WHAT EVERY PMO SHOULD DO

For a PMO to become a prized organizational unit, it must take on the

following
functions (once the PMO is created):

1. Drive project cycle times down — There is enough low-hanging

fruit among all of the active projects for the PMO to make a quick
and significant impact. There are also many different aspects of
project management that can be attacked to achieve quick results.
The biggest leverage usually comes from taking a systems approach,
as described in Part II of this book. The systems approach addresses:
✿ The multi-project constraints, especially the overloading of resources,
the failure to stagger projects appropriately, and the
waste that results from constantly changing priorities
✿ The single-project constraints by changing project measurements
However, there are tactical opportunities as well that come from experience.

For example:

• _ Ensuring that a valid, well-thought-out project plan exists

• _ Ensuring that everyone involved is committed to the project plan
• _ Communicating expectations, progress and problems regularly
• _ Performing a quality control review of the requirements definition to
prevent rework
• _ Performing risk analysis on the major components of the plan
• _ Ensuring rigorous change control procedures are in place and
understood

2. Facilitate choosing the right project mix — Strategic planning

and project management go hand in hand. Since most organizations
have far too many active projects on their plate, with an imbalance
of projects between the market side and the supply side of the organization,
a high-value PMO addresses this problem head on. A PMO
can add a lot of value by helping to eliminate and deactivate projects
that are not as important to the organization.

3. Develop and maintain an executive cockpit, through key portfolios

— The PMO must put itself in a position, right from the start, of
providing invaluable information to executives, project managers
and resource managers. The key portfolios are the Project Portfolio,
the Resource Portfolio, the Asset Portfolio and the Strategic Goals
Portfolio. See Part III of this book for detailed descriptions and discussion
of portfolio management. The cockpit allows executives to
see what is going on, from a high level, and to change course in time
to avoid collisions with shareholders, customers or competition.

4. Track and report progress (high level) — This effort is the detailed
work behind function 3 above. The executives need to know if
the projects will complete in time and within scope to meet their
goals. They also need to know if the financials are good. They must
be involved in any major scope decisions that could impact their
goals. Project managers, knowing that the PMO is using data for
executive reporting, are much more willing to provide data. For
projects in trouble, the PMO data must include what action(s) it is
taking to correct the problems. Resource managers need accurate,
up-to-date reports to do a good job of managing and coaching their
resources. The key contribution that a high-value PMO can make is
to ensure timely, accurate information in an easy to use form. The
earlier project managers can recognize a problem, the better chance
they have to fix it without major effort. The PMO has an important
role to play by helping to identify and resolve problems and limit the
number of crises that are escalated to the Governance Board. This is
also necessary for PMO survival.

5. Mentoring — The PMO staff are the project management experts

who have the scars to prove it. These people must be believable and
have the ability to interface tactfully in delicate situations with all
levels of the workforce. They are forward observers and will typically
be seen as the PMO center of excellence.

6. Tools — The PMO houses the project management tools technical

experts, who also often staff the Help Desk.

7. Help Desk — Response time is critical to the value model of the

PMO. Fast, knowledgeable response means good value.

8. Methodology — How-to methods are needed in every organization

for project management. This PMO function should be to provide
expertise, marketing and encouragement without bureaucracy or a
police force. The focus should be on how to use the minimum necessary
methodology to ensure predictable results.
What is a PMO and What Should a High Value PMO Do? 47
9. Corrective action — The PMO must seek to eliminate any measurements
that cause people to prolong project cycle times. The PMO
must use the reporting and the Pareto Principle to find the biggest
causes of project delays, rework and other negative effects. The PMO
focus on corrective action is not on a per project basis. Rather, the
view is enterprise-wide.
10. Facilitate the Governance Board — Every project portfolio needs
management oversight to establish the order of work. It is not the
PMO itself that sets project priorities. However, the PMO is responsible
for helping senior management define the process and exercise
it. The senior management is in charge of ensuring that the strategic
objectives of the business are met. The PMO should, however, ensure
that the Governance Board is represented by a balance of market-
and supply-side executives. The PMO must ensure that Governance
Board meetings are convened regularly and that decisions are
made, recorded and communicated formally. The PMO is responsible
for communicating decisions of the Governance Board to all
concerned, and for helping to implement those decisions.
11. Prioritization of the project portfolio — A business unit understands
its own project inventory and priorities. However, in most
organizations, there are no predefined prioritization schemes. Nor is
there typically a commonly accepted rationale for sorting out priorities
between business units, other than having the CEO or Senior
Vice President referee. Common language is required. The various
approaches to project prioritization are discussed in a later chapter.
12. Help projects in trouble — While PMOs can provide some important
help for projects in trouble, at least part of the PMO’s mission is
prevention. Every troubled project should be analyzed to determine
root causes for the trouble. If it is a skills issue, then training or skills
development must be provided to prevent it in the future. If policies
or measurements caused the problem, these must be changed to avoid
wasting time and also to avoid making the PMO become nothing
more than a search and rescue unit.
13. Project management training — The PMO should play a major
role in developing a standard, high-quality training strategy for the
organization. The most successful programs we have seen are ones
that offer participants many choices, as well as some mandatory programs
to build the common language. Also, because many project
managers view their work as a profession, the PMO should have a
professional development approach and career track that makes training
significant to highly motivated project managers.
48 Advanced Project Portfolio Management and the PMO
14. Marketing and communication — A high-value PMO is one that
communicates regularly and meaningfully with all of its customers.
The communication takes many forms. Information, customized to
each customer, must be available online. Web-based live communications
are becoming more common, especially for projects with
global resources. With executives, the PMO should never underestimate
the importance and the power of simple, face-to-face communications,
well planned to minimize the executives’ time. Marketing
implies that the PMO needs to continually sell its value, and bring
its internal customers to use the service more.
15. Archives — There are several reasons why it makes sense to have
all project archives in one place. For example, this is a great place to
keep “lessons learned.” A smart person learns from his or her mistakes.
But a wise person learns from other people’s mistakes. Archives
are also useful in case of legal repercussions from any past
project work. Also, records of individual accomplishments and work
performed can be helpful when recruiting for future projects.
WHO ARE THE CUSTOMERS?
For the PMO, almost everyone in the organization is a customer. Here are
the key groups:
Project Sponsor — This is one of the most forgotten customers in the
organization. It is incumbent upon the PMO to understand the sponsor’s
needs.
Project Teams — When project teams are in trouble, where do they go
for help in their organization? A PMO or Project Office that presents itself
as a valuable support aid will develop a valuable source of informal
information
about active projects, team morale and other issues. This is critical
to the PMO because it enables an early warning system and a validation of
the data being provided to the PMO.
Governance Board — This is a formal team comprised of executive
leaders (or their delegates) from across the organization. Their mission is to
direct the organization strategically, using projects as a way to meet
organization
goals. The key services provided by the PMO are information, analysis
and recommendations.
Functional Units — Functional units typically compete with each other
for use of common resources, assets, etc. There is always an informal pecking
order among the functional units. Any PMO that ignores this has a death
wish. The PMO should establish and maintain excellent communications
and support with the head of each functional unit.
What is a PMO and What Should a High Value PMO Do? 49
Project Managers — Prior to the PMO, when project managers were
encountering trouble with completing project delivery, to whom did they
turn? The PMO helps project managers get their voices heard at a level high
enough to solve some of their major problems. PMOs are not silver bullets,
but the project manager is not the Lone Ranger. The major difference that
the PMO should make to these customers is the reduction of pressure from
resource conflicts and the positive guidance based on experience.
Resource Managers — The PMO has a valuable interface with all of
the organization’s resource managers. Prior to the PMO, resource managers
were either victims of constant priority changes or they made their own
decisions on where to allocate resources. In this case, they often were abused
by the project managers and sponsors who found themselves on the short
end of the resource stick. With the PMO resolving major resource contention,
resource managers can use reports provided by the PMO to allocate
resources with confidence. In turn, the resource managers can help guide
the PMO in terms of understanding where the weaknesses are, suggestions
for training programs, etc.
“DELIVER NOW” MODEL
In this model, the emphasis is on delivering measurable value to the
executive
team within each 6-month period. At initial startup of this PMO, the
resources focus on accelerated project deliveries across all major projects.
This model has sponsorship at a very high executive level (CEO or Senior
Vice President). Its metrics are tied directly to senior management
performance.
It seeks to deliver or influence at least some of the following
within 6 months:
✿ Strategic planning (choosing the right projects)
✿ Project coaching for delivery acceleration opportunities and delivery
threat avoidance
✿ Integrated project status reporting and scheduling with the portfolios
✿ Knowledge transfer to selected resources
✿ “Project portfolio” including relationship to organization goals and
assets, current workload, tactical progress, status and correction plans
✿ Monthly “operations plan and forecast” that identifies portfolio opportunities
and threats, top issues, top risks, projects over/under
budget, and portfolio fiscal summary
What is a PMO and What Should a High Value PMO Do? 45
✿ Global project prioritization model for all projects, current and proposed
✿ Governance Board setup and/or modification that enables the forceranking
of the portfolio of projects
✿ Project management training, coaching and mentoring on projects
that are on the executive radar screen