About the PMO

About the PMO

The Project Management Office is the department in Rice OIT that helps organizations ensure projects and programs are delivered successfully on time, on budget, and with quality targets. Our seasoned project managers participate, communicate, and collaborate with the governance group on project selection, prioritization, and performance. Finally, we define and maintain the standards for project execution.

Our role is to:

• Manage the project portfolio

• Collect project proposals and business cases

• Provide resources for managing projects

• Engage stakeholders and functional partners

• Support deployment of new functionality

• Manage methodology standards and flexibility

What is a Project?

A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service or result. All projects should go through an assessment and requirements analysis.

Typical characteristics of an implementation project:

• Includes an assessment

• Requires more than six months of effort

• Requires committed resources from more than one OIT department

• Requires engagement from two or more departments outside of OIT

• Will result in process change and/or organizational change

• Involves external vendors

• Strategic or critical to security / operations of the entire university

• Must be delivered within a specific timeframe

Depending on the nature of the project, the type of project manager assigned could vary. Below are some guidelines.