1. SYNOPSIS

John Compton, The president of the company, at the executive staff meeting explained that we are no longer competitive in the marketplace because they have no project management methodology. Most of the Requests for Proposal (RFP) need the companies identify their project management methodology which they will use on the contract. They have just a few templates they use based upon the PMBOK®Guide. The executive staff did not like to develop a methodology and made some excuses for him not to develop a methodology because they are afraid to lose their power and authority once the methodology is up and running.
Last year, a consultant was brought to describe the benefits of project management and the value of an enterprise project management methodology (EPM). The consultant explained that the time needed to develop and implement an EPM system can be shortened if the company has a project management office (PMO) in place to take the lead role. In that session, the executive staff became reluctant to visibly support project management since they understood executive gets control of the PMO may become more powerful than other executives. A PMO was formed reporting to the chief information officer. The PMO was comprised of a handful of experienced project managers that could hopefully take the lead in the development of a methodology. The PMO concluded that there were five steps that had to be done initially. After the five steps were done, the executive committee would receive a final briefing on what had been accomplished.

* Establishment of the number of life-cycle phases. The PMO wanted no more than 6 cycles. * Make an informal methodology approach * Make a decision to keep which documents are appropriate * Develop a means for capturing best practices using the EPM system * Education and training of