文/Deborah Bigelow 譯/趙克琛

如果你很在乎商業(yè)分析師的評價，那么你應(yīng)該設(shè)立CPO（首席項(xiàng)目執(zhí)行官）一職作為貴公司的關(guān)鍵職位。

隨著項(xiàng)目管理的重要性日益得到體現(xiàn)，公司決策層在努力尋找一種方法將項(xiàng)目與公司的商業(yè)目標(biāo)聯(lián)系起來。很普遍的一種現(xiàn)象是，那些目標(biāo)很少與公司戰(zhàn)略一致的項(xiàng)目得到了批準(zhǔn)。其原因通常是，沒有一個組織實(shí)體具體負(fù)責(zé)將項(xiàng)目與公司的戰(zhàn)略對應(yīng)起來，并負(fù)責(zé)監(jiān)控項(xiàng)目和項(xiàng)目群組的情況使之符合公司戰(zhàn)略規(guī)劃。

設(shè)立首席項(xiàng)目官（CPO）一職的實(shí)際目的是在公司內(nèi)部所有領(lǐng)域提供對項(xiàng)目的監(jiān)管，管理公司級別的項(xiàng)目，以及監(jiān)督公司范圍內(nèi)所有項(xiàng)目的資源分配和使用情況?？绮块T的項(xiàng)目均由此職支持。理想狀況下，公司應(yīng)盡量使CPO以總監(jiān)或副總裁之級別與其他高管平起平坐。

“首席項(xiàng)目官很容易被架空成虛職——他們制訂了寬松的目標(biāo)，”美國康涅狄格州斯坦福市META公司的高級研究分析師美琳達(dá)·貝羅說，“公司必須使CPO成為一名‘推動者’或‘管家’，并獲得最高管理層的支持，并配備合適的人員和好的環(huán)境，甚至應(yīng)該為此他建立的嚴(yán)格制度和流程改進(jìn)。

根據(jù)Garter Group（蓋勒普集團(tuán)）的研究顯示，在IT企業(yè)里面，已經(jīng)建立了項(xiàng)目管理企業(yè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的，而且項(xiàng)目管理辦公室正常運(yùn)做的公司，與那些沒有建立項(xiàng)目管理企業(yè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的，也沒有建立項(xiàng)目管理辦公室的公司相比，項(xiàng)目超支、項(xiàng)目延期和項(xiàng)目取消撤消的情況會減少一半。給予項(xiàng)目所需的資源和重視之后，項(xiàng)目管理必須被提升到企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略高度，這樣它的影響會在財(cái)務(wù)底線上被體現(xiàn)出來。

由于現(xiàn)有的項(xiàng)目管理在公司里的定位，擁有新的企業(yè)解決方案的軟件供應(yīng)商并不能達(dá)到很高的層面。項(xiàng)目管理目前還是被過多的看作“職能活動”。

企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略的一個重要組成部分是為項(xiàng)目的實(shí)施設(shè)計(jì)一個合適的組織架構(gòu)。項(xiàng)目是設(shè)計(jì)和執(zhí)行企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略的基石，需要進(jìn)行持續(xù)的戰(zhàn)略管理和監(jiān)督。如果缺少合適的機(jī)制使項(xiàng)目與企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略目標(biāo)結(jié)合，那么公司就會遭受由輕率的財(cái)務(wù)行為、有效戰(zhàn)略的延期以及資源浪費(fèi)等帶來的后果，同時，助長了容忍公司資源的管理質(zhì)量低下的風(fēng)氣。對商業(yè)成功的一項(xiàng)最大威脅是公司在認(rèn)識企業(yè)解決方案的價值和有效性方面的能力欠缺。然而公司在引入更強(qiáng)勢的項(xiàng)目管理治理手法時必須注重實(shí)效。

“這是一項(xiàng)需要權(quán)衡的工作，”貝羅認(rèn)為?！叭绻幻鸆PO軟弱無力的話，他/她同樣會失敗。這看上去很簡單，‘找個人來負(fù)責(zé)，你會做得很好?！聦?shí)上這并不管用，人們的習(xí)慣并沒有改變。”

進(jìn)入21世紀(jì)，項(xiàng)目管理正在發(fā)生變化。傳統(tǒng)項(xiàng)目管理著眼于效率、運(yùn)營績效以及進(jìn)度和預(yù)算目標(biāo)的完成。今天，這些仍然很重要，但不斷變化的商業(yè)環(huán)境和全球化競爭格局要求我們發(fā)掘新的方法來把項(xiàng)目變成強(qiáng)大而有競爭力的武器。

為了達(dá)到這些戰(zhàn)略目標(biāo)，項(xiàng)目管理不能夠再被當(dāng)成日常運(yùn)作行為來看待，它在企業(yè)中的定位必須是戰(zhàn)略性的?，F(xiàn)代的公司正在進(jìn)行企業(yè)變革創(chuàng)新，如再造、標(biāo)桿管理、同步工程和自我生產(chǎn)管理等，隨著這些公司中可選團(tuán)隊(duì)的出現(xiàn)，項(xiàng)目管理創(chuàng)立了一種戰(zhàn)略性的途徑。傳統(tǒng)公司的組織結(jié)構(gòu)已經(jīng)永久的被一種扁平的項(xiàng)目形式組織結(jié)構(gòu)所取代。

下一次使項(xiàng)目管理完全發(fā)揮效用的組織變革將會是由一位CPO全面管理跨職能部門的項(xiàng)目活動，同時提供組織所必需的戰(zhàn)略遠(yuǎn)景。

CPO的八項(xiàng)重要職責(zé)
1.戰(zhàn)略輸入與方向引領(lǐng)
2.項(xiàng)目群組管理
3.資源優(yōu)化
4.業(yè)務(wù)接口
5.項(xiàng)目管理標(biāo)準(zhǔn)、政策、方針和流程的開發(fā)
6.項(xiàng)目的總結(jié)與分析
7.預(yù)算控制
8.項(xiàng)目管理能力發(fā)展

作者簡介：Deborah Bigelow，PMP，系PM Solution Inc.的執(zhí)行副總裁，該公司是一家位于美國賓夕法尼亞州Havertown的項(xiàng)目管理咨詢公司。Bigelow于1992年至1996年期間曾任美國項(xiàng)目管理協(xié)會（PMI）的常務(wù)董事。

原文：

　　　　　　　　Does Your Organization Have a CPO?

By Deborah Bigelow

If you care about what business analysts say, you should have a chief project officer as a key position within your organization.

As project management has gained in importance, corporate executives have struggled to find a way to link strategic business objectives with projects. Too often, projects that have little if any connection to corporate strategy get the green light. This is usually because there is no organizational entity with responsibility to map strategy to projects and to monitor projects and portfolios against strategic initiatives.

Establishing the position of chief project officer (CPO) provides project oversight in virtually all areas of an organization, managing corporate level projects and overseeing corporate wide resource distribution and allocation on all projects. Projects that cross divisions fall under the auspices of this position. Ideally, organization should strive to have a CPO sit at the director or vice president level with other senior executives in the organization.

“Chief project officers can be easily eviscerated – they make easy targets,” says Melinda Ballou, senior research analyst at META Group Inc., Stamford, Conn., USA. “Organization must make a CPO a ‘facilitator’ or ‘steward’ with the highest level of executive support, appropriate staffing and good marketing or run the risk of undermining the very rigor and process improvements that they’re seeking to establish.”

Research from the Gartner Group suggests that information systems organizations, which establish enterprise standards for project management including a project office with suitable governance, will experience half as many major project cost overruns, delays and cancellations as those that fail to do so. Given the resources necessary and the competitive importance of projects, the profession of project management must be elevated to strategic level so that its impact can felt at the bottom line.

Software vendors, with their new enterprise solutions, are unable to reach the senior level due to the current positioning of project management within organizations. Project management is still too often seen as a “functional activity”.

An important part of corporate strategy is an appropriate organizational design for the implementation of projects. Projects are the basic building blocks in the design and execution of corporate strategies, requiring ongoing strategic management and surveillance. Without the proper mechanism for aligning projects with strategic objectives, organizations will experience imprudent financial performance, delay of effective strategies, wasted resources and support of a culture that condones poor quality in the management of corporate resources. One of the greatest threats to business success is an organization’s inability to see the value and effectiveness of enterprise solutions. But organizations must be pragmatic as they bring in stronger project management governance.

“It’s a balancing act,” Ballou says. “Because if the CPO is anemic, she or he will also fail. It may seem easy. ‘Put someone in charge, and you’ll do fine.’ But it doesn’t work that way in practice because people’s habits are unbending.”

Project management in the 21st century is changing. Traditional project management focused on efficiency, operational performance, and meeting time and budget goals. While these are still important, today’s dynamic business environment and global competition require finding new ways to make projects into powerful, competitive weapons.

In the quest to reach these strategic objectives, project management no longer can be perceived as another operational activity. Its position in the organization must be strategic. Project management has created a strategic pathway with the emergence of alternative teams in the modern organization that deal with change initiatives, such as reengineering, benchmarking, simultaneous engineering and self-managed production. Traditional organizational hierarchies have been changed forever in favor of a horizontal, projectized form of organizational structure.

The next organizational change necessary to enable project management to be fully effective will be to have a CPO managing cross-functional activities and providing the strategic perspective that every organization needs.

Eight Critical Responsibilities of a CPO
1.Strategic Input and Direction
2.Project Portfolio Management
3.Resource Prioritization
4.Business Interface
5.Development of Project Management Standards, Policies, Guidelines and Procedures
6.Project Review and Analysis
7.Budget
8.Project Management Competency Development

Deborah Bigelow, PMP, is executive vice president of PM Solutions Inc., a Havertown, Pa., USA-based project management consulting company, She was executive director of the Project management Institute from 1992 through 1996.

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