RTA launches Program Management Office

The idea was conceived by the IT management team during the establishment of the IT Department, who has selected to partner with IBM, to establish the first PMO at RTA. At present, the PMO is managing an impressive 20 projects.

Supporting RTA's decision to outsource all its IT projects, the PMO has been created to effectively manage the numerous current and future IT projects, to improve road transport and customer services to the UAE. To achieve this endeavour, RTA has selected project managers of high caliber with deep technical as well as project management capabilities.

Mr. Ahmed Bahrozyan, Director of ITD, stated that, "RTA has institutionalized the PMO through making it a formal section within the IT Organization structure". He added "PMO is a central coordinated authority to manage all IT related programs/projects to maximize project success."

Ms. Laila Taher, PMO Manager (IT Performance Excellence Manager) said, "I have been given a mandate to ensure the IT projects are delivering business value to RTA stakeholder and have minimal surprises to the RTA management. Over the past 4 months we have set the policies, standards and processes for all RTA and agency IT projects.

'To ensure that best practices for project management are adopted, RTA has decided to align its standards to that of the international Project Management Institute (PMI). The project managers' community within ITD is already working towards attaining professional certification from the institute.'

Ms. Laila was selected due to her extensive expertise in IT project management. She has already published 4 papers on IT, in local and international publications. Laila was recently awarded 'Best Research Award' for her research on IT applications, from H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan AlQassimi, member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah.