The role of the PMO has become indispensable in organizations. It supports aligning projects to strategic business goals and helps deliver them on time, within budget. Even with success, though, PMOs still need to prove their worth. There are many metrics – or performance measures – that are essential for PMOs to continue to add value and deliver results. These metrics relate to the four core business drivers: strategic alignment, operational efficiency, execution, and value delivered.

The Value of a PMO

Most enterprises are focused on their bottom line. They are continually searching for ways to increase efficiency, decrease costs, and deliver projects on time – and on budget.

PMOs were created to standardize practices, centralize reporting, and provide project oversight, helping companies realize better returns on their project investments. However, the true value of a PMO doesn’t necessarily lie within just the ROI. When PMOs utilize the right metrics, enterprises receive invaluable information that enables them to make better decisions, positively impacting their financial performance. They can effectively track bottlenecks, risks, ROI, resource utilization, output quality, and customer satisfaction – among others. This is the true value of the PMO – empowering decision makers with the knowledge they need to take actions in line with their business’ goals.

The Metrics for Success

Peter Drucker once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” If your PMO isn’t watching the right metrics, your projects may never succeed. The right metrics provide decision makers with the information they need to manage projects successfully.

Here’s what your PMO should be tracking:

Strategic Alignment Metrics

  • The number of projects – and the percentage of total money invested in each – related to each business objective
  • The number of strategic projects delivered versus the total number of strategic projects
  • Return on investment, broken down by program and portfolio and investment

Operational Efficiency Metrics

  • Percentage of projects in each portfolio that have been delivered on time/budget based on the total number of projects within the portfolio
  • Time to market, or time from idea creation to market, broken into the length of each phase of the process
  • Resource usage numbers in relation to budgeted amounts
  • The percentage of effort, broken down by time spent working on projects versus maintenance
  • Number of completed projects versus canceled or on-hold projects

Execution Metrics

  • Failure and success rates of projects delivered on time/budget
  • Budget deviation, or actual cost versus planned cost per project
  • Project quality metrics – number of defects, time to close defects
  • Number of change requests/enhancements per project
  • Resource utilization by each phase in project – actual versus budgeted

Value Delivered Metrics

  • Benefits realization against benefits forecast
  • Customer or user satisfaction percentage – change in percentage compared to prior period
  • Cost savings or increased revenue
  • Increased productivity
  • Minimized or elimination of risks

Simplified tracking with Hammerhead

The right metrics provide context and meaning to decision makers within the framework of an organization’s strategic business goals. They are simple, easy to digest, and actionable. Choosing the right metrics for your PMO is essential for its ability to succeed.

Projility’s business intelligence solution, Hammerhead, gives Microsoft Project Online and Project Server users robust filtering and reporting options. With this flexibility, enterprises can easily tailor reports and access dashboards based on the metric needs of key players at every business level.

With the best metrics in mind and powerful Hammerhead software to implement them, PMO influence and value will be at an all-time high.

Projility provides expert solutions for effective change. We offer enterprise portfolio and project management solutions based on Microsoft Project Server and Project Online, with tailored dashboard reporting, analytics, and decision-making tools via our Hammerhead technology. Projility also implements professional services automation systems established on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Project Service, and presents cloud-based strategies, migrations, and hosting solutions through Microsoft Azure. Contact us for more information.