The article is based on material in the white paper Building and Leading a

Successful Global PMO and PM Professional Program, presented by Ron

Kempf, PMP, at PMI Global Congress 2004Europe.

DEVELOPING A STRONG
PMO FRAMEWORK
SET THE STAGE FOR
HPS GREAT RESULTS IN
PROJECT MANAGEMENT.

SOLID
FOUNDATION
BY MARCIA JEDD

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

>
>
>
>

Consistent and strong project management processes

and methodologies ensure higher success rates.
A centralized PMO (project management office) structure brings scalable capability to the discipline.
Project managers are supported and nurtured by
plenty of training, tiered certification programs and
venues to share knowledge.
Methods to continuously improve project outcomes and
the project management discipline include up-to-date
project management software reporting as well as formal and informal opportunities to share experiences.

MAY 2005 | PM NETWORK 65

TECH
GIANT

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), Palo and provide project management mentorship to project
Alto, Calif., USA, had humble managers worldwide. Today, Ms. Speitel and Mr. Kempf
beginnings. Electrical engineers are joined by a few other PMO staff in the United States to
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard comprise the worldwide PMO office at HP. The global
officially launched HP in PMO is supported by regional PMOs in the Americas,
Packards tiny garage in 1939, where it built and sold oscil- Europe, Mideast and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific and
lators to the Walt Disney Co., one of its first customers. Japan, as well as individual country PMOs.
Around the time HP went public in the late 1950s, digital >In short, HPs PMO structure provides the support for
circuit maker Digital Equipment Corp. was just forming. In new business development and training of HP project man1998, Digital Equipment was swallowed by PC maker Com- agers worldwide. We dont manage the projects through the
paq Computer Corp., the largest acquisition ever in the PMOs. We support the organization to support the projects, Mr. Kempf says, noting the PMOs work closely with
industry, later topped by HPs 2002 merger with Compaq.
The Compaq-HP merger produced one of the largest project managers in HP Services three areas: consulting and
Fortune 500 companies today: $80 billion in annual revenues integration, managed services (outsourcing) and technology
and operations in more than 160 countries. Project manage- services. These units employ some 65,000 professionals.
Mr. Kempf estimates HP Services oversees approximately
ment at HP has grown and evolved with the company, says
Ron Kempf, PMP, director of project management compe- 5,000 projects each year, ranging in cost from $50,000 to
tency at HP Services. During the HP-Compaq merger, rep- several billion. Its robust set of project management
resentatives from both companies sat down together to cull processes and training programs have allowed it to attract
the best practices across its operations. Our project man- and win big projects, such as managing Procter & Gambles
agement methodology was robust on both sides, says Mr. (P&G) IT infrastructure and other forms of business process
outsourcingthe project, awarded in 2003, is valued at $3
Kempf, who hails from Digital Equipment.
Since
taking
some
of
the
best
practices
from
its
forerunner
billion over 10 years and entails transitioning 1,850 P&G
>
companies, HP enhanced its project management discipline. employees from 50 countries to HP employee status.
A lot of our current project management processes came
from Digital Equipment, says Renee Speitel, vice president Scalable Plug and Play
of HP services engagement office (PMO). We combined the This formalized PMO structure has allowed HP to be agile,
best practices of the Digital Equipment-Compaq organization scaling its far-flung global resources to best match the comwith HP into one umbrella. HPs
plexity and size of a project. As a
project management competency
result of plugging into centralized
HP PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
resides in its Technology Solutions
PMO resources, business units
Group, where its Services division
make swift use of company
provides consulting IT outsourcing
resources to pursue a diverse range
Employees Trained
6,000+
and customer-support services.
of projects. Our project manageSo how does an 800-pound
ment goals and methodologies all
PMP-Credentialed
2,500
Project Managers
gorilla do project management?
have to support different HP busi(2,000 Within
HP Services)
Very methodically and with discinesses, Ms. Speitel says. Its pracpline, but as Mr. Kempf explains, it
tical and pragmatic with an eye
Employees Earning PMP
Credential Each Month
50
wasnt always that way.
toward managing the risks of a
deal, whether thats risk that moves
Courses Offered
40
in a positive or negative direction.
Formative Years
Number
of
Languages
HPs practices and methods all
HP ran into trouble in the 1980s
Offered
14
scale to fit the size, complexity and
when it was bogged down by projrange of the businesses. For
ects that ran late and over budget.
Customized Certification
Levels (top 3 levels include
instance, HP follows one set of
By the early 1990s, it established a
4
the PMP credential)
guidelines for systems integration
global PMO to combat inefficiencies

BY THE NUMBERS

66 PM NETWORK | MAY 2005 | WWW.PMI.ORG

INNOVATIVE PMO STRUCTURE

projects versus another for IT outsourcing projects.

For a $50,000 deal, you have to have a certain
Having a centralized management structure to support the project
amount of discipline, but you dont have all the rigors
management discipline isnt something readily found at enterprises,
you do for a $1 billion project, Ms. Speitel says.
even those regularly practicing project management on a grand
Digital Equipment held many of the core tenants
scale. Hewlett-Packards (HP) centralized top to bottom PMO
structure, says Renee Speitel, is only now emerging at other compathat currently comprise HPs rigorous processes and
nies, as are advanced levels of project management training.
methodologies. Notably, HPs Customer EngageProject management often is more decentralized at other comment Roadmap evolved from that heritage. The
panies than it is here, Ms. Speitel says. We use common practices
Roadmap, a complex grid that shows the architecthat are deployed through our infrastructure, extending down
ture of a project life cycle, incorporates HPs Soluthrough each country. This is mirrored in our business
tion Opportunity Approval and Review (SOAR)
structure too, providing central management.
Ron Kempf, PMP, notes that the PMOs are in close
processes to bring approval of new business and
contact
with HPs PM Profession Council, which he
implementation progress review in a timely manchairs. The Council has representation by each of the
ner. The process encompasses five areas:
three HP Services divisions and from the PMOs in the
g Opportunity Creation
major world regions to constitute a seven-member team.
g Opportunity Evaluation
We work with our workforce development organization to
g Develop and Propose
make sure we have the right curriculum in place and the right
project management processes in place, Mr. Kempf says.
g Sell and Negotiate
g Delivery.
Some 3,500 project managers at HP Services worldwide the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK
employ this framework to oversee an astounding 3,500 Guide) training, HP curricula includes customized
active projects at any given time. The project managers courses and HP-specific material. For core courses, the
running the customer engagements are running a piece of company works closely with ESI International to develop
business for HP, Mr. Kempf says. Theyre responsible for and teach courses.
Advanced-level project managers attend a week-long
profit and loss, customer satisfaction and other areas, so we
develop the programs necessary for the required skills to Project Management University (PMU), typically held in
address these major topics. About 20 percent of the com- about three to five locations annually, each attended by
panys project managers derive from its Asia Pacific and about 150 employees. Mr. Kempf characterizes PMU as
Japan PMOs with remaining concentrations distributed extremely intensive, featuring a selection of both HP and
external speakers. Wrap-up competitions held at the end
about equally between the Americas and EMEA PMOs.
The PMO framework serves as guidance office and of each PMU event, such as Jeopardy!- or Olympicpartner to HP project managers. The people reviewing style games, are a hit with attendees. PMU and the overall
and approving projects are the business managers. Its a HP Services development program have received awards
process we manage and run for the business to make sure by the American Society of Training & Development.
they do the right thing, Mr.
Kempf says. So small projects typically go through a country-level
THE PROJECT MANAGERS
PMO, bypassing the need for
RUNNING THE CUSTOMER
regional or global PMO approval.

The Human Element

>Much rests on the human element of training and development,
Mr. Kempf says. In addition to the
Project Management Professional
(PMP) credential and A Guide to

ENGAGEMENTS ARE RUNNING A

PIECE OF BUSINESS FOR HP.

Ron Kempf, PMP,

Director, Project Management Competency, HP Services,
Palo Alto, Calif., USA

MAY 2005 | PM NETWORK 67

>Mr. Kempf attributes networking

events at PMU and the informal sharing
of experiences among project managers
as instrumental in fostering knowledge
sharing and mentoring relationships. He
notes that HPs post-training follow-up
surveys also shape its training content.
Every PMU attendee is polled three to
four months after the course to determine

what content theyve put into practice,

among other results.
Other courses, such as how to address
a troubled project, and HPs latest course,
Customer Program Leadership, help to
elevate project managers to advanced levels. The [latter] course is in pilot and typically will be offered as a three-day course
allowing attendees to advance leadership

skills such as communicating with Clevel executives, Mr. Kempf says.

Looping Back
HPs homegrown software applications
are tied with applications such as
Microsoft Project and Primavera TeamPlay under Scorpio, its project reporting
system. Both Mr. Kempf and Ms. Speitel
stress that capturing project information
across various systems is essential, but
believe the one-to-one and small group
sharing of informationwhether at training seminars, in meetings or online
greatly enhances HPs knowledge base of
what works and what doesnt for project
management methodology and training.
Knowledge management is an area
of continued focus. Its important to
bring this knowledge back in and share it
with others, Ms. Speitel says, noting HP
is starting to examine advanced ways to
capture and leverage project data. We
struggle with how to make project information useable.You need search engines
and meta data. You cant just put it into
the network and say the information is
there, she says. So much of the knowledge resides in peoples heads. Its how
you get to that written form, or in mentorships, conference calls and other ways
to share knowledge that counts.
The focus on training and its solid
project management discipline has
served to propel HP toward project success rates of around 70 percent, which
starkly contrasts with overall average
project success rates of around 45 percent to 50 percent for IT industry projects. In our business we make or lose
money depending on how well we execute a project, Ms. Speitel says. We
know for a fact when you dont have disciplined project management, you get
into trouble and lose money. It all comes
down to some fundamentals of not executing the discipline. PM
Marcia Jedd is a Minneapolis, Minn., USA-

Reader Service Number 023

68 PM NETWORK | MAY 2005 | WWW.PMI.ORG

based supply chain and business writer.