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The Project Management Office: setting IT projects up for greater success

Members of IT-GPS posing together at the 2025 summer picnic. Front row, left to right: Renee Gray, Deepak Bhatnagar, and Tajinder Singh. Back row, left to right: Carl Harris, Megan Stewards, Kyle Johnson, Karen Herrington, and Lisa Sedlak.
Members of IT-GPS at the 2025 summer picnic. Front l-r: Renee Gray, Deepak Bhatnagar, Tajinder Singh. Back l-r: Carl Harris, Megan Stewards, Kyle Johnson, Karen Herrington, Lisa Sedlak

Whether they impact users across the university, or just in a select group, IT projects can be complex in nature, and typically require the participation of subject matter experts across IT and administrative roles. For such high priority projects to be the most successful, proper support and management is essential.

To enhance the success probability for significant IT projects across the institution, and to provide guidance for other kinds of IT projects, the Division of IT established a new IT Project Management Office (PMO) in summer 2025.

Members of IT-GPS posing together at the 2025 summer picnic. Front row, left to right: Renee Gray, Deepak Bhatnagar, and Tajinder Singh. Back row, left to right: Carl Harris, Megan Stewards, Kyle Johnson, Karen Herrington, and Lisa Sedlak.
Members of IT-GPS at the 2025 summer picnic. Front l-r: Renee Gray, Deepak Bhatnagar, Tajinder Singh. Back l-r: Carl Harris, Megan Stewards, Kyle Johnson, Karen Herrington, Lisa Sedlak

Part of the IT Governance, Planning, and Strategy unit, the PMO serves as the hub for the university’s IT projects and programs. By building awareness of university priorities for technology investments, the PMO facilitates a culture of project delivery, adoption of common practices, and identification of common solutions across academic, research, and administrative areas. The office currently includes a PMO director and three full-time project managers.

The PMO has already seen success with several high-impact projects, such as the Banner Time Entry System (BTE) project to replace the outdated TimeClock Plus system used by 8,500 Virginia Tech employees, and the IT Security Awareness Training Program, which revised annual required training courses for a better user experience, and created compliance dashboards for managers, resulting in a significant boost in compliance.

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