By Frederick A. Arnold,
PMP, PMI Fellow
Keeping Tabs is Essential for PMI
erformance monitoring is
P
important for any organization,
and is essential in these partic-
ularly difficult economic times.
Not-for-profit boards need to
oversee many aspects of inter-
nal operations, including pro-
gram direction, budgets, value to
membership, and the performance of
both the chief executive officer and the
organization in total. Additionally,
organizations such as PMI have a
strategic plan, and their boards are
charged with monitoring progress
against that strategic plan.
To properly monitor an organization’s performance, the responsible
group needs to assess critical questions:
1) What is the organization’s purpose?
2) How well is the purpose being
achieved?
3) Are there better ways to achieve
the purpose?
A typical board of directors’ oversight
checklist includes items such as:
■ Arranging for and receiving annual
financial audits (and taking necessary action based on audit results);
■ Assessing risks;
■ Approving an annual budget;
■ Monitoring programs;
■ Reviewing the performance of the
chief executive officer and the
organization; and
■ Assessing the board’s own performance.
THE KEY ROLE OF THE
PERFORMANCE OVERSIGHT
COMMITTEE
The Performance Oversight Committee
(POC), a standing committee of the
PMI Board of Directors, is charged
with performance monitoring.
According to the POC’s charter, the
committee is responsible for monitoring
PMI’s operational and financial performance, in accordance with Rule of the
Board 6.3, Organizational Monitoring.
The POC functions as the Board’s
audit committee and is directly
involved in the annual independent
financial audit. Ongoing POC deliverables as described in the committee
charter also include establishing performance metrics; performing organi-
and Budget to the PMI Strategic Plan.
Additionally, the POC monitors
investment policy implementation,
reviews investment performance and
rationale, and considers investment-related issues deemed necessary and
appropriate to PMI’s mission. The
committee also monitors implementation of the PMI reserve policy.
Monitoring and Controlling
Helps Maintain Success
zational oversight (including using the
Balanced Scorecard method for determining progress on the Strategic
Plan); working with the president and
CEO on Balanced Scorecard measure
adjustments, targets and ranges; and
reporting of results.
Other POC monitoring duties
center on operational oversight. The
committee’s charter includes annually
assessing Institute policies that have
implications for operational and financial monitoring, and reviewing and
recommending changes or concurring
with the president and CEO on alignment of PMI’s Annual Program Plan
SIGNPOSTS FOR MONITORING
PROGRESS
PMI’s extraordinary growth in the
past five years makes it even more
important for POC to monitor performance. POC members consult regularly to ensure that best practices are
incorporated.
The PMI Strategic Plan, downloadable from PMI.org, is a critical guiding
document and is used by the PMI
Board for both its planning and monitoring functions. The various time
horizons in the PMI Strategic Plan
Continued on page 4
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