PMO: The Intersection of Enterprise Architecture and IT Governance

While the capabilities of the Project Management Office (PMO) range from best practice advice to project governing bodies, many companies are maturing their PMO organizations beyond delivering projects to become the cornerstone for Information Technology (IT) planning and governance. According to Gartner, “Through 2008, three out of four successful $500,000-plus projects will be planned and tracked with project support, while three out of four failed projects will not”. This maturation of the PMO has moved a process that was once primarily a project management vehicle to a strategic mechanism for prioritizing, planning, monitoring and delivering new business capabilities. Although the processes within this function are considered to be relatively mature, garnering a lot of attention for the actionable nature of their activities, they are only one piece of the puzzle required to fully execute and balance ongoing IT strategy and governance needs.

Where are We, Where do We Want to Go, and How do We Get There?
Although the primary objective for many PMO organizations is to successfully deliver approved projects, there is a growing recognition that—to be an effective change agent for the business—the PMO must have a broader enterprise context. In many cases, the scope of the PMO includes only a subset of projects and information that does not completely reflect the complete set of factors that influence project priorities and dispositions. Since the enterprise is constantly in motion, it is critical for the PMO to have visibility into the strategies that define the direction and goals of the business and a line of sight into the existing assets and resources that may hinder “in flight” projects. Enterprise architecture information is the enabler that provides the PMO the future and current state context it needs to improve the accuracy and success of project prioritization, planning and delivery processes.

The Future State
Enterprise architecture planning helps organizations document the enterprise. The future state is one of the deliverables of the Enterprise Architecture process resulting from the business vision and strategy. This future state architecture defines the goals that an enterprise works toward to meet business objectives (answering the question “where do we want to go?”). From a PMO perspective, Enterprise Architecture information provides even greater context than what is available to them through discreet project definitions. This broader context of the future aids the PMO in shepherding project processes, if aligned, to successful conclusion and if not aligned, to re-prioritization. In addition, Enterprise Architecture information provides the foundation for the architectural and technology standards that are necessary to support business strategy.

The following are just a few examples of questions that can be answered by Enterprise Architecture information to coordinate project and portfolio planning:

• What are the top to bottom linkages between business strategy, processes, projects and technology and where are the gaps?
• What technologies do my new projects require and do they align with business strategy?
• What are the opportunities for reuse across organizations and projects?
• What is the business impact of planned project or technology changes?

Clear visibility into the future state architecture—and answers to questions like the ones listed above—help the PMO become more effective. This information helps to identify opportunities, highlight issues and develop remediation options that will influence investment decisions towards meeting project, and ultimately, business goals.

The Current State
While not consistently factored into new initiatives, Enterprise Architecture information can provide visibility into the current state architecture. This can be used to understand what a company has, how assets relate to each other and how they are being used to fulfill business objectives. When used for context during project planning, understanding the current state architecture helps identify the impact of projects to existing investments and also helps identify inhibitors to project success. Incorporating an understanding of the current state when planning and implementing a new project contributes to harmonizing new initiatives with legacy systems and processes as well as identifying risks that may impact project and organizational success. Just a few of the questions that can be answered by having visibility into the current state architecture include:

• What existing applications are impacted by new projects? Or alternatively, what existing applications can be leveraged by new projects?
• In addition to project costs, what are the consolidated costs of everything that a project depends on (people, projects and assets)?
• What existing business processes or organizations are impacted by planned changes to the application portfolio?
• What existing technologies violate approved standards and introduce risk (e.g. misalignment with business and technology strategy)?

Current state architecture information provides the PMO a wealth of information that can be used to understand what elements in the existing environment need to be factored into new investment planning, what can be used as artifacts to support business case recommendations and what can be rationalized, along the way, to improve IT and business agility.

IT Governance as the Guide
As described above, Enterprise Architecture information serves as a key enabler for well-instrumented PMO processes but IT Governance is also necessary to ensure project processes are on track. IT Governance forms the overarching framework for any IT process and permeates organizations at all levels from strategic planning to project execution, to operational support of IT investments. At its most fundamental level, IT Governance provides oversight of IT investment decisions that serve the best interest of the enterprise.

In many organizations, the PMO organization serves as both a facilitator for and contributor to IT Governance processes. As a facilitator, the PMO incorporates the appropriate IT Governance activities throughout the IT investment lifecycle. The following graphic from the IT Governance Institute illustrates a few of the roles and activities typically coordinated by (or having an impact on) the PMO in support of IT Governance processes.

As a contributor, the PMO reviews project deliverables and reports on the status of the portfolio of projects and provides recommendations for improvement. The PMO’s contributions determine the need, cost, risk and impact of projects before they are approved and funded. Once funded, they assess the progress of projects in supporting and achieving planned business strategies.

As a part of IT Governance, these efforts help reduce risk at multiple levels and serve as guides to identify potential issues along the way. Ultimately, this translates to a reduction in business misalignment and an acceleration of value to the business.

As the PMO function continues to become the hub for which business needs, organizational planning and IT performance management converge, benefits can be achieved from this centralized form of planning and oversight. As this function matures, expectations and the responsibilities of the PMO will continue to become broader and more complex.

To address this complexity in a scalable manner, PMO activities should incorporate Enterprise Architecture information and IT Governance best practices as well as the appropriate tools to fully harmonize the benefits of IT to the business.

Enterprise architecture information helps the PMO understand whether or not projects are headed in the right direction and IT Governance helps provide the guardrails to understand what IT is doing, how it is doing, and how well IT is aligned to business objectives throughout the IT investment lifecycle.

Enterprises will continue to be in motion, changing and evolving to meet business needs. Similarly, supporting technologies and processes will continue to evolve and innovate. The integration of Enterprise Architecture information, IT Governance, and PMO processes will form the basis for managing the transformations required to ensure sustainable and enduring alignment between IT and the business.

by Ramil Reyes