MGM Mirage seeks to expand IT project management office
Two years ago, Myrna Soto established an IT project management office at MGM Mirage, the US$7.7 billion casino entertainment company. Now Soto, who is the chief information security officer (CISO) and vice president of IT governance, wants to expand the IT project management office into an enterprise project management office that would oversee all manner of projects -- not just IT projects -- for the company.
According to a study of the effectiveness of PMOs conducted by Business Information Architects, a Toronto-based consulting firm, enterprise project management offices are more effective than departmental PMOs because they're more likely to earn executive support and because projects approved through an enterprise PMO are more likely to be aligned with corporate strategy and business goals.
Soto says her goal has always been to expand the IT PMO into an enterprise PMO and to have all projects and portfolios "of a certain significance or certain amount of capital" funneled through the enterprise PMO because she believes all corporate projects can benefit from the discipline of a project management framework and methodology.
"Any organization that is making significant investments is in need of watching and monitoring their investments to make sure they're getting the right return and utilizing their resources as best they can," she says.
And MGM Mirage certainly has one big investment portfolio. The IT project management office currently oversees some 230 projects valued between $90 and $100 million. Meanwhile, the company is in the process of building CityCenter, an $8 billion complex that will feature hotels, condominiums, a casino, a conference center and retail space.
Soto is well-positioned to advance the cause of the enterprise project management office at MGM Mirage. She created an enterprise project management office at two previous employers, Broadspire and a division of American Express, and she says that the IT project management office she established at MGM Mirage has received a positive response from functional executives in marketing, corporate strategy and development.
"They had noticed significant changes in the IT organization as far as how we were using different tools and the PMO framework to articulate global priorities and engage with stakeholders," says Soto. "They recognized that they had, for the size of their organization, a pretty robust portfolio of initiatives that they were having a difficult time getting their arms around. They wanted to understand how they could use a similar framework to better manage projects and resources."
She continues: "We had a number of entities reach out to us and ask to use the toolsets, which we've made available to them." (MGM Mirage uses CA's Clarity project portfolio management software.)
The effort to transform the IT PMO into an enterprise PMO isn't as far along as Soto would like it to be. She says it's only about 20 or 30 percent underway, having been sidelined by other corporate priorities, including the construction of CityCenter. But she's setting the groundwork: Soto has piqued the interest of some marketing, development and corporate strategy executives in IT's project management framework.
She hopes that those functions will pilot it in 2009. She's also sold them on Clarity. She says the groups that have used the tool see how easy it is to configure reports and to use it to communicate in real-time. The software also allows them to manage capacity and demand, accurately track capital and expense costs, and use forecasting models to green-light a new project or re-prioritize a portfolio.
What Soto still needs to figure out is how the enterprise project management office will be structured and whether it will report into the finance organization, the office of the CEO or another office inside the company. Working with others, she also has to figure out ways to adapt IT's project management practices and framework for non-IT projects.
"Our methodology and framework needs to adapt to different projects being done," says Soto. "Even in IT, managing a project is not one shoe fits all."
» posted by ITworld staff
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As someone who has worked
As someone who has worked for MGMM I have grave doubts as to the effectiveness of the PMO.While it is certainly indeed a good idea to have effective governance over your organization it is too easy to become ensnared in the quagmire that Project Management can become.
First - Adding more Project Management without the staff/time necessary to support those efforts only frustrate the staff attempting to comply with the reporting necessary to support the Project, Departmental, and Supervisory requirements.
Second - Without adequate training on the systems and procedures the additional paperwork further frustrates and complicates, rather than supports, the efforts of the staff who attempt to support the goals.
Eventually this will lead to a demoralization of the workforce and an increased attrition rate. This has been proven by the observed the steady march of IT employees at MGM towards the door during the last year or so.
Another former MGMer
The previous commenter said the morale could be impacted by the expansion of the PMO. I'm not sure the morale could be worse. I work at MGM Mirage. While the IT group has many good ideas, this is an old-school Vegas organization. It's a good-old-boys network where the top guys in the company control things. They'll never give Myrna the ability to do what she wants and needs to do.MGM Mirage has turned into a horrible place to work, and the new CIO is just another one of those good-old-boys. Scot will never move this forward, and that's why half the people in IT are looking for new jobs. Who knows when the next round of layoffs will come. Projects are cut and morale sucks. There's no way, in this economgy, Myrna's going to get to do what she wants to do.
Time to move on.
M
Former Boss of Myrna's
It is unfortunate that despite all the great ideas and leadership that Myrna may bring to the table she will not be supported any longer. She is well beyond the mentality of this organization. She has lead IT organizations to greater heights and could really make a difference at MGM MIRAGE but was passed up for the CIO role and is wasting her time there. Too bad - wish her luck where ever she ends up. Great Mind, Great Leadership - backward organization