Welcome to the Joliet Junior College Project Management Office (PMO)

Brought to you by the department of Information Technology, the Project Management Office's (PMO) main objective is to ensure that project management is applied consistently and effectively across organizational projects. The foundation of the PMO is based on the best practices and guidelines from the Project Management Institute.

The Project Management Office will strive to leverage and improve best practices in project management, increase end-user productivity, reduce project problems, and deliver projects in a timely and controlled manner.

The following is a partial list of projects actively being monitored by the Project Management Office:

• Angel LMS
• ANGEL XEI
• Architect DMZ Solution
• Information Technology Server Consolidation Project
• Bookstore E-Commerce Implementation
• Creation of a College Intranet
• Email Migration to Exchange 2007
• Office 2007 Deployment to Staff and Students
• Complete JJC Web Site Redesign

PMO Benefits

• Better visibility into project status
• Tighter change control
• Higher Return On Investment (ROI)
• Fewer failures
• More projects completed on time within budget
• More effective risk management
• Better management of external partners

Why the PMO is Important

• IT organizations that have organizational standards for project management, including a program office with suitable governance, will experience half the major project costs overruns, delays and cancellations of those that fail to do so.
• IT organizations failing to qualify a contractor's business understanding and to administer contracts will receive deliverables that do not address at least 15 percent of critical requirements in three out of four contracts.
• Organizations using rigorous quality and validation criteria to move projects from the requirements phase to the development phase will save more than 25 percent in operational costs for cancelled projects.
• Projects managed without a PMO typically experience scope creep of 33-60%.
• A recent IT departmental study has shown that up to 64% of resource activities are misaligned with the organization’s current priorities. But as much as one third of that 64% is also misaligned with those of the department.

Information Technology is very excited to help project teams collaborate effectively, achieve higher levels of project awareness and drive project success. Please revisit this Web site to view additional content.

Here are the answers to your questions.

Q: Many people ask why a PMO is necessary.

A: IT departments have often struggled to deliver projects on time and within budget. This is mainly attributed to lack of communication and general project awareness.

Q: Why can’t IT simply take my requests and turn them around as quickly as possible?

A: It is important that the PMO initiate, structure and manage its projects in a fair and quantifiable manner as opposed to providing a quick fix that does not reflect goals and objectives set forth by the college committees.

Q: How many resources does a PMO require?

A: The role of a Project Management Office is that of a facilitator. Project Managers, Project Teams and Sponsors are all part of the process and augment available project resources.

Q: Who will be staffing our PMO?

A: It will change. Various IT and other college resources are always involved.

Q: When will the PMO come online?

A: The official launch of the project management web site is November 1, 2007. The site will be updated weekly and/or as new information becomes available. The comprehensiveness and structure of this site will evolve as our PMO grows.

Q: When will the PMO be available to me?

A: Right now, contact us as needed.

Q: What can I use the PMO for?

A: To access project information, initiate a project, time schedules, project correspondence and project milestones. The project management office website will contain important information concerning scheduled, ongoing and future projects. Please visit this site often to view project updates.

Thank you and we look forward to your ongoing feedback. Please email your comments to dlantz@jjc.edu or jserr@jjc.edu.

What project would you like accomplished?