Sherwin McAdam

Presentation: How to Mature your Project Management Practices with a PMO

Abstract: Many organizations employ project management practices; however, the delivery can be ad-hoc, decentralized, and provide little to no visibility to the portfolio of projects and programs that are a priority to the organization. Discover how the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) matured its project management practices by creating a project management office (PMO) to improve projects with predictable and consistent processes to ensure efficiency and success. NIST created a PMO based on organizational needs to provide project management services, governance, portfolio management, and improved service management.

Key takeaways:

  • How to deliver strategic project management services with enterprise-wide distribution of project management best practices.
  • Establishing a governance model by creating a set of policies, functions, processes, procedures and responsibilities that define the establishment, management and control of projects.
  • Implementing a portfolio management system to centralize management of projects to achieve strategic objectives.
  • Creating a service management ecosystem to standardize processes centered around meeting customer needs

The PMO offers a variety of benefits to numerous stakeholder groups. Stakeholder benefits will be outlined based on the four pillars of the project: project management services, governance, portfolio management, and service management. Learn how the project team delivered a PMO with competing priorities and a tight timeline. NIST now has a sustainable PMO that guides the strategic selection of projects, monitors its entire portfolio, delivers performance analytics on projects, and engages the NIST PM community by fostering growth and development.

PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills

Biography: Sherwin McAdam is the Project Management Office Program Manager for the Business Operations Office at NIST. Sherwin provides leadership, direction and management of all PMO programs and activities while delivering an Enterprise Service Management model to provide service delivery capabilities, common governance, and consistent service experience.

Mr. McAdam has been in the IT Industry for over twenty-four years and possess extensive experience serving as both a Program and Project Manager in the private and public sectors leading various projects ranging from Project Management Office, Service Management and Cloud Computing, to Application and IT Operations management. Mr. McAdam earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Information Technology from the University of Maryland, University College, holds a master’s degree in Project Management from the George Washington University, and is a Ph.D. student a the University of Maryland, College Park.