Project Environment Interface Concepts

The standards found in the project management environment should provide consistency across project and business management interests. The PMO's centralized role permits it to examine applicable standards and manage their introduction to the project management environment. Moreover, because it serves in a business integration capacity, the PMO can manage metrics associated with project management as well as those metrics that serve related business interests.

The PMO, in collaboration with its organizational sponsor, will identify the scope of standards and metrics for which it is responsible. Equally important will be the PMO's role in coordinating and conducting the implementation of approved standards and the use of metrics within the project management environment. This includes the involvement of project managers, project team members, and other project stakeholders in identifying and applying the project management standards and metrics that will be required in their day-to-day work. In addition, these groups can contribute expertise to assist the PMO in reviewing and adapting externally imposed business, technical, and regulatory standards and metrics for use within the project management environment.

An important aspect of standards and metrics is their application to benchmarking, an activity that provides a snapshot of project and business performance. Benchmarking involves assessing current processes, practices, or capability relative to industry standards or accepted best practices. The PMO will be instrumental in selecting the standards that provide the basis for such an examination. It will also formulate metrics that help both to describe any variation from that basis and to define improvement goals.