The Molson Coors Operational Portfolio Architecture: A Case Study

Abstract

After decades of progress, IT projects are still too likely to fail. Managing projects for success has become a critical goal for many organizations. Project portfolio management started in the Coors Brewing Company (CBC)1 as a way to improve the success rates of IT projects. Before the creation of an IT program management office (PMO) about 65 percent of running projects were rated as healthy (essentially on-time and on-budget); after the creation of the IT PMO, as many as 95 percent of the ongoing projects became rated as healthy. While the IT PMO was dramatically improving the efficiency of the IT organization, the New Product Packages (NPP) organization was implementing its own product program management office. Ultimately, the combined buzz of these two success stories within Coors led the CEO to sanction the creation of a U.S.-divisional PMO -- known as the CBC PMO. With the recent merger with Molson Canada another layer was created called the Global PMO. What started as a strat