Changing the Organization – Starting a PMO and Implementing Portfolio Management at UCR

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Starting in 2019, UCR Information Technology Solutions (ITS) came to the decision that we needed to formalize and centralize the portfolio and project management processes utilized within the organization and with the campus IT advisory and governance groups.  We will discuss the approach we have used in setting up the PM team from a set of diverse individuals with a wide range of skills and the steps we have taken to formalize and move forward the organizational change aspects of establishing governance and formal project management. We will discuss the approaches we have used in getting “buy in” from various levels of ITS and the UCR executive leadership.   We will also discuss the lessons we have learned along the way about the campus and organizational reactions to changes we have been making and look at some pitfalls we avoided and some we should have avoided.  Finally we will discuss the approach we have used in transitioning the team to remote work both in support of COVID-19 operations and making the remote approach more permanent for the team going forward.