ILTA White Paper

as the economic crunch forced our firms and law departments to take unprecedented cost-cutting measures. On the bright side, if the attendance at our annual conference is any indicator, we might be starting to see some signs of recovery. Regardless of the whims of fate, project management remains a relevant, value-added discipline firmly entrenched in many of our organizations. Of course, the sizes, scopes and approaches involved continue to vary from one place to the next. The 2010 Project Management Survey confirmed some suspicions regarding how project management has evolved over the past two years, though it also included a few surprises. Here we offer an overview of what your peers had to say in response to the survey, as well as what we think might be hidden behind the numbers. STEADY AS SHE GOES, WITH A FEW SURPRISES The number of responses to this year’s survey was up slightly from 2008. We had a total of 142 member entities participate, which included 25 organizations that spoke up in both 2008 and 2010. The proportion of small- and medium-sized firms responding this year appears to have increased a bit — maybe. For the 2010 survey, we realigned the size designations to correspond with ILTA’s official member categories, which shifted some firms into those lower brackets. Regardless of this shift, the responses tell an interesting story, complete with some noteworthy differences that do seem to be driven by the size of the organization. The not-so-great news is that three responding firms reported disbanding their Project Management Office (PMO) in the past 18 months for various reasons, which is not altogether unexpected given the recent economic pressures. Surprisingly, two of these three were “mega- sized” firms with more than 700 attorneys, which is surprising because firms that size tend to take a more formal, structured approach to project management in general. The better news is that, although fewer total firms reported having a PMO in place, most respondents with an established team were able to hold on through the roller coaster ride of the last two years. For the most part, these teams are situated within the IT departments of their organizations and most often include a manager or team leader along with a combination of project managers and business analysts. The addition of business analysts to the team is on the rise compared to what we saw in 2008. Comparing 2008 and 2010 responses seems to indicate that many of these PMOs are shifting away from managing the entire IT-project portfolio and toward sharing more of that responsibility with other peers in the IT organization. On the other hand, it also appears that the volume of responsibilities beyond managing individual projects is on the rise for most PMOs, with an increasing emphasis on setting standards, providing documentation and training their colleagues. This additional effort appears to be paying off. When we asked how well others in the organization understood various project management principles, respondents indicated that their colleagues were starting to catch on in much greater numbers than two years ago. www.iltanet.org Project Management Survey 3

• Cover