Facilities and Equipment Support Function Model | The Complete Project Management Office Handbook, Second Edition (ESI International Project Management Series)

The PMO's primary role can be either that of facilitator or that of manager of facilities and equipment support within the project management environment. If business units within the relevant organization already conduct such support, the PMO should facilitate alignment and integration of business and project management processes. If such support is not readily present or fully supportive of interests in the project management environment, the PMO can be more proactive in implementing facilities and equipment-support solutions, but always consistent with established practices and coordinated with appropriate existing business-support functions.

This PMO function is generally applied within organizations that have large project team populations. It centralizes the management of facilities and equipment across multiple project efforts, thereby alleviating some of the management burden of individual project managers. The project manager is still responsible for identifying facilities and equipment requirements, but with this PMO function, the manager can submit a request for fulfillment to the PMO. In turn, the project manager resumes responsibility for managing assigned use of project facilities and equipment. At a minimum, the PMO can perform oversight and provide facilities and equipment support, as needed, even for organizations with smaller project team populations.

The prominent activities of the PMO's "facilities and equipment support" function model are depicted in Figure 8.1. Each activity is described in the following subSections.

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Figure 8.1: "Facilities and Equipment Support" Function Model

Establish Project Team Requirements

The PMO serves in a capacity to (a) examine and validate project team work space requirements in conjunction with project managers' input and requests, (b) manage fulfillment of requirements either through direct action or by passing the requirements to the appropriate business unit within the relevant organization, and (c) monitor fulfillment actions. As well, the PMO can represent project management environment work space needs to facility managers and to senior management. This activity enables the PMO to ensure that project team performance is supported by adequate work space and equipment needed by individuals responsible for project management and task performance.

The PMO may have to apply special consideration and adjust the prescribed approach if work space setup support is provided to geographically separated work teams or those operating in a virtual team environment.

Establish Work Space Requirements

The PMO should evaluate existing working conditions to determine whether the work space for the project team members is sufficient for current and near-term project team requirements. In general, this is an evaluation that can be formally or informally conducted by the PMO on a recurring, perhaps annual, basis. It provides the PMO with sufficient insight to workplace conditions to enable meaningful deliberation and discussions in support of the work space requirements to be pursued.

The PMO can then proceed to develop a set of recommended work space features that are desired within the project management environment. Things to consider include:

Preferred individual work space dimensions (area): The size of various work spaces needed, consistent with organizational standards, roles and responsibilities of project team members, and nature of project work.
Preferred work space enclosures: Requirements for office space for different purposes, including offices for managers or others requiring levels of privacy due to the nature of their work; enclosed rooms for meetings, storage, or library; offices, cubicles, or open work space for project team members; laboratory rooms or enclosures; and work space for visiting project participants. As well, this work space feature considers break rooms, needs for special ventilation or other type of climate control, utility (e.g., electricity, water, etc.) requirements, the need to accommodate access for handicapped participants, and the necessity to fit any (furniture-size) project equipment.
Furniture and furnishings: Presents the need for desks, work-benches, work stations, chairs, tables, bookcases, lamps, etc., again consistent with organizational standards, the roles and responsibilities of project team members, and the nature of the project work.
Work space access requirements: Identifies the need to control access to the project team work area or facility. This also includes a description of any information, security, or work-safety-based protective requirements for individuals, equipment, and materials associated with project work efforts. This feature specifies access requirements and provides the preferred (or required) means of access control.

The PMO can compile and recommend the acquisition and assignment of project team facilities that have the preferred work space features, or it can validate that current facilities are adequate to support the projects involved.

The PMO should monitor facilities utilization and configuration during and between recurring work space examinations. The following are several facility utilization factors for the PMO to consider as it provides ongoing management of facilities and equipment support:

Project team number and average size
Project team member population
Project manager population
Project manager alignment with number of project teams
Project team (and team member) locations

This effort will produce results that vary significantly by organization and by industry. In some cases, a handful of project managers will be aligned with a few project team members, and generally all are collocated in one facility. In other cases this may expand to configurations of many project managers, hundreds of project team members, and multiple project team locations. The simpler configuration will likely require the PMO to be more attentive to details of the support provided. The latter configurations provide more opportunity for the PMO to play a larger role in managing facilities and optimizing their use across the larger number of project teams.

The PMO should prepare a fundamental recommendation document for work space requirements by project team or a general recommendation by individual. The more advanced PMO may incorporate this document into a broader organizational facilities plan for how project team facility requirements will be implemented across the relevant organization.

Establish Equipment Requirements

The PMO should develop fundamental guidance and recommendations for the equipment needed by individual project managers and project team members, per the technical and professional nature of the types of project work they are tasked to perform. This might be identified as a project team member equipment package. Then, the PMO also should identify equipment shared by all members of the project team — usually within a business office environment. Finally, the PMO should identify any special equipment needed by one or more project teams to accomplish project objectives.

An overview examination and checklist for these three types of equipment requirements are presented below. Each PMO must consider the history of project team equipment provisioning and current needs as it specifies its requirements and recommendations for each equipment group within the project management environment. As well, it is not presumed that such equipment support is not currently provided by another business unit. For example, the IT department will usually support individual and group office equipment, and other business units will support specialized equipment. However, now the PMO uses the information it compiles to improve and optimize equipment assignment and utilization support across project teams.

Individual Equipment Requirements

The PMO can consider items in the following list in creating a standard equipment package for the project team. Note that some project teams and team members are generally office-based, while others may be field-based. The PMO's recommendations should take into account the different equipment needs of these project participants.

Computer. Today's project management environment inherently requires consideration of individual computer equipment, which includes:

Desktop computer
Laptop computer
Personal digital assistant (PDA)
Computer docking station/cradle (for laptops and PDAs)

Consideration of this equipment includes any necessary peripheral equipment such as monitor, keyboard, modem, network card, CDROM/diskette readers, etc. Assignment of this equipment also implies connectivity to a network within the relevant organization for purposes of internal and external communications and access to the Internet.

Software. This is a standard set of software that can be prescribed for users on the project team, including the following items:

Business suite applications (e.g., word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation manager, etc.)
Communications applications (e.g., e-mail, Web browser, contact manager, collaboration tools, etc.)
Project management applications (e.g., cost-schedule-resource manager, task manager, project information dashboard, methodology process manager, etc.)
Document reader applications (e.g., text-file reader, drawing/CAD-file reader, etc.)

Although not particularly an equipment item, the PMO may want to consider access (and any associated cost) to Internet technical and business Internet locations in association with use of any Web-based applications, including membership requirements. As well, access to the Internet and to the home office network is a feature to consider.

Individual Office Equipment. This is a general set of equipment that facilitates individual project work performance and business communications that can be considered, including the following:

Desktop telephone
Mobile telephone (cell phone)
Mobile pager
Two-way radio
Voice-mail recorder/mailbox
Desk, chair, and associated office furnishings
Individual work document and media storage containers (file cabinets)

The specification and assignment of individual office equipment, to a large extent, will be influenced by the culture and practices of the relevant organization. The PMO should carefully examine its recommendations for any equipment that exceeds those norms.

Individual Special Equipment. This is a set of equipment determined by the nature of business and project requirements that is considered for assignment to individuals because of personal or professional need or frequency of use, including the following:

Personal health and safety devices
Toolkits
Measurement devices
Writing instruments
Calculators and special computing devices
Equipment and document travel cases
Special work apparel/clothing

The PMO will need to examine special equipment utilization to determine whether assignment to individuals is warranted.

Project Team Office Equipment Requirements

The PMO can consider items in the following list in creating equipment recommendations for a standard project office, i.e., for a collocated project team. The items below generally represent office equipment types that can be shared by all project team members. However, in some cases they also may be issued as individual equipment:

Document printer (computer peripheral)
Electronic plotter (computer peripheral)
Power-surge protectors
Facsimile machine
Reproduction/copy machine
Document scanner
Workbench or laboratory table
Technical manuals (issued as equipment in some environments)
Team work document and media storage containers
Meeting room table, chairs, and associated furnishings
Drawing and writing boards
Audiovisual equipment
First-aid/emergency kits and equipment
Trash receptacles, including document-destruction equipment

This listing provides a preliminary consideration for items that create a basic "project office" equipment configuration. The PMO should collaborate with project managers to determine if there are any other team office equipment requirements unique to current or planned projects.

Special Equipment Requirements

The PMO can consider the generic items in the following list as a guide for preparing its recommendations for special equipment that is normally shared across project teams. It will certainly have to examine the nature of project work and collaborate with relevant project managers to finalize these requirements. As well, these items generally represent "nonoffice" equipment that is assigned for project team use on an as-needed basis and subsequently returned to centralized control for scheduled use by another project team:

Personnel transportation vehicles
Heavy equipment (e.g., construction equipment and vehicles, large hardware/product installation equipment, etc.)
Unique (and sometimes very expensive) calibration and measurement devices
Special-purpose tools/toolkits
Additional/spare computing equipment and peripherals
Mobile operations equipment
Field operations equipment

Again, the PMO should collaborate with project managers and technical team leaders to establish a specific special equipment requirements list for the relevant organization.

Manage Project Facilities

The PMO begins this effort by identifying facility needs and requirements across the various projects. The PMO can then concentrate on developing the processes for their acquisition, utilization (assignment), and disposition. This necessitates having a fairly comprehensive understanding of project team strength, project team locations, and project durations for all current and upcoming projects across the relevant organization.

The PMO can then proceed to review current facility utilization to determine whether it is sufficient for project team needs or whether it can be optimized for multiple project team use. As well, the PMO should identify pending projects with known or anticipated start dates as a means to plan upcoming facility needs.

Presumably, there will be an existing facilities management function within the relevant organization. If so, the PMO plays a role to ensure that the needs of the project management environment are met through coordination of the project facility requirements with the planned facility assignment actions of the facility manager. Conversely, the relevant organization may not have a facilities management function that specifically addresses project team requirements. In this case, the PMO should become a more visible influence on facility oversight within the project management environment. PMO involvement is likewise appropriate in situations when project facility management is associated with distinct customer engagements, where facility costs are associated with one or more project efforts, or where customer-provided facilities require a measure of project manager oversight.

The depth of facility management processes used by the PMO can be adjusted to fit the needs of the relevant organization. However, it is essential to note that the activities prescribed below are not intended to replace any organizational facilities management function or to make the PMO an expert in facilities management. Rather, this guidance is provided so that the PMO can assist or guide the project manager — while collaborating with the in-house facilities management experts — in conducting project facilities management with regard to the interests of the project management environment.

The following subsections prescribe three fundamental areas of project facility management that the PMO can consider when establishing project facilities support processes within the relevant organization.

Manage Facility Acquisition Options

The PMO, with an eye on all projects within the relevant organization, should review the different facility acquisition options that have been undertaken to provide current project facilities, examine effectiveness to date in supporting project facility needs, and develop recommendations for the approach to future project facility acquisitions.

The PMO can consider the benefits and drawbacks of the following four acquisition methods when evaluating and recommending facility needs for current and future projects.

Collocation

This approach to facility acquisition is likely the most common situation the average PMO will encounter. It simply represents planning and acquiring work space for the project team in existing facilities within the relevant organization. This is the default facility assignment for individuals who are assigned to business units but who also contribute time on one or more project teams. Their work space is relatively permanent, regardless of the project work they may be assigned. The PMO usually plays a negligible role in influencing business unit work space assignments.

However, the PMO's attention to the collocation method could also mean acquisition of work space within existing relevant organization facilities for use by project teams, where members of a cohesive project team are collocated in a common office or work space. As this is a preferred project management practice, the PMO's role is to recommend and facilitate such arrangements, as needed by project teams.

The PMO may also encounter another collocation arrangement — that of collocation at an existing customer's facility. This is a common practice, but it does require the attention of the project manager and oversight of the PMO to ensure that any associated contractual obligations for facility use and management are satisfied.

In this facility acquisition method, the PMO plays a primary role in helping the project manager to identify work space that is available for collocation of project team members. Normally, there is no direct cost to the project effort when acquiring collocated facilities for the project team. However, there is a cost to be accounted for in the overhead of the organization supplying the facilities.

Lease

This approach to facility acquisition is often used by rapidly expanding project teams to accommodate the influx of new project team members. It is also a solution for setting up project team operations at locations that will be staffed for only a fixed period of time, usually the duration of the project. The PMO's role in this acquisition method is to validate the need for and the conditions of the facility lease. This involves close collaboration with the project manager to deliberate acquisition options and decide on a course of action.

A few of the more prominent issues to consider in deliberating leasing arrangements for the project team include:

Leasing cost: Will the cost be expensed as a project budget item or as overhead?
Leasing period: What is the period of the lease relative to the period of the project; can the lease be terminated if the project is terminated early; can the lease be extended if the project is extended?
Leasing conditions: What facility maintenance and management responsibilities are incurred by the lease; do they represent significant cost items for the project?
Leasing contract: Who will manage the leasing contract and monitor associated compliance; what are the lease payment arrangements; who will make payments and when; what are the penalties and remedies for noncompliance?
Facility renovation: Does the lease account for any required renovation or reconstruction within the facility; what effect do such requirements have on the leasing cost or the period of the lease?

The PMO should be involved in lease deliberations that accommodate project team operations, but it must always seek the advice and council of experts and professionals within the relevant organization, e.g., legal department, contracting department, etc.

Purchase

This approach to facility acquisition is one that normally represents a business decision to conduct a capital program. It is characterized by a cash outlay or other funding approach to obtain the preferred existing building or structure. The PMO will need to understand the ramifications of recommending this type of project facility acquisition. However, it can confer with strategic planners and facility management experts during its prerecommendation deliberation.

In general, the PMO should be involved in project facility purchase decisions when long-term facility requirements are identified. Its primary role will be to validate or support the need for a facility purchase. This approach may be considered when there is a need for permanent offices for project team members, or when a particular project or program has a definitive need and an appropriate funding source has been identified to warrant the facility purchase.

Build/Develop

This approach to facility acquisition has PMO deliberation impacts similar to those encountered in a purchase. It too is a business decision that is likely to be a capital program. However, deliberation requirements are enlarged by the need to evaluate architectural, engineering, and construction facets of the acquisition method. The result of this effort is the construction of a new facility.

The PMO will primarily serve in an advisory capacity for this type of project facility acquisition. It should be involved to represent the interests of the project management environment and to participate in facility space allocations for project teams. This method of facility acquisition is normally considered in response to the longer-term strategic needs of the relevant organization.

Monitor Facility Utilization

This activity provides the PMO with the means to examine facility utilization across all projects within the relevant organization. It has three fundamental objectives that are presented below.

Ensure Adequacy of Facilities

The PMO should ensure that current facilities adequately support the effectiveness and efficiency of project team work efforts. This includes examining conditions of both separated and collocated project team members and ascertaining impacts on project performance. In particular, the PMO should identify where project team members have work spaces away from each other to the detriment of project performance capability.

The insight from this examination will enable the PMO to devise an approach and formulate recommendations for project facility management within the relevant organization. In turn, the PMO will also gain a fairly complete understanding of project team facility requirements. This will be a valuable PMO information asset, even if PMO recommendations are not immediately implemented. This information will allow the PMO to advise project managers across the relevant organization regarding planning for utilization of the project team facility. It also will allow the PMO to advise senior managers and to contribute to senior management decisions regarding facility requirements that support effective project performance.

Optimize Facility Utilization

The PMO's examination should prompt an analysis of ways to optimize facility utilization for the project team and its members. This is not likely to be a concern for the PMO serving a small number of collocated project teams. However, the PMO that has a larger number of project teams located across an expanded area, perhaps one with global responsibility, will benefit from reviewing the following facility utilization considerations:

Identify availability of work space in currently assigned project team facilities
Identify overcrowding in work space in currently assigned project team facilities
Identify projects having multiple locations for assigned project team members
Identify projects that have dedicated, collocated work space for project team members (i.e., project office configuration)
Identify disparity in project team facility assignments (i.e., number of project team members versus available work space for key projects)
Identify project team facilities approaching end of assignment and those available for reassignment
Identify facilities where associated leases or contracts have become a management burden, so as to warrant early or at least timely termination of use
Identify facilities where maintenance requirements and associated costs have expanded beyond desired limits

An examination of these factors should provide indicators of opportunities for optimizing the assignment of facilities used by project teams. This could include:

Collocating multiple project teams in the same existing facility to dispose of unneeded facilities and reduce overall facility costs in the project management environment
Moving project team members from dispersed business unit work spaces to a dedicated project office environment
Making work space available at existing facilities in dispersed geographical locations or regions for individual project team members or small teams associated with different projects
Acquiring project team facilities in a dispersed location to accommodate individual project team members or small teams associated with different projects

The PMO does not necessarily have to recommend or make abrupt facility assignment changes, but it can compile indicators that can be applied to improved facility acquisition and assignment management in the future.

Plan Future Facility Utilization

The PMO should have the combined awareness of current facility availability and knowledge of new projects about to begin. This information can be used to conduct facility planning to support each project effort. The PMO can work with the relevant project manager to identify project team facility needs and then recommend and pursue a course of action for acquiring and assigning preferred project team facilities.

The PMO might consider establishing a tracking system for such facility management, which is particularly valuable if there is frequent project facility turnover within its purview. Even if the PMO does not directly own or manage a facility, it will enhance its support capability to project managers by knowing the availability within existing facilities and the acquisition options that are immediately available to the project. Ideally, a PMO involved in facility management activities will be proactive in preparing a plan that recommends the facility acquisition and assignment course of action for upcoming projects.

Monitor Facility Disposition

In conjunction with monitoring and tracking facility utilization, the PMO can develop plans and recommendations for facility disposal, i.e., what to do with the project team facility (or work space) when the project team is finished using it.

The end result of monitoring facility disposition is that the PMO must have reliable information regarding the availability or nonavailability of existing facilities that have been used by project teams. The PMO's tracking process can be formal or informal, but it should represent an appropriate level of effort that will enable the PMO to support project managers' requests for project team facilities within the relevant organization.

The PMO active in management of project team facilities should be prepared to make or recommend facility disposition decisions, including the following prominent options outlined in the following subsections.

Continuity of Use

An "established" project team is recognized as a group that pursues one or more project efforts as a coherent group and does so on a more or less ongoing basis, taking on new projects as they emerge. In such cases, there is no particular need to dispose of the facility or discontinue its assignment to the established project team. The PMO identifies the approximate period of extended use, or it designates the facility as a "permanent" facility assignment for the established project team, and tracks its utilization accordingly.

Reassignment

An existing project team is preparing to disperse at the end of the current project effort and will vacate the facility. The assignment to that project team will be discontinued, and the facility will be made available for utilization by another project team. The PMO identifies the planned discontinuation of facility assignment, coordinates end-of-use date with the project manager, and includes the facility in considerations for assignment to another project team based on period of availability and the project team's needs. The PMO tracks its reassignment, and if facility reassignment cannot be specified in a reasonable period of time, alternative facility disposition actions should be considered.

Administrative Return to Landlord

A currently assigned project team will no longer have need for facility use, and conditions of occupancy require the return of the facility at the conclusion of the current assignment. If the facility is considered for follow-on use after the current project team vacates, the PMO or project manager may have to renegotiate an extension to continue facility use. Otherwise, this situation warrants return of facility (or work space) control to the relevant organization or customer's facility manager, and this usually includes a variety of administrative activities to document that return transfer of responsibility. The PMO should track the transfer activities that are conducted to ensure that all conditions of use and facility close out have been satisfied. It can then remove the facility from its facility tracking list.

Conclusion of Leasing Arrangement

This disposition option arises from either dispersal or relocation of the project team from a leased facility. If the facility is considered for follow-on use by another project team, the leasing agreement is simply reviewed to ensure that such an assignment is covered, and any needed adjustments to the lease are then negotiated and implemented to accommodate the new project team. Lease close out could be compounded by the need to address issues of lease compliance and duration of use, and the project manager or PMO should use available legal advisors and facility management professionals to lead that type of encounter. Otherwise, the facility is simply returned to the landlord, and the PMO monitors lease close out activities to ensure a timely and distinct return of property responsibility. It can then remove the facility from its facility tracking list.

Deactivation

Deactivation occurs when a vacated project team facility becomes unavailable for reassignment but is not otherwise disposed. This results when facility managers take action to shut down the facility pending management decisions for its further use. Or, the facility could be taken out of use for major maintenance, refurbishment, or add-on construction. The PMO will need to track the status of a deactivated facility and bring it back to consideration for project team assignment when the facility is again activated for utilization, assuming that it is again made available for project team assignments.

Transfer of Ownership/Property Sales

A project team facility, vacated or not, may become slated for sale. The PMO should be positioned to learn about such organizational decisions as a means to assist in project team relocation, if necessary, or to simply recognize nonavailability of a particular facility for future planning of project team work space.

Destruction

Similar to a facility sale, a project team facility, vacated or not, may become slated for destruction. Again, the PMO should ensure that it is notified of such organizational decisions regarding facilities used by project teams. The PMO will then note future nonavailability of the facility, but it may also want to pursue any intentions to replace the facility through construction of a new facility. The PMO can then track facility availability accordingly.

Manage Project Equipment

The primary purpose of PMO involvement in equipment management is to optimize the use and assignment — and potential reuse and reassignment — of project equipment across multiple project efforts as a means to make equipment acquisitions and deployment more cost effective for the relevant organization. For example, a single, expensive piece of equipment (e.g., special tool or precision measurement device) can be obtained and shared across projects to reduce the expense instead of replicating equipment purchases for each project. Savings can be realized if a centralized authority such as the PMO can manage and control that equipment. Similarly, project expense can be reduced when multiple pieces of equipment (e.g., laptop computers) can be purchased in volume. The PMO can be instrumental in achieving these types of benefits.

There are three primary activities prescribed for PMO involvement in equipment management. The PMO can use the guidance provided for these activities to establish a process for managing and tracking equipment acquisition, assignment, and disposition within the project management environment.

Manage Equipment Acquisition

The PMO should establish a process that enables it to manage or otherwise influence equipment acquisition for project team use. Equipment acquisition includes both equipment purchases from external sources (vendors and retailers) and internal transfer of equipment within the relevant organization for use in the project management environment.

This activity focuses on the PMO's efforts to acquire equipment for use by project team members. The following fundamental process steps are recommended.

Inventory Current Equipment

This process step provides information regarding what equipment is currently available for assignment within the relevant organization. This includes equipment that is under PMO control pending assignment, equipment that is under the control of other business units and available for assignment, and equipment that is currently assigned to projects or project team members. In other words, the inventory identifies equipment that is known to exist within the relevant organization that is or can be assigned to project efforts. The equipment inventory should include some basic essential information about each item, for example:

Equipment nomenclature (e.g., equipment name, brand, description, units, etc.)
Equipment type (e.g., technical, office, tools, vehicle, heavy equipment, etc.)
Equipment purchase information (e.g., purchase date, vendor/retailer, cost, etc.)
Equipment information (e.g., tag number, current value, disposal method, etc.)
Equipment maintenance record (e.g., warranty, maintenance action, date, etc.)
Equipment storage location (e.g., PMO, business unit, facility name, etc.)
Equipment status (e.g., ordered, received, available for use, assigned, disposed, etc.)

The inventory list and associated equipment information can be as detailed as needed to help the PMO achieve its responsibilities for managing project equipment. This inventory will also aid in subsequent analyses of equipment acquisition needs by indicating what equipment is currently on hand vs. what needs to be acquired.

Identify and Acquire New Equipment

This process step guides PMO activities regarding how equipment can be acquired for use within the project management environment. The level of PMO authority in approving and funding equipment purchases will dictate the need to extend this process for use at higher levels of funding authority. Note also that equipment acquisition is not necessarily a purchase. It also includes the process that makes equipment within the relevant organization available to project teams. This means that the PMO will collaborate with other business units to identify equipment and to negotiate potential equipment assignments for project team use. However, sometimes equipment purchases will be achieved through the efforts of another business unit, sometimes per PMO requests and with PMO follow-up tracking of the acquisition.

Presumably, the business units of the relevant organization are already providing timely equipment acquisition support to satisfy project requirements. For example, construction projects are likely already getting heavy equipment support from that department; project team members are getting computer equipment from the IT department; and precision equipment is made available for projects by still another department. In such cases, the PMO is simply trying to quantify and document equipment availability for assurance purposes and with consideration for the interests of the project management environment.

This process should include the PMO's consideration of the following steps:

Use equipment utilization analyses to identify needs for equipment replacement or refurbishment.
Use equipment utilization analyses to identify needs for additional or new types of equipment.
Review equipment requests from project managers and project team members to identify needs for additional or new types of equipment.
Convene a formal or informal equipment acquisition review group to validate new equipment acquisition requirements; forward the acquisition request either to the appropriate funding authority or to the business unit that routinely acquires and manages the type of equipment requested.
Conduct negotiations and manage internal equipment acquisitions.
Track the internal equipment acquisition progress, any purchase activity, and equipment receipt.

Update the Equipment Inventory

This process step prompts the PMO to add any newly acquired equipment to the equipment inventory list maintained by the PMO.

Inventory management is usually a part-time task, or one associated with a PMO staff role. Inventory management should not be burdensome. Therefore, when possible, an inventory list should be generated by a business unit that normally monitors equipment acquisition. The PMO's equipment inventory list can be compiled using such transferred information.

Manage Equipment Assignments

The PMO will likely defer responsibility for management of major equipment assignments to the relevant business units. However, it probably should be cognizant of equipment assignments just as a matter of building its awareness of transactions within the project management environment. However, in some organizations, the PMO may be assigned responsibility for management of project team equipment, particularly the standard equipment associated with the technical nature of project work efforts.

This activity addresses PMO equipment management relative to the several recommended steps presented below. Project managers and project team members, as well as the PMO, will perform these steps implemented within the project management environment.

Identify and Issue Standard Equipment

The PMO should identify essential equipment needs of project team members in the relevant organization. When new personnel are introduced as project team members, the PMO can automatically prepare and issue a standard equipment package to those individuals. This is an action that is normally accomplished for personnel assigned full time to project teams and not for casual or part-time project team members. The latter can obtain any needed equipment through the subsequent equipment assignment steps described below.

Manage Equipment Requests

The PMO should develop an equipment request process that can be used to identify any special project equipment needs. This can include a form prepared by the project manager and submitted for PMO review and action during the planning phase of the project management life cycle. This process can be incorporated into the activities specified by the project management methodology. The process should specify how equipment needs can be requested at the discretion of the project manager or individual team member.

Manage Equipment Request Actions

The PMO can review, validate, and record the equipment request. If the request contains equipment under the control of the PMO, it can authorize the assignment. If the request is for equipment available outside the PMO, it can either forward the request to the appropriate business unit equipment provider and track request fulfillment, or it can return the reviewed request for project manager action. If the PMO merely tracks equipment requests and does not become involved in authorization or fulfillment, this process step can be shortened to having the project manager provide the equipment request to the PMO at the same time it is submitted to the equipment provider.

Monitor Equipment Assignments

The PMO should establish the means to identify and track equipment assignments, including equipment fulfillment actions not conducted by the PMO itself. This involves documenting what equipment has been assigned to which project team or individual. It includes specification of the assignment date for all equipment as well as specification of the planned return date for "borrowed" equipment. It may also include specification of pending assignment dates for selected types of equipment. This information can be used to analyze equipment utilization and to forecast future equipment needs within the project management environment.

Manage Equipment Disposition

In general, the PMO will need to identify equipment assignments as either permanent or temporary. Permanent equipment will normally remain with individuals throughout their tenure with the relevant organization or with the project team or project office (assigned to the project manager) as long as it is engaged in conducting one or more projects. Some permanent equipment may be replaced over time, and the PMO will want to note such changes in major assignments of equipment. Otherwise, permanent equipment is usually not returned to PMO or other business unit custody until the individual's association with the project has ended or the project team has dispersed.

Temporary equipment will normally be provided to individuals or project teams for a specified period of time, after which it is returned to the original custodian upon completion of use. It should be noted that temporary equipment could be assigned for extended periods of use, which further warrants keeping track of such equipment assignments.

The equipment assignment process should include instructions to users regarding the preferred disposition of equipment upon fulfillment of its purpose. Individuals and project managers should confirm the disposition actions with the PMO or the equipment custodian as the equipment-assignment period ends. The disposal option applied for each equipment assignment should be noted by the assignment-tracking process and annotated on the equipment inventory list, as appropriate. The following subsections present several options for equipment disposition that can be applied within the project management environment.

Equipment Discard

This form of disposal is used when equipment issued does not require return to the PMO or central custodian. This disposal option is normally used for equipment that results in sufficient wear and tear, or other reduction in performance over time, so as to preclude the need for its return. The project manager or individual then has responsibility for equipment removal, destruction, or other form of disposal. The discard option should be cost effective for the type of equipment affected; otherwise a more cost effective disposal method should be considered.

Equipment Return

This form of equipment disposal requires accounting and return to the PMO or equipment custodian. This method could include an examination of the equipment to ensure that it was properly maintained and used. In particular, this method requires the user to return the equipment for reuse by another person or project team. The PMO or custodian will normally track equipment returns by annotating the inventory list to show equipment status as accounted for and available.

Equipment Transfer

This form of equipment disposal is more or less an administrative exercise associated with equipment assignment tracking. It is used when individual accountability for equipment is transferred as a result of personnel changes, but it does not necessarily represent a change in the purpose of equipment assignment. For example, this disposal method usually pertains to equipment assigned to project managers for project team use, and it is applied when one project manager is transferred and replaced by another. The new project manager then receives accountability for the assigned equipment. This method of disposal does not normally apply to equipment assigned to individual project team members.

Equipment Loss

This form of disposal accounts for premature loss of assigned project equipment due to misplacement, theft, or inadvertent damage or destruction. These conditions obviously make the equipment unavailable for use and may require replacement action. This disposal method is identified to the PMO or equipment custodian as soon as the event is identified. This allows any relevant guiding policies to be implemented (e.g., investigation, law-enforcement notification, security-control notification, etc.) and for the equipment assignment process and inventory list to be updated. Certain conditions of equipment loss, per project needs and business priorities, may trigger the assignment of replacement equipment.