Business Driven PMO Setup

Practical Insights, Techniques and Case Examples for Ensuring Success

Mark Perry

• Publisher: J. Ross Publishing
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781604276695
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

Extending upon the many traditional program/project management office (PMO) books that present theoretical concepts and knowledge, Business Driven PMO Setup presents practical experiences and wisdom for those responsible for, belonging to, and served by a PMO. This book is rooted in the shared experiences and business settings of all PMOs and it is organized to provide the reader with actionable solutions to the problems and execution difficulties that PMOs face.Most PMO books are written by academics, trainers and consultants from the PM community and present academic or theoretical approaches and models that too often fail. The more sophisticated books tend to be limited in application to the larger or more advanced project management organizations. This unique reference presents new material not available in other books that is applicable to PMOs of all shapes and sizes. It challenges and calls into question various traditional approaches and strategies for the PMO citing examples and explaining when and why such academic and theoretical approaches are wrong. Business Driven PMO Setup was written by over 20 contributing authors that are veteran line executives who either directly manage PMOs, have PMOs reporting to them, or are subject matter experts that service them. These veterans with centuries of business acumen managing both US and foreign companies, divisions, and departments provide valuable insights into ensuring the PMO is setup correctly and remains focused on meeting the needs of the business for which the PMO was created to serve.Many PMOs are often vulnerable in terms of their continued existence. PMOs with a business mindset never have to sell or promote themselves internally, explain what they do, or worry about funding or their existence. This book establishes a clear bottom-line business mindset and practical approach that any PMO can adopt.

1

Mission, Goals, and Objectives: Business Driven vs Theory-Driven

For many project management offices (PMOs), Figure 1.1 paints an all too familiar picture. Rather than focusing on mission, goals, and objectives like the other business units in the company must do, many organizations skip this important step altogether during the initial setup of the PMO, delving right into strategies and tactics. Far too often the first order of business is to evaluate and select the best-fit PMO model from the many theoretical approaches that are presented and discussed at length within the project management community. Then, based upon the PMO model selected, there is a thorough discussion and debate about what the roles and responsibilities of the PMO should be. This, of course, produces a list of requirements and needs regarding people, process, and tools. Since setting up, managing, and improving a PMO is a journey and not a destination, the final step in the PMO setup process involves laying out a roadmap of phases, activities, and tasks for the PMO to implement in order to take root, evolve, and achieve higher levels of organizational project management maturity. To the project management practitioner and PMO enthusiast, this all makes sense and the value of the PMO to the company is intuitively understood. However, to the business executive with financial and budgetary responsibility to whom the PMO reports, as well as to those throughout the company for whom the PMO exists to serve, in the absence of defined and measurable goals and objectives, the value of the PMO is far less understood. There is no better way for the PMO to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory than to go about its initial setup without a clear focus, collaborative development, and an unambiguous declaration of its mission, goals, and objectives.

Figure 1.1 PMO comics–PMO goals

One way to succeed is to avoid traditional thinking about the mission and goals of the PMO in terms of the PMO models, roles and responsibilities, and paths of maturity. A new multi-dimensional construct needs to be presented, not to replace the existing constructs and typical ways of thinking about PMOs, but to complement them. The addition provides a wider perspective that has practical applicability to PMOs of all shapes and sizes, enabling them to be business driven and goal-oriented. This need has stimulated an ongoing discussion among chief information officers (CIOs), PMO managers, project management thought leaders, and colleagues for years. What has collectively emerged from these numerous perspectives is that there are multiple dimensions—five altogether—of project management that exist within an organization. Therefore, these dimensions need to be understood so that an organization can establish the optimal and business driven mission, goals, and objectives for the PMO.

Much like the way in which dimensions are described in classical physics—a line describes one dimension, a plane describes two dimensions, a cube describes three dimensions—time is often referred to as the fourth dimension. The fifth dimension is occasionally referred to as probability, or all of the possibilities such as alternate realities; so too the dimensions of project management can be described this way. In a project management context, the five dimensions are: (1) myopic, (2) ubiquitous, (3) size, (4) intervals of time, and (5) chance. These five dimensions, known as The Project Management MUSIC Model, are shown in Figure 1.2 in an organizational project management context.

Figure 1.2 Project management MUSIC model

Myopic Dimension

There are numerous factors that contribute to a myopic view of project management. In many cases the manner in which these factors come about is similar to the chicken or the egg causality dilemma. For example, standards organizations, including the Project Management Institute (PMI^®) with nearly 300,000 members in virtually every country, advocate the profession of project management. In the last four decades PMI has advanced project management from a skill set to a valued profession, and companies of all shapes and sizes have benefitted from more effective techniques and approaches to project management. Additionally, an unintended consequence of the formal establishment of project management as a profession has occurred. The informal development of “The Project Management Community” consists of not only the practitioners of project management but also the consultants, vendors, trainers, educators, and pundits, who, in one way or another, weigh-in, shape, and influence the profession. For the most part this is beneficial because these organizations have tremendous value to provide in terms of knowledge, products, and services. However, a noted problem of this community is the tendency to think from inside its own box in terms of project management—especially PMO models and strategy—with a perspective and bias that is often more theoretical than practical and in some cases self-serving. The result of this kind of thinking spans from the undoable to the outrageous.

Myopic project management, inside-the-box thinking, is not difficult to recognize. Thomas R. Block and J. Davidson Frame (1998, p. 7) suggest, “If an organization carries out projects only occasionally, there is no need to develop systematic capabilities to engage in project efforts. In this case, establishing a project office would be analogous to killing mosquitoes with a shotgun.” For many organizations, especially smaller companies and information technology (IT) departments, nothing could be less advantageous. These firms do not regularly carry out projects; therefore, it is important that the project managers have a supporting project office or PMO from which they can access advice. These project managers are frequently informal or accidental project managers. That is, they have a full-time job and occasionally manage projects. These workplace professionals are not project managers by title and probably have not had, nor do they have the time to attend, project management training. Therefore, useful direction and helpful guidance with respect to project management tips, tools, and techniques is welcome. There are several options for setting up a PMO. A PMO doesn’t have to be a large organization with a dedicated staff, a formal portfolio of programs and projects, a complex and expensive project portfolio management system, nor an overly detailed and bureaucratic methodology and set of procedures that is all too often the conventional thinking typically espoused by those in the project management community. To these people, project management is extremely one dimensional and it is only formally recognized at a few levels, such as within an IT department or a strategic project management organization. Even the PMO, as an organization model, is viewed to have only a limited number of constructs and styles. But even in the smallest of organizations, the decision to have a PMO or virtual PMO can offer tremendous benefits. Such a PMO or virtual PMO can be setup and managed as one of many duties by a manager or even a non-manager, such as a subject matter expert within any part or at any level of an organization. To categorically dismiss the value of a PMO or to suggest that only a large organization that routinely manages projects can benefit from establishing a PMO is an example of the myopic dimension of project management. At best this is a theoretical perspective limited to a narrow view and, at worst, it is bad business judgment that lends itself to missed opportunities for achieving business results through better and more effective approaches to managing projects.

In another example of the myopic dimension of project management, Kerzner (2001, p. 72) advises, “Develop an ongoing, all-employee project management curriculum such that the project management benefits can be sustained and improved upon for the long term.” In his book about strategic planning for project management, Kerzner does not suggest that some or even many employees get trained in project management, rather he states that all employees should be trained in project management. For most organizations this is simply not possible. The financial impact to an organization as well as the time required to train every employee in any skill, not to mention project management, is simply prohibitive with the possible exception of mandatory equal opportunity, employee harassment, and organizational safety and health training programs. In theory, training all employees in project management might sound like a good idea to those who are strong and outspoken advocates of project management, but for most companies and organizations it is neither a practical nor a viable option.

The myopic dimension of project management is the conviction that certain techniques always be applied in the management of projects. Earned value management (EVM) is an example. EVM is a project management technique for measuring the accurate progress of a project, and its value for some projects is not debatable. However, there are those in the project management community that suggest if earned value management or some kind of earned value analysis is not used, then the project performance is not accurately reported nor is the project managed properly. While this might be technically correct in theory, the practical reality is that many projects, especially smaller, short-term projects often do not require overly complex approaches or techniques for project reporting and, in many cases, such techniques cannot be effectively applied. For example, minor projects, including the installation of a test server for an application, efforts to conduct competitive market research, or the development of management reports all serve as examples of projects that usually have a limi...