Virtual Project Management Office

S.Chandramouli PMP
S.Rajarajan

Virtual PMO

About the Authors:

1. Chandramouli

S.Chandramouli, PMP is currently working as Lead Consultant at Satyam Computers Chennai.

He is leading the Program Management Office (PMO) for a practice. His experience is diverse
and covers - Audit, Risk, Quality, Control, Operations, Sales, and Profit Centre Mgt.He has
worked in organizations such as Scope International, Polaris, and Birla Soft. He has an MCA
from Bharathidasan University and PGDBA degree from Annamalai University.
He has been actively involved with the Project management discipline and got Most Valuable
Player of the Year 2004 award from Birla Soft Management. He presented papers on Project
Management in various international forums. He is a Project Management Professional certified
by Project Management Institute USA. He is currently involved as an active member in PMIs
OPM3 and PMCDF Project Works

2. Rajarajan
S.Rajarajan is currently working as Consultant at Satyam Computers Chennai. He is leading the
Program Management Office (PMO) for a practice. Good exposure to banking domain and
Project Management activities. He has been actively involved with the Project management
discipline and has Strong delivery capabilities with tough deadlines along with appropriate
process definition. He has an MCA & PGDCA from Bharathidasan University.

Virtual PMO

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................4
PMO CONCEPT AND ITS GROWTH .............................................................................................................................4
WHATS DRIVING PMO GROWTH NOW? ...................................................................................................................5
VIRTUAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT ..................................................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................................................5
DOING, SHARING, MEASURING ..................................................................................................................................5
VIRTUAL TEAMS FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: ....................................................................................................6
KEY CHALLENGES OF THE VIRTUAL PMO ....................................................................................................6
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF VIRTUAL PMO .....................................................................................................7
NEED FOR VIRTUAL PMO .........................................................................................................................................7
TOOLS FOR VIRTUAL PMO........................................................................................................................................8
USING VIRTUAL PMO AS A COMPETITIVE TOOL ........................................................................................................8
ADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL PMO OFFICE:..................................................................................................................9
OBSTACLES: ............................................................................................................................................................10
VPMO FRAME WORK ...........................................................................................................................................10
SETTING UP VPMO................................................................................................................................................13
SETTING VPMO ......................................................................................................................................................13
DETERMINE THE TOOLS REQUIRED ..........................................................................................................................14
EVALUATE DIFFERENT OPTIONS ..............................................................................................................................14
BUY (RENT) THE TOOLS REQUIRED..........................................................................................................................15
CONFIGURING THE TOOLS ........................................................................................................................................15
DETERMINE THE STRUCTURE OF PMO.....................................................................................................................15
RECRUIT SUITABLE PEOPLE FOR PMO .....................................................................................................................16
SHARE THE GOAL OF VPMO....................................................................................................................................16
PILOTING VPMO.....................................................................................................................................................16
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT...................................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES:.........................................................................................................................................................18

Virtual PMO

The Virtual Project Management Office

Introduction
Internet has removed the barriers of time and space to allow our business to be performed
electronically (virtually) by people in different geographies, time zones and organisations.
This virtual enables people to interact without the need to physically come together. With the
appropriate processes and tools, information can be effectively exchanged in the virtual
environment. In addition, virtual working offers financial and operational benefits to
organisations through increased flexibility, reduced overhead costs and cycle times.
PMO Concept and its Growth
Companies do projects to fulfil a strategic internal initiative or meet a customer need and most,
according to reports, are challenged or eventually fail when executing their projects. The void
between strategy and execution is there but is difficult to see and touch.
Typical Strategy Objectives of the Organisation:
Improve Profitability
Reduce Cost of Business
Reduce Risk of Business
The real value of a PMO is in making sure that every project undertaken is aligned towards
companys strategy and advances the same in a measurable way. In many cases today this simple
objective is not met by a significant percentage of enterprise projects.
The emphasis is on enforcing standard processes so that all projects are governed in the same
way.

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Whats driving PMO Growth now?

Several key factors contribute to the continued growth of the PMO.
1. Project Complexity
2. Global Economic Condition
3. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
4. The Basel II Capital Adequacy Accord
Virtual Project Management
Introduction
Geographical location is no longer a constraint when pursuing business opportunities in support
of strategic goals and Objectives. Global business means greater numbers of long-distance
virtual teams.
The final ingredient is the World Wide Web. Enter cost effective email, broadband, along with
collaborative technologies and the concept of virtual teams emerges with all the hype associated
with other Internet breakthroughs. Virtual project management (VPM) is the Information Age
equivalent of management by walking around. Executives will have to manage virtually without
Travel. Current project planning is plagued with logistical problems such as identifying and
assembling skilled teams of people, the timely procurement of products and services, and the
optimal decomposition of a project into biddable pieces.
Virtual project management is aimed at radically changing the way teams are constructed and
projects are conducted.
Doing, sharing, measuring
"A virtual project is a collaborative effort towards a specific goal or accomplishment which is
based on 'collective yet remote' performance," .Another source sets "working together, apart" as

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the goal of enterprise networking. These modes of work share a need for management tools that
enable communication and coordination at a distance.
Advantages of Virtual Project Management:
1. Cost savings
2. Project Schedules Compressed
3. Minimize Phone and travel expenses
4. Online tools save time and money
3. Virtual Tools for VPM:
Virtual Teams for Software Development:
Definition: Identifying Virtual Teams
Virtual project management is the system by which virtual teams collaborate for a finite period
of time towards a specific goal. There are several appealing definitions in the literature.
Key challenges of the Virtual PMO
1. Authority
PMO has to have its own authority to insist its recommendations to be implemented in the
Projects. In the case of Virtual PMO it needs more authority as the people are scattered and the
chances of its recommendations going in air is high.
2. Senior management buy-in
If our management is not taking part in the activities of PMO, it wont succeed at all. Senior
management has to take part actively in all the activities of PMO.It is the PMOs responsibility
to get they buy-in from the senior management for all of its activities.

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3. Defining the key metrics of success

First time Right, On Time Delivery and within Budget are the main metrics which we set usually
as metrics for the success of the Project. Other metrics which relates the Project with the
Organisational strategy also has to be captured.
4. Getting the Project managers confidence
Getting the Confidence of the Project Manager who is directly managing the Project is very
important in the case of Virtual Project Management Office. If the Project Manager decides to
ignore the Virtual PMO the entire concept of it will collapose.Getting the Confidence of PM is a
key challenge for Virtual PMO team.
Roles and Responsibilities of Virtual PMO
1. Virtual PMO like any other PMO must have a well-defined charter and set of objectives.
2. The Virtual PMO must work with senior management and company stakeholders in allocating
Project managers to projects.
3. The Virtual PMO itself must be centrally and carefully managed as a resource or it will fail.
The overall head of the VPMO must be a strong leader who is not afraid to say "no" at times.
4. The PMO should use a standard Project Management package, Project Management
Methodology, and create standards for all aspects of its work.

Need for Virtual PMO

1. High Competition
2. Cost Reduction
3. More Sophistication (easy access)

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4. Availability of tools

Tools for Virtual PMO

1. Telephone/emails/chatting tools
2. Video Conferencing
3. Data Sharing Applications
4. Version Control Systems
5. Voting tools
6. Virtual Project tracker
7. Automatic Tasks reminder
8. Global reporting anywhere anytime
9. Planning and Scheduling Tools
10. Historical Project Database Tools
11. Support and Training Tools
12. Risk Management Tools
There are two web-based products that support virtual project teams. One is Mesa/Vista Project
Manager by Mesa Systems Guild, Inc., a high-end offering that provides comprehensive process
management through a rich mix of Java, JavaScript and XML technologies.
Using Virtual PMO as a competitive tool
The benefits from implementing a Virtual PMO will ultimately pay off through better controls
over existing operations, greater understanding of risks, which results in better business
investment decisions, and a stronger competitive position in particular at a lower cost.
Improvements in quality will flow from a well-designed and carefully implemented Virtual
PMO.
Kintana Tool: It provides foundation for capturing and automating key IT business processes.
Kintanas comprehensive approach achieves real-time IT governance through proven
applications that manage and automate critical IT functions:

Virtual PMO

demand management
portfolio management
program management
time management
change management

Once the virtual team is assembled, the next step is to design and instantiate a workflow that
models the integrated, multi-organizational project.
Advantages of virtual PMO office:
A virtual office Project teams can be dynamically reconfigured providing exceptional working
flexibility without informing the whole team.
Information can be added or uploaded in any electronic format from any location.
information becomes part of a global virtual library.

Your

Your team can use any PC with Internet access to contact your virtual PMO office.
It can bring improved financial performance by reducing travel, expenses and minimising
overhead administration costs.
Quick and easy access to the latest information provides a good base for decision-making,
reducing overall business risk.
Efficient use of personnel among multiple projects
Higher reliability in production systems
Projects aligned with business objectives

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Projects that implement reusable tools so that stakeholders have more predictability in project
results
Improved project management skills throughout the enterprise
Obstacles:
All project teams face obstacles to success. When one decomposes virtual teams into the
summary of its parts, it is evident that virtual teams are especially challenging. They include:
false consensus, unresolved overt conflict, underground conflict, closure avoidance,
calcified team meetings, uneven participation, lack of accountability, and forgetting the
customer. These can be a part of every team. However, virtual teams add a new dimension to the
problemtechnology adoration.
Virtual teams face problems encountered by all teams, people working with others in the
organization, plus those face by the virtual nature. These can be numerous. In the end it simply
boils down to the fact that it is difficult to collaborate on something when the communication
process is inhibited. New technologies just provide new mechanism to make distant collaborative
teams possible, not necessarily superior to other options. Since virtual teams present stiff
challenges to its members, most authors end up heavily emphasizing one of three areas: building
trust, enhancing communication, and developing virtual management skills.
VPMO Frame Work
It is always required to define a frame work for Program (Project) Management Office and act
within its boundary, as we already told acting outside the boundary is clearly out of scope for the
Office. If senior management wants the PMO to involve in anything outside its boundary then
we have to bring the outsider into its own boundary.
PMO Office Framework in Virtual Environment will be looking similar to the one without
virtual environment but in the virtual environment all informal things will become formal and the

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process has to be followed clearly and the history is known to others openly. When we are
defining the Frame Work for PMO all pre cautionary steps has to be taken.
We can divide the Frame work at higher level as
1. Internal environment
2. External Environment

External Environment
PMO

Internal Environment

The frame work for VPMO is influenced by both the external and internal factors.
The frame work has to define the direction of the initiative towards the goal defined by the senior
management and provides leadership for the entire project team.

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Every participant's user interface includes an environment, which is a toolkit or workbench that
allows participants to perform their tasks. Environments are role-specific. For example, a project
owner's environment consists of tools suitable for project management; for estimation, planning,
budgeting, etc. On the other hand, a developer's environment consists of tools needed for
development.
Examples of environments are:
Project Owner's Environment: Project site management tools, Workflow design, coordination,
& monitoring tools, Project management tools.
Project Participant's Environment: Workflow coordination & monitoring tools, Project
management tools.
Software Developer's Environment: editor, workflow client, libraries, compiler, debugger,
analysis tools, visualization tools, configuration management system.
Software Tester's Environment: editor, workflow client, test case generators, configuration
management system.
Software Designer's Environment: editor, workflow client, design tools, visualization tools.
While many tools may be local to the participant, it may be advantageous in the context of the
Internet to centralize certain tools/environments. For example, shared software artefacts can be
maintained in a server-side repository; accessible over the Internet through the Project site web
server & CGI gateway.
This can work for shared resources such as a configuration management system, search tools,
code query processors, etc. The shared artefacts of interest may include specs, design documents,
code, versions, docs, test cases, bug reports, and any other relevant information.
The PMO framework has the following internal critical Factors:

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1) Risk Management
2) Change Management
3) Problem Management
4) Integration Management
The PMO framework has the following external critical Factors:

1)Business results definition

2)Budget tracking
3)Communications Management

The term External means outside the Project and of course inside the Organisation.
Web-based project infrastructures
Virtual projects require communication, collaboration and project management. The present
generation of software aims to support work within each of these domains by leveraging
client/server technologies such as shared data access, standards-based messaging and browser
economies.
Setting up VPMO
Setting VPMO
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Determine the tools required

Evaluate different options/type of tools
Buy(Rent) the tools required
Configure the tools as per requirement
Determine the structure of PMO
Recruit suitable people for VPMO
Share the goal of the PMO to all the parties
Train all the parties to use the tool
Pilot VPMO
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10. improve VPMO

The different steps described above need not be implemented in the same Order. We can start with any
step we are confident with. But for effective implementation of our Virtual Project Management Office all
the steps described above has to be implemented.

Determine the tools required

There are different free tools available in the market for establishing the Virtual Project
Management Office. Basic tools required for establishing VPMO is telephone, emails & chatting
tools. Free soft wares available for video conferencing, Data Sharing, Version Control,
Automatic task reminder, Risk Management tools, Planning and scheduling tools. Using these
tools is very cost effective but we must be trained on these tools for optimum use of it.
Since there are so many tools available for setting up the VPMO, in this step we have to
determine the tools necessary in our Organisation for establishing the same.
Evaluate different Options
Next step is evaluating different Options available for each tool. For example if we decided to
use the Audio conferencing facility to be used as a part of VPMO, list down various options
available in the Audio conferencing facilities in the world like bridge call facility, music facility,
mute facility, Web Schedulement facility, Toll-free Dial-in Number, Maximum Conference Size,
Maximum Conference duration, Conference Recording facility, Outlook and lotus calendaring
facilities, Good Customer Support, Security features. Determine the features we really required
to execute or setup our Virtual Project Management Office.
Pugh matrix can be used effectively used over here and it refers to a matrix that helps determine
which items or potential solutions are more important or 'better' than others. It is a scoring matrix
used for concept selection, in which options are assigned scores relative to criteria. The selection
is made based on the consolidated scores.

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Buy (Rent) the tools required

We need not buy all the tools required at a time to start the VPMO.We can buy basic tools
required to start VPMO and can use the required software whenever required, but almost all are
available for free of cost. Telephone Connection, Internet connection, email Facilities are the
basic things required for setting up the VPMO and all the tools required for the same has to be
purchased.
Configuring the tools
Some of the tools have to be configured according to the requirement of our Organization or
Virtual Project Management Office. For example we need to customize or create an email Group
for VPMO which will be helpful for the team to contact the PMO without knowing who is
currently working in the Office. We can also configure many of the applications that are started
by various Desktop icons, including the editor, mail reader, and calendar
Determine the structure of PMO
The structure of the PMO within the Organisation is very vital for the Organisation and various
factors determine the structure of the PMO.In the higher level there are two types of structures
called
1) Centralized structure
2) De-Centralized structure.
In the Centralized structure of the PMO, it is common across various divisions/practices
available in the Organization and it is very much suitable for Organization where there is less
number of departments or divisions.De-Centralized structure is more suitable for an Organization
where we want to track and control all the activities at each division level or Practice Level.
When the size of the Organization is very high then we have to naturally go for De-Centralized
structure for VPMO.In this step we have to determine the Role and Responsibilities of all the
roles of the people in the Organization structure.

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Recruit suitable people for PMO

Right people have to be placed in the PMO to execute its jobs. Under rating the activities of
PMO will definitely spoil the purpose of forming it. Big question arises over here of how to
select the Right people for PMO.We have to map all the roles and responsibilities defined for
that role against the suitable qualifications, experience and necessary artefacts or credentials.
Any compromise on the quality of people recruited will definitely affect the quality of the
deliverables of the PMO.So Lets select the right people at right Places for VPMO.When we are
selecting the people for VPMO, we have to find the interest of the particular people also. If the
particular person is not interested in the role we are recruiting even though he is very much
suitable for the position then it own solve the purpose of selection.
Share the goal of VPMO
The goal and service Offerings of VPMO has to be shared with all the parties involved so that
everybody understands the purpose of VPMO and in turn all the concerned people will recognize
and respond to VPMO.
This step is very important for the success of VPMO and to get the co-ordination of all the
Project Managers involved, after all they are the real end users for VPMO.
Piloting VPMO
VPMO has to necessarily be piloted to understand the difficulties we people are facing while
using it. During this stage we can understand the feeling of the real end users and Voice of these
users has to be captured in a prompt way. Voice of the people who are really using it and the
people who are not using it has to be captured. The Voice of the people are not using it during
the pilot period has to be given due attention and it is the responsibility of the VPMO to make
them use it by dusting off all their difficulties.
Continuous Improvement
This step is very important for the success of VPMO and to get the co-ordination of all the
Project Managers involved, after all they are the real end users for VPMO. Adopting new
activities and eliminating those which are found to add little or no value. The goal is to increase
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effectiveness by reducing inefficiencies, frustrations, and waste .The Japanese term is Kaizen,
which is taken from the words "Kai" means change and "Zen" means good.

Conclusions
In this short position paper, we have outlined some of the ideas relating to virtual project
management Office. The concept of virtual project management Office seems attractive both in
terms of economic implications as well as technical opportunities. Virtual project teams are
successful because the leaders and members put forth the extra effort to overcome
communication barriers.

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REFERENCES:

1) http://www.google.com for Business terms reference

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