Abstract
Managing IT projects and being on an IT project team used to be simpler. PMs typically had one project to manage, and team members were on only one team. All the team members were located in close geographic proximity, and the work was all done at the workplace. Currently the project landscape has become much more complex, where everyone is concerned with multiple projects and teams may be spread out all over the world. The business needs of cutting costs and being quicker to market have increased the pressures on project teams and their managers. According to the “Chaos Report” from the Standish Group (2004), unqualified IT project success only occurs in about one third of IT projects,. To improve this success rate, many associations (such as the IT Governance Institute) and companies are investigating broad IT governance issues. In regard to project management, these broad issues include such matters as project portfolio management, corporate-wide comprehensive standard project policies and procedures, and project knowledge management. As a vehicle for such consolidation and standardization and to deal with the complexities of project teams, companies have started to establish a Project management office (PMO). The PMO, its key current functions, and the future role of the PMO in global projects, project management maturity, Web portals, and strategic planning are discussed further in this chapter.