2010 PPMO Strategic Plan - Planning and Project Management Office - Carnegie Mellon University

2010 PPMO Strategic Plan

Mission:

“Computing Services provides information technology (IT) infrastructure and services to support the research and education missions of Carnegie Mellon.”

In support of this mission, the Planning and Project Management Office:

  • Manages complex Computing Service’s projects.
  • Helps Computing Services choose and implement projects that serve the university, meet the division’s strategic goals and maximize the use of divisional resources.  
  • Facilitates the planning, management and representation of the division’s “body of work” – the service and project portfolios.

Vision:

“Computing Services strives to be among the best information technology organizations in higher education by continually learning about the rapidly evolving IT needs of research, education, and institutional administration at Carnegie Mellon and how to combine industry-standard production services with innovative solutions to meet those needs.”

In fulfillment of this vision, PPMO empowers Computing Services staff to use standardized processes and tools to plan, manage and analyze their portfolio of projects and operational services.

Core values:

One of Computing Services’ Values is noted as follows in the 2006 Strategic Plan:

“Planning, Project Management, Evaluation: We believe excellence in IT requires explicit planning, project management, communication planning, and outcome assessment. Planning is necessary to effectively meet the needs of the campus community through the most effective use of the resources available to us.  Planning and management of projects and the ongoing portfolio of IT services assures predictability of process and outcomes. We value critical evaluation of the effectiveness of our services and organizational processes so that we can make the corrections necessary to assure their quality.”

PPMO’s values follow accordingly:

  1. We EMPOWER Division members through education, facilitation and consultation to manage their projects and services “locally” within departments. 
  2. We EVOLVE Division processes through continuous incremental improvement “Up and to the Right” and by working with team members from where they are. We use defined measures to assess our progress.
  3. We GUIDE the Division by modeling best practices, frameworks, processes, methodologies, tools, and templates — all employed within the Carnegie Mellon context — to increase the overall productivity and effectiveness of the Division. 
  4. We are OBJECTIVE in our role as a neutral catalyst for the Division, maintaining a holistic view of the work to be completed, and acknowledging cross-departmental and campus-wide considerations.
  5. We INTEGRATE the connections among all Division processes by assessing impacts, identifying dependencies, and providing guidance on next actions to the Division.

Who are PPMO Customers?

• Vice Provost’s Office as executive sponsors and portfolio decision makers
• Senior Management Team as project sponsors and Computing Services “Board of Directors”
• Associate and Assistant Directors and the Management Team as service owners and project leads
• Division staff as operational service providers and project team members
• Campus Community as the Executive Steering Committee on Computing, business partners, and customers

PPMO Goals for July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2013

  1. The PPMO will provide strong project management (PM) for the Technology Commitments projects and all division projects with the goal of successful completion of these projects on time, on budget, and in scope. 

    PPMO's most visible service to date has been our PM role on complex division projects.  As our PM services are in higher demand, we are challenged to meet the needs.  In particular, we have received more requests to assist our business parnters with PM.  We have been developing and disclosing criteria to help us balance our supply and demand.

    1. Prioritize appropriate PPMO resources for each Technology Commitments project based on PPMO Levels of Service definitions and project manager availability.
    2. Optimize PPMO resources to non-Technology Commitments projects consistent with established Levels of Service.
  2. The PPMO will define, measure, and improve the value of project management services both qualitatively and quantitatively. 

    While direct PM is our best known service, we have not made much progress in measuring the value of that service.  Most division projects use department project leads rather than PPMO staff.  The Project Management Methodology and TeamDynamix are designed to help project leads be more successful.  The PPMO has been asked to provide more guidance for project teams and steering committees around roles and governance.  The PPMO needs to improve the value-for-effort equation for our customers.

    1. Build assessment into the Project Management Methodology to define its value proposition and improve its utility to all levels of staff.
    2. Focus methodology improvements on project governance and decision-making guidance.
    3. Recommend and deliver project management skill development opportunities to division staff.
    4. Provide guidance to "typical project members" to help them understand expectations for their role, participation, or support.
  3. The PPMO will implement a Service Management Program based on minimum requirements for divisional service definition and assessment and support to a variety of departmentally-led "deeper dives." 

    To date PPMO has been offering several services related to operations and "running the trains," some more successful than others.  We propose to build on our most successful approaches.  We will focus on a service management program that highlights the Common Practices priorities, works in partnership with departmental efforts, and moves the service portfolio to a back-office repository.  Our goal is by the end of FY13 to have a service managment program made up of minimum requirements for divisional service definition and assessments, and a variety of departmentally-led "deeper dives."

    1. Develop and communicate a standard framework from which departments can develop their own customized service management initiatives.
    2. Consult with department leaders and service owners to help guide them to a customized service management solution, providing some PPMO resources to help balance the effort against departmental day-to-dy operational pressures.  
    3. Build assessment into the Service Management Program and implement metrics for ten division services in collaboration with service owners.
    4. Maintain central storage for service information.
    5. Develop a unified division process representation, in a collaborative effort, as a framework to improve our services and use our resources wisely.
  4. The PPMO will facilitate the management of Computing Services’ project and service portfolios - enabling the division to ensure that it is doing the right work at the right time. 

    Which projects and services give the institution the biggest bang for the buck within the context of the university strategic direction and culture, our business partners' requirements, technological changes, and our staff and finacial division resource?  The PPMO supports division decision-making on new project requests and evaluation of the ongoing project and service portfolios.

    1. Develop project portfolio review process to ensure that the project portfolio is strategically aligned, with potential areas of focus in resource allocation, risk assessment and mitigation, and project criticality.
    2. Assess and iteratively improve ongoing project request submission process.
    3. Facilitate executive decision support for the Vice Provost's Office and Senior Management Team to answer the following questions:
      1. Are we doing the right things and applying our resources to the highest priorities?
      2. Are we being as productive as we should be?  How do we measure our efficiency and effectiveness?
      3. How can the designated Common Practices be implemented to realize their benefits in the division while minimizing resource demands?
  5. The PPMO will exercise professional leadership in service management, planning, and project management within higher education IT and at Carnegie Mellon.

    Computing Services collaborates with external parties to exchange information that supports CMU's continued leadership role in higher education IT.  The PPMO works with EDUCAUSE and peer organizations to enhance the reputation of the university and support individual professional development.

    1. Present at conferences to disseminate our lessons learned.
    2. Network with peer institutions to identify best practices.
    3. Support campus IT planning and project management.

PPMO Service Portfolio

Service Groupings Service Details
Project Management
  • Individual Project Management
  • Project Scoping and Planning
  • PM Training & Skill Development
  • Project Management Mentoring
  • Project Lessons Learned
  • Project Review
  • Project Management Process Development and Improvement
  • Program Support
Service Portfolio Management
  • OLA Development & Maintenance
  • SII Support
  • Service Portfolio Maintenance and Evolution
  • Process Improvement Consultation
  • Activity Review
Project Portfolio Management
  • Ongoing Request Submission Process Management
  • Project Portfolio Review (in development)
Analysis Services
  • Survey Response Facilitation for External/Institutional Research Surveys
  • Peer Benchmarking
  • Assessment Surveys for Services and Projects
  • Service & Project data analysis consultation
  • Team Dynamix Administration, Management, Maintenance, and Education 
Auxiliary Services
  • Facilitation
  • Executive Decision Support

2009 PPMO Strategic Plan