Program Management Viewed More Successful by 'Value' Delivered than by Technology Used: Deloitte Poll

NEW YORK, March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- In a recent Deloitte poll, more than 41 percent of executives surveyed responded that their organizations measured the success of their program management offices' (PMOs) results by whether the projects were on-time and on-budget and 36 percent responded that success was reached if the projects delivered some business value. And, only 1 percent responded that a technology solution was relevant. The executives were polled during the Deloitte webcast, "Results Management Office: A New Approach — Enabling Your IT Program to Achieve Results."

"While PMOs are good, they can only get you part of the way there in reporting the success of your efforts and in reaching your goals," said Diane Murray, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and a webcast presenter.  "The traditional staples of PMOs — managing scope, strategy and cost — are fine, but our polling showed that people today need to quickly see the business value and results of their PMOs. Augmenting PMOs with traditional business measurement benchmarks, such as program strategy and mission alignment, domain authority and organizational readiness, can help you deliver and report success quicker; something we call a 'results management office'— or RMO."

Murray noted that for RMOs to be successful, companies need to make sure your staff clearly understand the business benefits and expected outcomes of the RMO, integrate the RMOs efforts across all projects working with various internal teams, and earn stakeholders' buy-in of the RMO early from senior leaders.

Other polling results included:

• More than 40 percent (43.2 percent) of the respondents viewed cross project integration achieved by PMOs as moderately effective with a focus on task dependencies and schedule alignment; 21 percent responded cross project integration was not effective because of continuous surprises and rework.
• More than a third (39.1 percent) of respondents reported that they grumbled but adjusted when it came to buy-in towards adopting PMO driven information technology (IT) solutions; conversely, 21.5 percent claimed they eagerly awaited and would embrace the solutions rolled out through PMOs.
• Almost 35 percent (34.6 percent) of the respondents reported "hit or miss" on how well their PMOs stacked-up against all four of the standard RMO success factors (program strategy and mission alignment, domain authority, organizational readiness, and program management); 28 percent responded that there were "a few gaps, but close."

"People need to keep in mind, however, RMOs are not meant to replace PMOs, but rather evolve and enhance existing PMOs," said Al Kagan, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and a webcast presenter. "RMOs are not meant to be 'extra credit' work, but rather help keep the focus on delivering strategic outcomes, directly linking IT program investments to broader organizational goals. RMOs can help people understand the A through Z of information technology programs and aid in supporting and accepting such initiatives by conveying early the nature of the work, expected levels of employees' involvement and what they will get out of the effort."

Kagan also noted the following takeaways for the webcast audience on how RMOs can help take their IT programs to the next level and try to achieve and convey success:

• define, communicate and maintain the business benefits throughout the program and beyond.
• cross-functional (business and technology) teams need to drive and own integration —together.
• long-term program success is dependent on stakeholder buy-in from beginning to end.

To hear the webcast please visit: www.deloitte.com/us/dbriefs/futurete.

About the Polling

The polling responses came from more than 400 technology executives ranging from upper management to consultant across multiple industries responded to the polling questions during Deloitte's webcast on February 11. The information obtained during the survey was taken "as is" and was not validated or confirmed by Deloitte.

About Deloitte

As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP and Deloitte Services LP, which are separate subsidiaries of Deloitte LLP.  Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.

SOURCE Deloitte Consulting LLP