Project Management Office
Overview: What is the IT PMO?
The Information Technology (IT) Project Management Office (PMO) is a task force of IT professionals who present quarterly reports on the status of major projects within our IT organization. Our project portfolio is organized into departmental teams or folders, each containing that team's project plans. This framework provides our IT leadership with a unified and transparent view of projects across our division.
The IT PMO interfaces with IT managers, technical leads, and the IT Leadership Council to align IT's projects with the University's strategic goals. Our responsibilities also include recommending project management standards, providing metrics on project and portfolio performance, and fostering a framework for project leadership and knowledge sharing throughout the organization. The IT PMO Governance document provides a more in-depth description of the IT PMO's purpose.
IT currently uses an online project management platform to track project tasks, plans, and portfolios. IT staff interested in signing up for our current platform should contact the Director of the IT Project Management Office. Other resources augmenting our practice include, but are not limited to, Google Workspace and Coursera.
Self-Training
Students, faculty, and staff can search for free professional development classes on Coursera or other online sources. In addition to searching for "project management," some commonly used project management (PM) terms to explore are:
- Academic Continuity
- Action Item
- AGILE
- Budget Analysis
- Business Continuity
- Buy-in
- Change Fatigue
- Change Management
- Closing
- Communications Plan
- Critical Path
- Customer Support
- Delegation
- Deliverables
- Executing
- Fallback Plan
- Fixed Price
- GANTT
- Impact/Downtime
- Initiating
- Monitoring
- Pilot Test
- Planned vs. Actual
- Planning
- Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
- Readiness
- Request for Proposals (RFP)
- Risk Management
- Scope Creep
- Soft Skills
- Sponsorship
- Time & Materials
Those interested in becoming a certified project management professional, or PMP, can follow the guidelines outlined at the Project Management Institute's website (PMI.org). The PMI guidelines are not free; they require a paid membership. However, PMI's guidelines combined with their exam discount and free guide entitled the "Project Management Body of Knowledge" (PMBOK), are offered as incentives to save money for those seeking the PMP certification. Interested persons may contact the Director of the IT Project Management Office for guidance.
In-House Resources for Pepperdine PMs
- Consultant Services Agreement (CSA): required when new, outside contractors come onsite to provide their services at our Pepperdine campuses. Contact the Office of the General Counsel for the newest version of the CSA.
- Contracts & Counseling: Pepperdine's Office of the General Counsel offers valuable guidance in explaining legal aspects of university contracts. Work with your supervisor and the General Counsel's office for your contract-related questions. University policy states that contracts of $75K or more or contracts that are considered high-risk are required to be reviewed by Pepperdine's Office of the General Counsel. Inquire about their next scheduled seminar on contract management to learn more about managing contracts on behalf of the university.
- eSign: Pepperdine's electronic signature service for signing contracts, etc.
- Google Workspace: a full suite of Google applications. Training videos and courses can be found on Pepperdine's or Google's websites.
- Zoom: widely used at Pepperdine for web conferencing and desktop sharing. Google Meet is a valuable backup option.
- People Skills Training: Pepperdine's Human Resources department periodically offers interactive people skills training, which provides participants with valuable knowledge on how to collaborate with various personality types. This course is a "must have" for project management and team building. Please contact HR for the next available class.
- Final Exam Schedule: IT schedules "Restricted Periods," short windows of time during which certain project-related activities are deliberately placed on hold to maintain academic continuity. "Restricted Periods" help to ensure that there are no planned service outages during finals and grading. Project managers should contact the Office of the University Registrar for the most up-to-date schedule of upcoming final exams and grading periods.