. Explanations for the states presented are also advisable. For instance, they might clarify why a traffic light is red.

If a report is historized, that means the state of the report on a particular date can be retrieved at a later stage. On the one hand, the underlying data from that time needs to be available. On the other hand, the original layout of the other page needs to be recoverable pixel by pixel. Archiving is best managed by creating PDFs. It is possible to save them automatically to a database. In such a case, they can be retrieved specifically in their original version, even after a long time.

Our tip: Use standard tools! If you in the PMO are able to modify reports, you have greater flexibility. For this reason, you should use standard tools as much as possible. You can make changes as required, fast and without external help.

PPRM Tools for Modern PM Reports

Do you lack visibility in your project environment? Are you struggling to maintain an overview due to time-consuming and error-prone manual reporting? In this case, you are not working with advanced PPRM software that is tailored to your needs and eliminates these problem areas.

Take a look at TPG ProjectPowerPack, the tool based on Microsoft 365 and Power Platform. This modern environment provides you with 40 reports at the touch of a button: on the project status, resource utilization and the portfolio. This allows you to control your entire project portfolio with KPIs – if desired also based on data from integrated external systems.

Conclusion – PMO Reports for Project, Portfolio and Resource Management

In this article, you have found out what requirements PMO reports in project, portfolio and resource management should meet.

You have learned:

• That you require different depths of information and frequencies of coordination for the different stakeholders at the company
• Which criteria are important for a project selection when preparing your next portfolio meeting
• What information you should be able to find in reports
• How you cater for quality assurance, record plan-actual variance, and prepare decisions on the next steps.

In addition, you have found out:

• That an efficient data collection is the basis of a fast and reliable reporting system
• How you can check whether the data is complete, correct and up to date

Lastly, a checklist has familiarized you with the 10 most important questions on reporting – as a guideline for your next steps.

Our final tips

Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

Please leave a short comment below: which reports do you use in the PMO environment?

Der Beitrag PMO Reports: Requirements for Reports in Project, Portfolio and Resource Management erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

No migration or change in licensing is necessary to access your premium plans in Planner. To lessen confusion, Microsoft is simply transitioning all endpoints to Planner.​​​​​​​

In this article, you’ll learn what the transition means for you, the changes to expect in PPM project tools and how to best prepare for them. You’ll find answers to the key questions in these sections:

• Why is Project for the Web being merged into Planner?
• When will Project for the Web transition to Planner?
• What’s changing with the move to Planner?
• Planner licensing models and costs
• Actionable recommendations for businesses
• Want to do more with Planner?
• Conclusion
• FAQ
• Review list: Transitioning from Project for the Web to Planner

Let’s dive in!

Why Is Project for the Web Being Merged into Planner?

Since the launch of Project for the Web in 2019, Microsoft 365 users have had access to overlapping tools for task and project management. To streamline the user experience and enable deeper integration of AI-powered features like Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft is consolidating its platforms.

The goal is to bring To Do, Planner, and Project for the Web together into a single unified solution — under the banner of Microsoft Planner.

From now on there will be one tool for all levels of planning: from basic task management to complex project workflows.

Using Project Online? Read about 2026 retirement of Project Online Workflows. (April) and Project Online Retirement in September 2026.

When Will Project for the Web Transition to Planner?

Starting in August 2025, Project for the Web and the associated Project and Roadmap apps in Microsoft Teams will be retired. From that point on, all users will be automatically redirected to Microsoft Planner.

Note: Your existing plans will remain accessible. You’ll simply continue to access them through Planner. No manual exports or time-consuming data cleanup is required.

What’s Changing with the Move to Planner?

The move to Microsoft Planner brings more than just a fresh interface. You can expect enhanced functionality, deeper integration with Microsoft Teams, and expanded AI support.

Here’s a breakdown of the key changes:

Modern Interface and Streamlined UX

The new Planner features a modernized, unified interface that blends the familiar look and feel of Planner and Teams, while incorporating many advanced features from Project for the Web.

Highlights include:

• Timeline view (Gantt)
• Board view (Kanban)
• Grid view (Table)
• AI-powered suggestions and automations via Microsoft Copilot

One-Click Status Reports

With the new Status Reports feature, premium users can automatically generate project updates directly within the Planner app in Teams. The Project Manager Agent summarizes progress, milestones, risks, and next steps, and delivers the report as a Loop component.

Requirements: Microsoft 365 Copilot + Loop license.

These AI-generated reports save time and can be edited collaboratively in real time using Loop.

Project Manager Agent (In-Preview)

Project Manager (preview) is an innovative AI agent that serves as a collaborator for your plans. It leverages your upcoming deadlines and goals to create a plan, execute tasks to help you get work done, and take in feedback to improve its outputs.

Tasks can be handed off to the agent via drag-and-drop or by assigning them directly. In the People view, the agent even appears as a dedicated team member.

Deeper Integration with Microsoft Teams

The new Planner is now fully embedded in Microsoft Teams. Channel tabs will directly use Planner web components moving forward.

As part of this change, existing “Project” or “Roadmap” tabs will need to be manually replaced with new Planner tabs.

Check out our Microsoft project management tool overview on this blog.

Roadmap Becomes “Portfolios”

The former Roadmap feature is being replaced by the new Portfolios view in Planner. This gives you a consolidated overview of multiple projects, with flexible configuration options to suit your needs.

Copilot Support

With the transition, Planner gains access to Microsoft Copilot. Tasks can be automatically prioritized, schedules generated, and status reports summarized — all powered by AI.

Note: This functionality requires a valid Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

Planner Licensing Models and Costs

Microsoft offers several licensing plans for the new Planner:

• Planner Plan 1: Includes basic features such as task management and simple scheduling.
• Planner & Project Plan 3: Adds advanced capabilities like Gantt charts, resource management, and access to the desktop client.
• Planner & Project Plan 5: Delivers full enterprise-level features for portfolio and resource management.

Note: Pricing will vary depending on your region and contractual agreements.

Actionable Recommendations for Businesses

If you haven’t started yet, now is the time to prepare for Project for the Web retirement. Taking early action will help ensure a smooth transition. We recommend the following steps:

• Communication: Inform your teams about the upcoming changes and provide training on the new Planner.
• Testing: Try out the new Planner and become familiar with its features and capabilities.

You’ll also find a checklist for IT admins at the end of this article.

Want to Do More with Planner?

Microsoft Planner may not meet all your needs in a multi-project environment. If you’re looking to achieve more, TPG ProjectPowerPack – built on Microsoft’s Power Platform – offers a compelling solution for enhanced project, portfolio, and resource management.

TPG ProjectPowerPack enables deeply integrated, scalable control of complex project environments — all within the Microsoft 365 and Power Platform. It’s integrated with Project for the Web / Planner and extends their capabilities with proven best-practice methods.

Your Benefits with TPG ProjectPowerPack:

• Centralised, consolidated data across all projects
• Manage your project lifecycle workflows, risks, issues and more
• Features for PMOs, project managers, and executives
• Powerful reporting with Power BI – ready to use out of the box
• Fast deployment via preconfigured QuickStart best-practice processes
• Expandable via configuration and low-code customisation via the Power Platform

And finally…

The transition from Project for the Web to the new Microsoft Planner is set for August 2025. The updated app delivers a more modern user experience, enhanced functionality, further integration with Microsoft Teams, and built-in AI support (at additional cost).

Microsoft Planner offers a centralized platform for managing tasks and schedules. However, if your organisation needs more advanced capabilities for project, portfolio, and resource management, TPG ProjectPowerPack extends Planner’s foundation with a scalable, enterprise-ready solution built on Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform.

FAQ

1. Is Microsoft Project (Desktop) Being Discontinued?

No, Microsoft Project Desktop Client is not related to Project for the Web or Planner. This tool has been a proven solution for complex project planning for many years and, in its Professional version, can work with Project Online and Project Server. These tools continue to be supported by Microsoft (source). More on Microsoft PPM here.

2. Which Microsoft 365 Apps and Features Are Affected besides Project for the Web?

Alongside the retirement of Project for the Web, the Project app and Roadmap tabs in Microsoft Teams will also be phased out.

Users who try to open the Project app in Teams will be automatically redirected to the new Planner experience.

Roadmaps: These will no longer be supported in Planner. Instead, users can recreate their Roadmaps using the new Portfolios feature in Planner. However, Portfolios will not support Azure DevOps or Project Online integration, and they cannot be pinned as tabs in Teams. Existing Roadmap data will remain accessible in Dataverse.

3. What About My Current Roadmaps?

Roadmaps will not be automatically migrated to the new Portfolio view in Planner. Users will need to manually recreate them. Custom integrations and Teams tab support — will no longer be available. Admins should test any custom fields and configurations during the transition.

4. How Are the New Planner Licenses and Prices Changing?

Microsoft is renaming its Project plans as part of the transition:

• Project Plan 1 → Planner Plan 1 (~$10 / user / month)
• Project Plan 3 → Planner + Project Plan 3 (~$30 / user / month)
• Project Plan 5 → Planner + Project Plan 5 (~$55 / user / month)

In terms of features and functionality, these plans remain equivalent to their previous versions (source).

5. Does Planner Support Multiple Dataverse Environments?

You can manage plans within non-default Dataverse environments with paid Planner SKUs (Planner Plan 1 / 3 / 5) (source).

6. Where Can I Find More Information from Microsoft about the Retirement of Project for the Web and the Transition to Planner?

A helpful overview of frequently asked questions about Microsoft Planner can be found on this page: Transitioning to Microsoft Planner and retiring Microsoft Project for the web | Microsoft Community Hub

Review List: Transitioning from Project for the Web to Planner

Review list for transitioning from Project for the Web to Planner

Our final tips

Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

Will Microsoft Project for the Web retirement affect you? Let us know your questions in a comment below.

Author: Christopher Pond, Commercial & Technology Leader

Chris is a seasoned commercial and technology leader with a strong track record across Microsoft cloud technologies and strategic go-to-market execution. He has held leadership roles within high-growth Microsoft Partners and also worked at Microsoft as a Project Global Black Belt, where he supported enterprise customers with complex project and portfolio management (PPM) requirements.

With expertise spanning Power Platform, Microsoft 365, and modern workplace solutions, Chris specialises in developing propositions, building strategic alliances, and driving co-sell success with Microsoft. He is particularly focused on helping organisations scale through cloud services, automation, and intuitive product design.

Chris has successfully launched new service offerings in the UK public sector, driven SaaS adoption in regulated industries, and built high-performing commercial functions aligned to Microsoft’s priorities. Known for combining strategic thinking with practical delivery, he brings together marketing, sales, and product to deliver measurable business outcomes at TPG UK & Ireland.

Read more about Christopher on LinkedIn.

Der Beitrag Microsoft Project for the Web Becoming Planner: What You Need to Know erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

What does this mean for your organisation – and what steps should you take next? Discover why migrating to a modern, future-ready solution built on the Power Platform is the smart move. You’ll find the answers in these sections:

• The impact on Project Online
• No need to panic: A step-by-step guide to upgrading
• TPG ProjectPowerPack: Your alternative to Project Online
• Conclusion: Planning your upgrade – Your next actions

Let’s get started!

Also interesting: Microsoft Project Management Tool Overview

The Impact on Project Online

The announcement of the end of Project Online, with a relatively short transition period until 30 September 2026, makes it clear: Microsoft continues to focus on modern solutions built on the Microsoft Power Platform alongside other Modern Work tools in Microsoft 365.

Note: To stay up to date, you can regularly check the Microsoft Product Lifecycle.

The retirement of SharePoint 2013 workflows will have significant implications for organisations that rely on them, and it also affects Project Online workflows.

What happens on the 2nd April 2026:

• You will no longer be able to create and manage projects using phase / stage gate models in Project Online
• Any add-ins based on classic SharePoint technology will also no longer be supported

Now is the time to upgrade to TPG’s future-ready platform – TPG ProjectPowerPack – that aligns with Microsoft’s long-term direction.

Reading tip: All you need to know about Project for the Web Becoming Planner

No Need to Panic: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upgrading

TPG The Project Group clients have options and some are opting for a hybrid strategy where they continue to use Project Online as long as possible and Project Desktop for resource and schedule management – combined with modern workflow and portfolio capabilities on the Power Platform.

Interested in integrating MS Project with Planner Basic? Learn more here.

TPG ProjectPowerPack: Your Alternative to Project Online

You want a future-proof solution for your project, portfolio and resource management (PPRM) that offers more than Project Online – that means it’s time to get to know TPG ProjectPowerPack, a PPM project tool that delivers executive dashboards, red-alerts and drill-downs.

TPG ProjectPowerPack is built entirely on Microsoft’s Power Platform and offers:

• Proven methods: status reports, risk & stakeholder management, resource planning, and more.
• Fully configurable, including code-free workflows.
• Supports multiple planning tools: Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Project / Online, TPG Scheduler
• Bidirectional integration with Jira, Azure DevOps, Primavera P6 & SAP – plus other systems on demand
• Reporting via Power BI
• Ready for AI-driven planning and insights

Thanks to its modern architecture, TPG ProjectPowerPack is a logical upgrade from Project Online – offering flexibility to meet future requirements.

Its modular approach, combined with support for multiple planning tools, delivers another key advantage that – depending on your needs, project type, and complexity – you can opt for tools including Microsoft Planner Premium (formerly Project for the Web) and TPG Scheduler.

This means smaller, short-term projects no longer need to be managed in the more complex Project Online / Project Server environment.

Watch the video of our webinar on the topic and learn:

• What the end of SharePoint workflows from 2026 means to you and your organisation
• How to successfully upgrade to the Power Platform
• How to continue using your existing PM environment – without losing functionality
• Why TPG ProjectPowerPack is a Next-Generation PPM app

Reading tip: Optimizing Task Planning in MS Project Environments (Tools)

Conclusion – Planning Your Upgrade: Your Next Actions

Project Online is rapidly approaching the end of its lifecycle. From 1 October 2026 it will be discontinued, as Microsoft aims to move organisations onto the modern Power Platform technology.

What does this mean for you?

Acting now will gain you a strategic advantage. TPG can help you plan and move from your current environment to Next-Generation PPM.

With TPG ProjectPowerPack, you have access to a proven, scalable, and fully integrated solution built on the Microsoft Power Platform. It can be deployed in a hybrid approach alongside Project Online or Project Desktop Client as your planning tool – making it easier to transition quickly to a future-ready project management environment.

Do you have any questions, or would you like to experience TPG ProjectPowerPack live or test it yourself? We look forward to your enquiry. Get in touch with us today.

Our final tips

Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

Will the upcoming retirement of Project Online workflows affect you? Let us know your questions in a comment below.

Der Beitrag What You Need to Know about the Retirement of SharePoint & Project Online Workflows in April 2026 erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

After looking into what makes internal IT projects so particular and providing some general recommendations, we will provide 4 specific tips. The article will cover the following points:

• Specific features of internal IT project management
• Tip 1: IT project portfolio management
• Tip 2: Integrated cost allocation
• Tip 3: Comprehensive team planning
• Tip 4: Work planning for individuals
• Conclusion – Internal IT project management

Let us get started!

Specific Features of Internal IT Project Management

Projects involving changes to the IT landscape are generally handled by employees who do this concurrently with their normal everyday work. What distinguishes internal IT projects from “general projects” is that changes to the IT environment are usually carried out by the same employees in addition to their daily operations. Thus, they must be “squeezed” into the IT project portfolio.

Other unique aspects affecting IT team leaders and their teams are:

• The IT environment is very dynamic with carefully timed processes at very brief intervals.
• New skills are often required on short notice.
• The portfolio tends to include a greater number of small projects and just a few larger ones.
• A clear distinction between operations and projects is often lacking.
• Very often, IT tasks are managed using agile methods, and this has a major impact on project implementation.
• IT is not an end in itself, which is why its costs are almost entirely charged to the departments that benefit from them.
• IT employees normally use a task-oriented planning tool or ticket system. For maximum efficiency, this tool or system should be integrated with the project management tool.

Also interesting: Microsoft Project Management Tool Overview

Before discussing possible solutions, however, we would like to share two important tips for internal IT project management:

1) Define Clear Criteria for Your Projects

In many IT departments, the belief prevails that many assignments – even larger ones – can be handled in addition to the regular daily operations. In doing so, there is the danger that these assignments will miss their deadlines – or will not get done at all.

Find out how agile resource planning can help reduce resource conflicts.

So, it is important to decide each time whether an assignment is an operation or in reality a project with all the related processes.

Our tip: Conduct a project-worthiness analysis to determine under what conditions an IT proposal should be handled as a project and define the types of projects. Doing this increases your chances of success because the assignments will no longer be handled “on the fly.” Classifying something as a project has its advantages: the objectives and roadmap are clearly defined, the necessary resources are allocated, and decisions are made.

2) Keep Everyone in Sync

Agile methodology is very popular in the IT industry. Unlike normal project planning, agile projects involve processes of differing lengths. Resource management is more complicated due to the different durations of the processes. We therefore recommend that you try the following.

Our tip: Try to subdivide your IT project processes into work packages that can be performed according to a fixed schedule of phases.

Allocating a consistent set of resources to each project phase helps ensure that team members are able to seamlessly switch between project work and their normal duties. Doing this will significantly reduce the amount of effort needed to coordinate all the resources.

You might also like: Comparing Project Management Methodologies – Agile, Traditional or Hybrid?

4 Solutions for Greater Success in IT Projects

In the following sections, we present solutions for four areas especially critical for heads of IT. These are:

• IT project portfolio management
• Internal cost allocation
• Comprehensive team planning
• Personalized task planning

Tip 1: IT Project Portfolio Management

Project portfolio management is particularly important for IT. It is not unusual for several hundreds of projects to be handled in one year. This requires a clear strategy, and the projects must be prioritized accordingly.

Benefit: The most important criteria in favor of project portfolio management in the IT environment are:

• Priorities: you ensure that you focus your efforts primarily on the right – and most important – projects.
• Complete overview: you stay informed on all planned and current projects.
• Available resources: you can identify any resources available for initiating and performing additional work on any new projects.
• Strategic foresight: you can anticipate what expertise / skills will be lacking or insufficiently present in your company and can proactively work to develop these.
• Early warning system: you can detect budget / resource bottlenecks in a timely manner and can adapt your corporate strategy accordingly.

Goal: Ensure that you receive a prioritized project list and that most of the resources are allocated to the key projects. There are various approaches and tools for handling this. Please also consult the article outlining 7 steps to implement project portfolio management.

One solution approach: One way to integrate new projects into a portfolio from a resource perspective is depicted in the following diagram. In this solution, the bars used to represent the various projects can be shifted on the timeline.

The histograms depicting each department’s resources show the available capacities and whether the necessary resources are available to handle this project in the specified time frame or if the project should be postponed or the available capacities adjusted. Likewise, it is possible to plan and compare scenarios.

Find out how the internal IT of a large Swiss healthcare facility solved their PM system challenges with TPG’s new and advanced ProjectPowerPack (Case Study).

Tip 2: Integrated Cost Allocation

You should document the actual cost of the IT services accurately and allocate it (as far as possible) to the departments benefiting from these services. Many smaller companies often have no idea how much these internal IT services actually cost. Yet, larger companies are generally aware of the actual costs.

Benefit: Integrating the project management and ERP systems has its advantages, such as:

• Alignment of the PM and ERP system architectures
• Support for planning and monitoring the IT budget
• Allocation of services to the various cost centers
• Avoidance of dual data entry
• Timely availability of data, thereby enabling better control of the IT projects
• Higher-quality data

Goal: Ensure that your key systems are integrated so that as many processes as possible can be automated.

Solution approach: Important use cases involving the integration of PPM and ERP systems plus other systems in the IT landscape are:

• Adding selected projects to an ERP system (such as SAP) from e.g. a SharePoint list and the resulting creation of a project structure in the PPM system (such as Microsoft Project) using a template appropriate for that type of project
• Transferring the PPM system’s project structure to the ERP system
• Transferring the PPM system’s tasks and costs to the ERP system
• Transferring the current work by cost center and type of service from the PPM system to the ERP system for further internal invoicing
• Transferring the actual costs from the ERP system to the PPM system for reporting to the project manager

Our tip: Use short interval processes to track the IT services. Ensure that this work is charged to the right cost centers.

The volume of projects has a significant effect on data quality. Projects exceeding a certain size therefore require a PMO to coordinate the efforts and maintain an overview to ensure the project’s success.

Read about Microsoft Project Online Retirement on this blog.

Tip 3: Comprehensive Team Planning

For IT in particular, handling the many operations associated with daily operations while simultaneously managing projects involving the same staff is a major challenge. This is only possible if the entire team is working at full capacity. PPM project tools are unsuitable for operational planning, and Excel is only minimally suited.

Benefit: The advantages of comprehensive team planning are:

• A clear overview of resource utilization in the team
• The project manager and team leader have a basis for the coordination efforts.
• Team leaders have the data they need to explain resource utilization in the team to their superiors and can explain the status of each team member: who works when, on what and for how many hours; who has the capacity to take on new tasks, and who needs to be relieved of some tasks?

Goal: Provide your team leaders with the tools necessary for precise planning, which will allow them to say with certainty whether or not their team can contribute any resources when asked by their project manager. The document “3 Important Points for Tactical Resource Planning” linked below provides more information on this.

Solution approach: To ensure that you achieve complete planning in the matrix organization, please note the following:

• The planning is only complete if there are no gaps, so make sure you include all absences, operations and project work for every team member.
• Only team leaders can handle this because project managers do not have the necessary insight.
• The availability of a resource to work on the project can be calculated by subtracting any absences and operations from the person’s overall capacity.
• Project managers and team leaders each need their own planning status. Depending on permissions, each should be able to view the other’s planning status but not to alter it. This allows each role to work separately from a technical perspective.
• The best strategy is to implement a centralized, database-supported tool for resource planning. This enables project managers and team leaders to work efficiently.

Tip 4: Work Planning for Individuals

Have you ever considered involving employees in planning an IT project? After all, they are the ones who will be doing the work to implement the work packages. Project managers are often unable to correctly estimate the time needed to complete a particular task because they are not familiar with the work of these IT specialists.

Benefit: Allowing the employees to participate in work planning has several advantages:

• The project manager defines the project’s structure with its work packages, and then the team handling the work plans the individual tasks in these work packages using a tool suitable for them.
• The result is not a rough estimate but rather a realistic plan for the project.
• This frees up the project manager’s schedule because the details are defined in the task lists of the individual work packages.

Goal: The employees use various tools during the IT project. The goal for individual work planning must be to integrate these systems. Ideally, each individual should work with only ONE tool.

You can achieve this by integrating the employee’s work management tools (such as Jira) with the project manager’s PPM tool (such as Microsoft Project and SharePoint). Learn more about integration middleware.

Solution approach: Possible use cases for the integration of Microsoft Project and SharePoint with work planning (in this case Jira) are:

• Synchronize the Microsoft Project structures with Jira
• Enter the issues and estimates into Jira
• Import the standard issues from SharePoint into Jira
• Synchronize Jira and Microsoft Project to input the progress from Jira

Conclusion – Internal IT Project Management

Internal IT projects have unique attributes that make them different from projects in other departments. This article has explained some of the differences.

We have also provided possible solutions to help you master project portfolio management, internal cost allocation, comprehensive team planning and personalized task planning.

Our final tips

Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

Have you enjoyed this article, and do you have any feedback for us regarding the management of internal IT projects? We look forward to your comments.

Der Beitrag Internal IT Project Management – 4 Tips for Greater Success in Internal IT and Software Projects erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

Important note: This article addresses how to link Project to Planner Basic without Premium features, i.e. the standard version of Microsoft Planner (work management tool) rather than Planner Premium (formerly Project for the Web). This page gives an overview of the differences between Planner Basic and Planner Premium.

We will tackle the following topics:

• How Microsoft Planner Basic differs from Project Online
• MS Planner integration with MS Project Server
• When is it helpful to integrate MS Planner Basic with Project Online?
• The limitations of out-of-the-box MS Project and Planner integration
• Linking Project Online activities to an MS Planner plan
• Editing the tasks in the MS Planner plan
• Data cannot be transferred from MS Planner Basic to Project Online
• Conclusion – Integrating MS Project with Planner Basic

How Microsoft Planner Basic Differs from Project Online

Microsoft Planner is a simplified, cloud-based work management tool in Microsoft 365. It enables you to efficiently allocate time and assign tasks. You can also set deadlines and share files.

Learn more about work management aka task planning in MS Project environments.

Project Online is a powerful PPM project tool for managing projects and portfolios (PPM) in the cloud. It provides much of the same functionality as Microsoft Project Server. As a project manager, you can use it to plan and manage complex projects. However, the Project Online end of life has been set for 30 September 2026.

Note: MS Planner is only somewhat suitable for agile project planning. It lacks important functions, such as those necessary for effort planning. If you need these functions, consider integrating Project Online with Jira, for example.

MS Planner Integration with MS Project Server

Out-of-the-box MS Planner integration is only possible with Project Online. If you do not want to integrate MS Planner with Project Online but would rather integrate it with a Microsoft Project Server running locally, this is not so easy. For this, you would also need integration middleware such as TPG PSLink.

When Is It Helpful to Integrate MS Planner Basic with Project Online?

Microsoft Project allows only one user at a time to edit projects. This person is usually the project manager or an assistant. The project plans are often quite extensive because they contain a great amount of detail.

If your goal is to keep your project plans rather lean, you can simply let each team member plan their own tasks in detail using MS Planner. Here, Microsoft Planner and Project integration makes sense. Thus, the collaboration between project managers and project teams becomes much easier and more efficient.

Note: If you and your team want to make changes to a project plan’s structure, activities, or tasks, consider using Planner Premium (formerly Project for the Web). For a much more powerful solution, we recommend looking at TPG ProjectPowerPack which uses Microsoft 365 and Power Platform as a basis.

Reading tip: All you need to know about Project for the Web Becoming Planner

Using the two tools together lets you create your project’s basic structure in MS Project and then export the details to MS Planner. To do this, create an activity in Project Online for each task package and then add a link to that activity to the corresponding plan in MS Planner. Your team can then define the individual tasks to provide the necessary details and add these to the plan. You remain the sole owner of your project in MS Project.

The Limitations of Out-of-the-Box MS Project and Planner Integration

Please note that this way to link Project to Planner:

• Only allows you to add one link to your project’s activities, at the top level, to the plan in MS Planner.
• You cannot link directly to the detailed entries in an MS Planner plan.
• You can only link an MS Planner plan to a single activity in a single Project Online project.
• This means that you cannot link the same plan to different activities in the same project.

To summarize: By default, there is no way to link a project activity to a part of a plan, such as a bucket, in MS Planner. You must therefore create a separate plan in MS Planner for each work package requiring a detailed plan.

Here we explain how to do that.

Looking for help with Microsoft Project? Read our MS Project Tutorial.

Linking Project Online Activities to an MS Planner Plan

Below, we outline how to link Project to Planner:

1. Open a project in Project Online and select the activity you want to link to a plan in MS Planner.
2. Then click the “Planner” button in the task ribbon.

   

3. The “Link to plan” pane now appears on the left.

   

4. Clicking the link opens a text box in which you can enter the first few letters of the name of the team having that plan. In the list, select the desired team.
5. Select the appropriate plan from the MS Planner plans previously created. (Note: Giving your MS Planner plans clear, self-explanatory names helps you easily identify the right one.)
   

   Our tip: Allowing there to be an unlimited number of Microsoft teams and planners leads to an unwieldy large number of groups and plans. As a result, it is easy to lose track of them all. Avoid this by having your administrator only grant the rights necessary to create new teams and plans to a few authorized users. Once the number of teams and plans becomes unwieldy, it is difficult to pare down this number again.

   

6. Next, click the “Create link” button in the lower left of the gray pane.
7. An MS Planner icon appears next to the previously selected task.

   

8. Clicking this Planner icon opens the linked MS Planner plan in your browser. (You may need to log in to your Microsoft 365 environment when you open the link later.)

   

Editing the Tasks in the MS Planner Plan

In the MS Planner plan displayed, you can now plan and manage the associated tasks.

Please note that MS Planner does not allow you to restrict the rights of individual users. Users either have rights to everything or nothing.

Users can do the following to a task:

• Assign the task to one or more people
• Add a label to a task
• Assign the task to a bucket
• Specify the progress of a task (not started, in progress, or completed)
• Set a priority for the task (urgent, important, medium, or low)
• Define a start date and due date for the task
• Add details as checklists to a task
• Add attachments to a task
• Add comments to a task

What makes MS Planner cumbersome to use is the lack of custom fields. These would be necessary in an agile environment, for example, to use story points, indicate the percent completion, or enter the planned vs. actual hours for this task.

Microsoft’s progress on further developing the Planner is currently rather slow. On the UserVoice platform, users have indicated a strong desire for user-defined fields, but it is not yet known if and when these will be available.

Data Cannot Be Transferred from MS Planner Basic to Project Online

By default, Microsoft tools do not allow information to be transferred from MS Planner Basic to Project Online. You can link only one activity to one MS Planner plan in Project Online. Clicking this link later lets you view the linked plan and its details in MS Planner, but the out-of-the-box solution does not let you do anything more.

For bidirectional data exchange between Project Online and MS Planner, you need additional integration middleware such as TPG PSLink.

Learn about other tools in our Microsoft Project Management Tool Overview.

Watch the video of our insightful webinar about Microsoft Planner Premium:

Conclusion – Integrating MS Project with Planner Basic

MS Planner Basic is an acceptable tool for maintaining a to-do list. However, if you want to know the exact degree of completion, based on the planned vs. actual hours, MS Planner will not work because it lacks user-defined fields.

Another limitation is that only one MS Planner plan at a time can be linked to an activity in a Project Online project. In addition, it is not possible to link MS Planner back to Project Online without additional integration middleware.

Our recommendation is therefore: if you want to professionally link Project Online with a work management tool, then integrate it with TFS / DevOps or Jira.

Our final tips

Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

What has been your experience with integrating MS Project with Planner Basic? Let us know in a comment below.

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Johann Strasser
Managing Partner at TPG

The certified engineer, has been a managing partner at TPG The Project Group since 2001. After many years as a development engineer in the automotive and energy sectors, Johann Strasser spent a decade as an independent trainer and consultant in the field of project management. During his tenure, he also served as project manager for software projects in the construction industry and provided scheduling and cost management support for large-scale construction projects. At TPG, he applies his expertise in product development and consulting services for international clients. His special focus is on PMO, project portfolios, hybrid project management, and resource management. For many years now, he has shared his knowledge through presentations, seminars, articles, and webinars.

Read more about Johann Strasser on LinkedIn.

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Achim Schmidt-Sibeth
Senior Marketing Manager

After earning his engineering degree in environmental technology, he gained many years of experience in project management through his work at an engineering office, an equipment manufacturer, and a multimedia agency. Achim Schmidt-Sibeth and his team have been responsible for content, marketing and communication at TPG The Project Group for many years now.

Read more about Achim Schmidt-Sibeth on LinkedIn.

 

Der Beitrag Integrating MS Project with Planner Basic – What Is Possible and What Is Not? erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

On the other hand, companies without a project management office are wondering about the benefits of a PMO or are looking for sound arguments to convince decision-makers. This series of articles is meant for both groups, with and (still) without a PMO. In this series including many practical tips, you will learn what you should know about setting up and improving a project management office.

All Essential PMO Topics (More Information at the End of the Article)

This is the first page of a series of articles. If you are new to the topic, it will provide you with the PMO definition and a few basic answers to these frequently asked questions:

• What is a PMO? Definition
• What is the difference between PMO and Project Office, etc.?
• Why have a PMO – when does it make sense?
• What added value does a PMO provide? Benefits and advantages
• What are possible disadvantages of a PMO?
• What constitutes a good PMO?
• Conclusion and links to many other PMO topics

Let us begin with the definition and the distinction from the Project Office, etc. After all, this is where confusion still exists.

What Is a PMO? Definition

A PMO is a centralized, permanent organizational unit that is responsible for handling multiple projects (multi-project management) for an entire company or department within the company. PMO functions may include, for example, training, project services, methodology, processes, and PM tools. A PMO may also have strategic duties, such as providing assistance in project portfolio management.

Distinction of PMO from Project Office, Program Office and Project Assistants

Companies with a multi-project environment involving various departments with interdependencies often have several PMOs (see graphic). Each project management office is responsible for the project management methodology and processes in their respective department.

• A PMO is traditionally part of an R&D department. Its goal is to better manage the development projects.
• IT departments often have a PMO as well, and this project management office works to ensure the success of IT projects.
• In sales and marketing departments, you will find project management offices more rarely. Often elements of projects vital to the company’s mission, such as R&D projects or IT projects, are handled here.
• In addition, there is sometimes also a strategic PMO with cross-departmental responsibilities. This project management office is linked to top management and may have broader responsibilities, such as those involving portfolio management and strategic implementations.

Why Have a Project Management Office – When Does It Make Sense?

Experience has shown that having a centralized project management office is especially helpful in situations where:

• You need to manage numerous projects
• You have to coordinate resources involving various departments
• Reliable and up-to-date information is what you require for making decisions
• Your projects are happening in a variety of departments but are interdependent and possibly have an international setup
• You need their ability to make decisions quickly because you are working in a dynamic environment
• Your reporting requirements are constantly growing because increasingly more people want more specific information
• Project expenses are becoming a more critical issue
• You need to determine the projects’ priorities and strategic contribution and take these into account

A project management office should be positioned in the company’s upper echelons. This has several advantages, among them that the right project-related information reaches top management and the key decision-makers.

Vice versa, it also helps ensure that the demands of the key decision-makers are communicated to everyone involved in, and affected by, the projects.

The appropriate roles, processes, and tools must be implemented to ensure that this happens.

The number of team members working in the project management office depends on the size of the project environment and the scope of its activities.

What Added Value Does a PMO Provide? Benefits and Advantages

The PMO’s mission is to improve the processes in a multi-project environment. However, what is considered an improvement varies from company to company. So, the benefit of having a project management office is best described as:

“The PMO should give every stakeholder in a multi-project environment the good feeling that everything is under control.”
Johann Strasser, managing partner at TPG The Project Group

The project management office therefore provides a degree of satisfaction in the multi-project landscape that would not exist without its efforts.

Here is a list of the possible arguments for having a PMO and the advantages it provides.

1. Every project has a strategic focus
   A PMO ensures that projects are aligned with the strategic objectives of the company. In this way, it helps increase business success. However, this only applies on the condition that the project management office has a say in strategic issues related to the project.
2. Improved project transparency
   It creates a clear overview of the current state of all projects. This helps managers make informed decisions and identify problems at an early stage.
3. Every project is managed successfully
   This is a legitimate demand, but one that is not always possible for every project. With a PMO, there should at least be a significant increase in the number of successful projects.
4. A higher level of PM maturity at the company
   Various measures for everyone involved in projects including methods, processes and tools contribute to this. Examples include consistency and quality assurance through standardization of processes and methods. Projects are implemented with a consistent quality. This reduces errors and increases efficiency.
5. Maximized project performance
   An example would be that R&D projects can be completed in a shorter time frame. This can provide a clear competitive advantage in many industries.
6. Optimized use of resources
   Optimum distribution of the people available helps avoid overlaps and overload. Resource bottlenecks are minimized.
7. Minimization of deadline, cost and effort overruns
   This could be done, for example, by providing the project manager with support through training in the areas of methods, processes and tools.
8. Minimization of project risks
   For example, this could be achieved through lessons learned and a greater awareness of risk management in project management. By identifying and managing risks at an early stage, project failures and budget overruns can be avoided.
9. Improved communication
   A PMO acts as a central communication hub between the project teams and top management. This facilitates the exchange of information and helps ensure that all participants are on the same page.

In summary, the benefit of a PMO is the maximization of the company’s success through ongoing projects. All PMO advantages named above contribute to the success of the company in its competitive environment. Organizations with a PMO are therefore more likely to succeed faster.

What Are Possible Disadvantages of a PMO?

Let us now compare the advantages of a PMO from the previous chapter with any possible disadvantages. You should try to avoid these. Some of the most important disadvantages are the following:

1. Bureaucracy and overregulation
   Additional processes and rules can impose a cumbersome bureaucracy on projects. This can limit the projects’ flexibility and agility and slow down project progress.
2. Costs and resource effort
   Setting up and running a PMO can be expensive. This is particularly true of smaller companies that may lack sufficient resources.
3. Resistance to change
   Employees might feel that the PMO limits their autonomy or monitors them too closely (“project police”). This can decrease the acceptance of new structures.
4. Excessive standardization
   Different projects may require different approaches. Overly rigid standardization can have the effect that individual requirements of the projects are not sufficiently taken into account.
5. Slower decision-making processes
   If every major issue or every change in the project environment has to be approved by the PMO, this can lead to delays. Hence, it is important to act with sound judgement and optimize processes.
6. Conflicts with project managers
   The areas of responsibility must be clearly demarcated. Otherwise, project managers might feel their authority is undermined or the PMO is interfering with their business.

Companies should know the potential disadvantages. If you design your PMO to be flexible and efficient, you can greatly reduce the problems mentioned above or avoid them altogether.

What Constitutes a Good PMO?

A good PMO ensures that projects in a multi-project environment run as smoothly as possible.

1. It acts as a central hub for clear communication and coordination between different project teams.
2. It ensures that proven methods and processes are implemented to reach the project goals efficiently.
3. The ability to react flexibly to changes and a proactive risk management strategy are indispensable.
4. In addition, a good PMO plays a crucial role in providing meaningful data and reports to support informed decisions at all levels of the organization.
5. Overall, a good PMO is characterized by agility, clear communication, effective resource management and the capability for continuous improvement.

PMOs that can be classed as top performers are much better at providing the necessary framework for projects than low performers. This means they manage to meet deadlines, budgets and quality requirements much more often.

The PMO Survey conducted and published by TPG (in the German-speaking countries) revealed that top performers, by comparison, have significantly fewer problems with:

• Clear definition of scope and objectives
• Effort estimation
• Qualifications of employees
• Suppliers
• Projects that are destined to fail from the start

On the other hand, the first two points are the main reasons for unsuccessful projects with both low and high performers (see chart below).

Note: If you are looking for external support, find out about PMO consulting here as well as a blog article on PMO setup.

Conclusion and Additional Articles Related to the Project Management Office

You are now familiar with the definition of PMO and know how it differs from other entities, e.g. project office, program office or project assistance. Furthermore, you have learned when and why you would need a project management office and what added value it can provide. You also know what distinguishes a good PMO, i.e. a top performer, from one at a lower development level.

Now, it is time to delve into the complementary subject areas. For this purpose, you will find links to the other articles in our series below.

• Typical PMO Functions and Areas of Responsibility of the Project Management Office
• 10 Vital PMO Success Factors
• Successful PMO Setup in 4 Simple Steps
• PMO Reports: Requirements for Reports in Project, Portfolio and Resource Management
• PMO and PPM Tools for Successful Multi-Project Management
• PMO KPIs – How to Prove Your Success with Key Performance Indicators
• Why Projects Fail and How PMOs Can Prevent This

Our final tips: Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

Why are you still without a project management office, or why is your PMO not working as well as you would imagine? We look forward to receiving your comment below.

Der Beitrag Why Have a Project Management Office (PMO)? Definition, Advantages and Added Value erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.

Whether your PMO is successful, and at what rate, depends on its responsibilities and means. Both must be individually suited to your company and the project management maturity level. Despite all differences, there is a number of generally valid PMO success factors you should know and bear in mind:

1. 1. Backing from top management
   2. Organizational position
   3. Areas of responsibility and competencies
   4. PMO employee qualifications
   5. Presenting quick successes
   6. Recording progress
   7. Transparency within the company
   8. Appropriate communication
   9. Building trust
   10. Taking one small step at a time
   11. Insights from PMO Survey – Learn from top performers
   12. Conclusion and PMO checklist

This will give your PMO a real start.

Let us begin!

1. Backing from Top Management

Every PMO requires a promoter. Only with backing from management and accompanying change management, can your PMO setup be target-oriented.

Three things are vital for your collaboration with top management. They must:

• Understand the venture fully.
• Be convinced of its benefits.
• Actively promote the setup.

With this kind of backing, you will be able to push through unpleasant things – even in critical situations.

PMO Goal and Benefit: Only backing from top management really smooths the way during PMO setup.

2. Right Position within the Organization

The PMO is a service provider. Its success depends on how happy the stakeholders are in their role as customers. This means you have to involve the stakeholders and their expectations at an early stage. Only then will you be able to define the right goals.

Another interesting read: Learn about the latest PM Trends 

These goals, and the competencies they require, determine the PMO’s position within the organization. You must place it in a position that allows the PMO to enforce these goals.

What this means: if your PMO has only operational responsibilities, it should have a position close to the department head. If it has strategic responsibilities, it should operate as an executive department of top management.

PMO Goal and Benefit: The right position of your PMO in the organizational hierarchy provides the necessary weight in the perception.

3. Designate Responsibilities and Competencies Clearly

Stakeholders tend to overburden the PMO with tasks. So how can you arrive at a more realistic workload? Formulate a practical and individual mandate, which has been coordinated with all stakeholders. This makes the PMO functions realistic.

PMOs cannot and should not please everybody. They have a designated mandate.

PMO goals and responsibilities aside, it is also important to define what falls outside the PMO’s responsibilities. This makes for clarity and delimits the competencies of the PMO and other organizational units.

What is crucial: communicate clearly, where your responsibilities begin but also where they end!

However, do not draw the wrong conclusions for the collaboration with the project managers. This does not mean the PMO, along with the support provided, will also assume their responsibility!

PMO Goal and Benefit: Clearly defined goals and competencies of your PMO prevent misunderstandings.

4. Choose Only Qualified PMO Staff

The PMO staff’s qualifications and motivation are of high importance. For instance, the PMO staff must have a certain service mentality. Yet, PMO members also need to be able to say no.

Interested in PMO implementation? Check out our detailed guide!

You should staff the PMO manager position with a senior employee. This person should have both organizational skills and many years of project management experience.

In addition, you are advised to select individuals with high-level social skills for the leading positions.

They need to be able to meet seasoned project managers, team leaders, and others in the company, on an equal footing.

PMO Goal and Benefit: Only individuals suited to the job in the PMO team will obtain the necessary acceptance.

5. Produce Quick Successes

PMO setup tends to be a politically delicate issue. Hence, you need to report positive changes.

If your PMO manages to produce quick wins at an early stage, this will have a beneficial effect. Stakeholders will be happy that at last someone is addressing issues that have been neglected for too long.

The stakeholders will be more open-minded towards the PMO.

A quick success for your PMO could be a complete project list, which is also:

• Up to date
• Substantial
• Prioritized (ideally)

This would show all stakeholders what people are actually working on.

PMO Goal and Benefit: With quick, small successes, you will increase acceptance and create trust in your PMO.

6. Document Progress Regularly

From the very beginning, you need to scrutinize existing processes in your company’s project management.

You should also check the effectiveness and efficiency of the tools and methods employed.

Learn more about PPM Tools for Successful Multi-Project Management.

Among others, the form of organization (line / matrix) and the PM training or career field are of consequence in this regard.

These allow you to determine the initial maturity level of your project management in the company. It is vital to document this maturity. What you document will help you demonstrate the improvements you achieved.

It will provide you with important arguments to persuade stakeholders in difficult times.

PMO Goal and Benefit: By demonstrating your progress at regular intervals, you prove the additional value of your PMO.

7. Promote Transparency in the Company

The company culture plays an important part in the success of the new PMO.

It is also the task of the PMO to actively cater for transparency in the project environment.

The success of a PMO can also be measured in terms of transparency. How much transparency is actually pursued in the company by all involved? It is common to advocate transparency – but only for others.

Transparency is something you will have to fight for – at least in part. You will find that hardly anyone has an interest in exposing weaknesses in their own area of responsibility.

You are likely to encounter resistance, especially with respect to resource management.

PMO Goal and Benefit: Increased transparency will help expose weaknesses.

8. Ensure Communication between All Parties Involved

One of the PMO’s main responsibilities is to further the efficiency of the company’s project management.

You can achieve this by preparing the regular meetings well. Make a point of informing the right body of people beforehand which decisions will have to be made.

Inform the right body of people beforehand about the decisions that will need to be made. Afterwards, communicate the results you arrived at.

After the meeting, you should make sure that the decisions made are communicated to all levels. All involved need to find out as soon as possible what has been decided. And how this will affect their work.

Moreover, one of the most important tasks of the PMO is to practice smart self-marketing – “do good and talk about it”.

PMO Goal and Benefit: With good communication, you ensure a common understanding and a comprehensible approach.

9. Obtain the Trust of the Project Managers

At the outset, the PMO will probably have to face a certain amount of mistrust from the project managers. The latter fear a new supervisory body. They assume the PMO will keep them from operational project management with further administrative tasks.

So, it is important that your PMO builds trust and that you position it as a helper. One thing will soon become clear. The PMO actually increases the time stakeholders can spend with their operational work by:

• optimizing administrative tasks or
• even taking them on altogether.

In addition, the project managers now have a central place of support in all PM matters, tools and training questions.

PMO Goal and Benefit: With the right kind of support, you will create trust and acceptance for your PMO among all roles involved.

10. Do Not Start with Too Many Areas of Responsibility

Last but not least: see to it that your new PMO can carry out its tasks dependably. So, do not start with too many responsibilities at once.

Stakeholder expectations will be easier to satisfy, which will support acceptance.

At the same time, the organization needs to cope with the changes. Change management should accompany all PMO setup activities.

Check out this article on creating KPIs for the PMO to measure its value.

Take small, but goal-oriented and successful, steps in the right direction. Do not tackle too many things at once.

In the end, you will only be able to achieve the desired success with a PMO that works long-term.

PMO Goal and Benefit: Start small and extend responsibilities gradually to support PMO acceptance.

Insights from the PMO Survey 2020 – Learn from Top Performers

The PMO Survey 2020 provided important insights with which you should be familiar when determining your own approach. For 330 companies with PMO, TPG determined what the estimated distribution of responsibilities of their PMO was in the year of the survey. Thereafter, we asked the participants to name what distribution of responsibilities they desired for the future.

The bar chart below shows (dark gray bars) that a quarter of the PMOs of all participants are most occupied with Methods / processes / tools as well as the Implementation of projects. Resource management plays the least important part.

In the desired future situation (light gray bars), the responsibilities of Strategic support and Education / training / coaching gain in importance above all. Hence, they are perceived to be increasingly important as are Multi-project and Resource management.

The following chart shows the changes in the distribution of responsibilities by performance level: red = top performer, dark gray = high performer, light gray = low performer.

Across all performance levels, the respondents want to invest less effort into Methods / processes / tools as well as the Implementation of projects.

The successful top performers aim to expand the areas of Education / training / coaching as well as Strategic support the most.

Might this be an important pointer for your priorities in the PMO? Keep these findings in mind when setting up or optimizing your PMO. It might be best to read the whole PMO Survey.

Get a final look a concise overview of the 10 vital success factors for a PMO in the conclusion below.

Conclusion and PMO Checklist – 10 Vital PMO Success Factors

The PMO is an important part of project management success. This article has introduced you to ten fundamental PMO success factors.

With the aid of the below PMO checklist, you will be able to prepare your own PMO setup. The checklist may also help you increase your project management maturity level in this or that regard by implementing some of the points.

> Download PMO Checklist (PDF)

Our final tips: Get to know the individually adaptable “PPM Paradise” – the optimal environment for your enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management. Download the eBook now (just click, no form).

And sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter to make sure you receive all our updates.

Which of the 10 points do you consider to be most important and why? Please leave your feedback in the comment area below. Thank you so much.

Der Beitrag 10 Vital PMO Success Factors (+ Download PMO Checklist) erschien zuerst auf Blog Project Management for Companies.