Project Controls Team Structure

Hi Beck

Welcome to the planning planet.

Depends on the size of the portfolio and number of projects the company is running.

Organisation have large quantity of medium size projects compare to organisation with large number of major projects will have a different approach.

In addition, how the resource is structure is also critical to how the PDO will be structured. Also, the technology use also groven the setup.

With limited information, I cannot really recommend a structure.

Since it is in the IT industry, I assume that resource is aligned with functionality. Meaning weaker matrix for project team structure. Therefore you will need a resource manager as such to simply manage the daily resource planning. (not necessary to be a planner) In addition, you also need a strong (senior Planner) to plan the activities for major projects (assume the orgainsiation have a few). And a few junior planner, depends on the size of the portfolio it is managed.

Then finally, a portfolio manager/managers (if it is a major organisation). They are focus on outcomes, long term committments...

Got a meeting - Back with more if you are interested

HTH

Alex

Beck
As Alex wrote: It depends.
How much the project managers will be involved in planning and scheduling?
Will PMO just support or do the planning - together with PM?
How is the project portfolio? Similiar or very different projects; can they be grouped? This may lead to support by area.
One or more locations?
Big projects with part project leaders or smaller ones?
If you use Primavera Enterprise (P5, P6) you’ll need a person for admin and support (part-time) and someone for his/her replacement.
Who will take care of master data?
If I would separate planning/scheduling from resource planning then not within a PMO, only if resource manager will do the assignment of resources after PM assigned a role.
Sorry, many questions and no golden way. But the requirements will lead you to the structure of PMO.
Good luck!
Dieter

Beck

Forgot the most important things, what is the budget headcount for the PMO...

LOL

Good luck

Alex

Thanks guys!..

This is the structure I’ve come up with;

- Lead Program Controller - maintain/analyse the program of project schedules and resources at the business level, manage project controls team & processes
- Project Controller/s - develop/maintain/analyse project schedules including roles/resources at a project level.
- Primavera Administrator (P6) - to provide functional support for the tool/database/templates/libraries
 
This model means that each Project Controller could be assigned to a group of projects or a group of project managers and would give the PC’s ownership of each project as a whole.

To give you a bit more background, it is for the IT division of a utilities company. I envisage quite high level planning (50-100 activities) due to the low-level of Project Control maturity within the PM’s. There are approximately 20 PM’s over about 60 small (3-8mth) projects.

The main reason for forming this team is to try and gain some insight into resource utilisation and project prioritisation.

Budget?.. as little as possible of course!

What do you think?

Thanks again for your comments.

Beck,

I am in the process of setting up a IT PMO in a Utilities/Public Services company.

I am acting more as a programme planner at the moment and have the PM/Controllers doing the planning at project level.

I would say that a P6 administrator isn’t necessary.
I currently deal with application issues that arise and co-ordinate with IT technical support to carry out any upgrades, service packs and solution tests.

At programme level there are more adminsitration type tasks to do than planning ones, such as managing security profiles, resouce/role pools, timesheet apps, creating standard company layout & reports etc.

As one PM here said, we are like the Primavera Police. You need to create the standards by which planning at the lower levels is done, as this information is what decides the integrity of the programme summaries/reports that you will put your name to.
IMHO i think money would be better spent on a project support role, to chase the missing timesheets, ensure that PM have updated plans by the reporting data-date ad manage the overhead codes for timbooking etc.

Good luck!

Beck
Your target and the team I agree.
But 20 PM’s for 60 very small projects, i.e. 3 per person. What is their work during afternoon?
P6 would be a good chance for the PM for a job enrichment: Reporting, layouts, control their schedule.
Regards
Dieter

Oliver,
you need a responsible person for EPS, OBS, Users, Licenses Preferences, Categories, Security Profiles, Codes, Reports, e.t.c. - i.e. an administrator. Otherwise, after latest two years there will be a big chaos within the database. In the structure, as described by Beck, after introduction time it shouldn’t take more than one to two hours a day.
Regards
Dieter

I agree Dieter,

I just think that a specific admin resource isn’t required as the programme planner can do this easily with the help of a project support resource.

You guys are right, however I forgot to mention that the Primavera Administrator would also cover the existing instance of P4.1 across the rest of the business (not just IT PMO) of which there are about 5000 projects residing in a huge mess since the last Administrator left..

I am implementing a new instance of P6 for the IT PMO initially with the eventuality of migrating the rest of the business over (potentially another 100 users)..

Thanks again for all your help!

Beck