The Hands-On Project Office: Guaranteeing ROI and On-Time Delivery

Economic pressures have forced IT executives to demonstrate the immediate and calculable ROI of new technology deployments. Unfortunately, existing IT service delivery often drifts without serious thought as to how process improvements could lead to higher performance and customer satisfaction.

The Hands-On Project Office: Guaranteeing ROI and On-Time Delivery offers the proven processes, techniques, and tools that IT managers can use to immediately improve the delivery of IT products and services. This compendium of best practices and practical recommendations details simple, deployable frameworks, practical tools, and time-tested best practices for successful IT service and project delivery management.

Recognizing how your tech staff can do more with less, this practitioner's handbook describes how you can better coordinate work efforts, hold project teams accountable, and communicate and demonstrate the importance of IT services to your company as a whole. By explaining how to streamline the functions that capture and report information about IT delivery, this volume clarifies roles, responsibilities, customer expectations, and performance measures, resulting in improved service and efficiency.

Emphasizing the establishment of processes that result in repeatable success, the book provides quickly implementable solutions for IT personnel faced with the daily management of large, complex systems.

Table of Contents:
THE THREE PILLARS OF IT DELIVERY - PROBLEM RESOLUTION, SERVICE REQUESTS, AND PROJECTS
Introduction
The Business Context
The Internal Economy for Investing in IT Services and Projects
The Three Pillars of IT Delivery
Managing Service Delivery
Managing Project Commitments
IT Metrics and Reporting Tools

THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE BUSINESS MODEL
Introduction: Revisiting the IT Organization
IT Service and Project Delivery Roles
The Role of the Project Management Office: Measuring its ROI
The PMO Value Proposition: An Initial ROI Estimate

ALIGNMENT AND PLANNING - DOING THE RIGHT THINGS
Introduction
Getting the Business to Set IT Priorities
Getting to "Yes" in Setting IT Priorities: An Approach to Business
and IT Alignment
Documenting and Accounting for IT Priorities: The Action Planning Process

MODELING AND MANAGING SERVICE DELIVERY
Introduction
Modeling Service Delivery Management
The Service Delivery Agreement
Basic SLA Terms and Definitions
Roles and Responsibilities of Process Participants
Representing IT Assets and Costs
Problem Resolution and Service Delivery Workflows
Reporting on Results
Closing Comments

PROJECT DELIVERY AND THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE
Introduction
What Is an IT Project? What Is Project Management? Why Bother?
The IT Project Management Life Cycle - A Brief Overview
The Commitment Process
Project Delivery - Measurement and Reporting
The Role of the Project Management Office in Project
Management Services

COLLECTING AND CAPTURING BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
FOR IT PROJECTS
Introduction
Preparing for Business Requirements Gathering
Business Process Mapping
Process Decomposition
The Roles and Responsibilities Matrix
Process Rules
Performance Metrics
Process Templates and Tools
Building a Final Picture of the IT Solution for the Customer
Closing Comments

MANAGING LESSONS LEARNED - THE REUSE AND REPURPOSING OF IT ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE: A CASE STUDY
Introduction
The Whats, Whys, and Wherefores of KM
Getting Started: Introducing the Case Study
Business and Technical Requirements: Analysis and Design
The Development Process: Constructing Content
and Service Components
Certification, Launch, and Release
Ongoing Operations
Lessons Learned

ARCHITECTING SUCCESS - THE ROLE OF SENSIBLE IT T
ARCHITECTURE MANAGEMENT IN SUCCESSFUL SERVICE DELIVERY:
A CASE STUDY
Introduction
Framing the IT Architecture Planning and Management Process
Introducing the Case Study
The Underlying Assumptions of an Enterprise's IT Strategy
and Architecture
The Process of Building and Maintaining an IT Architecture
Putting the Architecture Process to Work - IT Planning
and Procurement
Conclusions and Lessons Learned

CONCLUSIONS - THE ROI OF THE PMO
Introduction
The ROI Discussion
Executive Support Services
Supporting Service Delivery
Supporting Project Delivery
Leveraging Technical Knowledge
Staff Support and IT Organization Culture
One Last Look at the PMO

Appendices
KEY TEMPLATES FROM THE PMO TOOL BOX
Appendix A: IT Project Justification Template
Appendix B: IT Annual Plan Template
Appendix C: PMO Value Calculation-Model and
Template
Appendix D: Service Level Agreement Template
Appendix E: Project Management Life-Cycle Framework
Appendix F: Project Leadership Questionnaire
for Change Management Projects
Appendix G: IT Project Risk Management Matrix
Appendix H: Commitment Document Template
Appendix I: Master Project Schedule Template
Appendix J: Glossary
Appendix K: Selected Readings
Index