Project Recovery Activities Across the PMO Continuum

The "project recovery" function along the PMO competency continuum establishes expanding capability to identify and resolve project management problems and issues that threaten the stability of project performance or the successful outcome of projects within the relevant organization. This places the PMO in a key role of assuring that project management is at least sufficiently effective to detect and discern its own limitations. It does this to varying degrees according to the stage of PMO development.

Table 16.1 presents an overview of the range of prescribed PMO project recovery activities according to each level in the PMO competency continuum.

Table 16.1: Range of Project Recovery Activities across the PMO Continuum

Project Office	Basic PMO	Standard PMO	Advanced PMO	Center of Excellence
Monitors project performance indicators to detect potential for major problems	Creates preliminary guidance for project control Manages a list of indicators for troubled projects Compiles and validates general remedies used to correct project performance Specifies procedures for elevating issue projects	Develops capability to conduct project recovery activities Builds qualified project recovery teams Develops assessments based on project recovery results Specifies project recovery actions Evaluates project recovery results	Expands capability to conduct project recovery efforts Provides project recovery training for recovery team members Introduces project recovery management and tracking tools	Analyzes project recovery to promote goals of continuous improvement Analyzes results for project recovery processes and utilization Develops project indicators and remedies to avoid need for project recovery

The project office is at the forefront of project control and has direct responsibility for identifying project problems, issues, and other difficulties using criteria established for all projects. It can achieve this by following prescribed processes for project management, with a particular focus on elements that include reviewing and reporting project performance. The project office will normally apply standard remedies to minor project performance variations. However, when the situation warrants, the PMO will use established criteria and guidance to elevate problems and issues to a higher level PMO or to senior management for review. It is usually the authority above the project office that determines whether project recovery actions are warranted.

Mid-range PMO levels will apply their authority and expertise to establish a fundamental to advanced capability to deal with troubled projects. This capability includes specifying criteria and defining what constitutes a troubled project within the relevant organization, forming a qualified project recovery team and process to assess and rectify the problems encountered (and return the project to a standard state), and evaluating the effectiveness of the project recovery intervention. It also introduces the tools needed to manage project recovery efforts.

The center of excellence continues its pursuit of continuous improvement within the project management environment. It will conduct analyses to determine the use and effectiveness of the project recovery process. It also will conduct root-cause analyses as a basis for developing indicators that can be used to identify potential for troubled projects and to prescribe solutions that reduce the number of troubled projects encountered within the relevant organization.

This PMO function serves as the focal point for identifying problems and then prescribing and implementing remedies to correct troubled projects. To that end, it inherently will have significant interface with and draw on capability already established in several other relevant PMO functions, as is highlighted in the function model presented below.