Leveraging Technical Knowledge

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Perhaps the most quantifiable findings of the author's ROI model concern the PMO's impact on technology spending, reuse, and repurposing. See the achievements chronicled in Chapter 7 and Chapter 8, which reflect on the direct benefits stemming from the PMO's management of the IT organization's technical knowledge. Although IT leadership will make all of the decisions concerning standards and architectural direction, these cannot be achieved in a vacuum. PMO personnel generate the explicit knowledge required to document the current state of enterprise IT, and it is through their KM efforts that this information will be made accessible to the organization's management.

However, the role of the PMO in this regard need not be passive. Indeed, the PMO team should serve as the champion of technical standardization and the construction of architected IT solutions. Similarly, in their roles as project managers and analysts, PMO staff members should proactively leverage the IT unit's knowledge store in search of opportunities to reuse or repurpose existing work and deliverables. In short, they can contribute to cost savings and speedier time-to-market by applying these principles to the design and delivery of new IT solutions. See Exhibit 4.

Exhibit 4: The PMO ROI — Architecture Management and Support

Value/Cost Categories	Amount of Financial Benefit/Non-PMO IT Costs	IT Costs Avoidance Associated with Service Delivery Risk Mitigation	IT Costs Avoidance Associated with Project Delivery Risk Mitigation	PMO Investments in Services and Risk Mitigation	Outcomes (Net Value of Positive Outcomes and Risk Avoidance Less PMO Costs)	Comments
Technology Platform Standardization and Rationalization
Hardware costs
Software costs
Support costs
Contractor costs
Customer servicing costs
Staff training costs
Other costs (facilities, back-up, etc.)

On the process side of their assignments, PMO personnel will build tools, templates, checklists, and frameworks that save others steps and time in the execution of service and project work. Similarly, when they recognize connections between past projects and new ones, they can redeploy old projects' artifacts (e.g., project plans, budgets, business specifications, and commitment documentation) to jump-start more current efforts. They also can influence their project teams to employ standard architectural components (i.e., reuse) and to leverage off the work of colleagues (i.e., repurpose) rather than start over each time. Besides the advantages to the project in question, these practices will lead, over time, to a narrowing of the enterprise's technical base. Thus, by employing more extensively what is already in place, IT teams can deliver more promptly at lower costs and can reduce downstream maintenance and support exposures.

All of these benefits directly impact the business' bottom line. For its part, the PMO creates and maintains a KM environment that enables this approach. In doing so, the potential is there to avoid substantial costs while achieving more satisfying and sustainable results for the enterprise. To realize the value of this investment, PMO personnel must be in a position to influence those making IT architecture and technology acquisition choices for the enterprise.

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