Program Management Office (PMO) > Transforming the Organization

From OPM Experts, LLC
Ask yourself what culture means, and you may find it difficult to state a clear and succinct definition, but it is likely that you can recall an organization in which you have worked that had a healthy culture, and just as likely that you may recall an organization that you would characterize as having an unhealthy culture. Why is that? Although culture is a many-faceted thing that may seem difficult to boil down into a sound bite, it is something that impacts everyone. The culture determines how people define themselves and their relationships with others, and greatly influences a person’s sense of self.

The elusive achievement of organizational alignment in corporate America is striking. What is needed is the development of an organizational structure and culture that dynamically self-adjusts and recalibrates to an ever-changing environment.

What's your business focus? If it's something other than your customers, you may want to rethink it. Your business is nothing without your customers. That's the whole idea behind CRM--knowing your customers, making them happy and keeping them happy.

Supporting project delivery across project, program, PMO and portfolio management processes, BrightWork is a SharePoint-based collaboration tool that can be adapted to each organization’s capability and maturity level without overwhelming users with unnecessary functionality.

Do you have an accountability problem at on your project? First, you need to forestall excuse-generating problems upfront by creating conditions that make it more likely people will follow through. Then you need to help and encourage people to take responsibility after mistakes have already been made — without making them feel worse than they already do.

Results from a survey offer business analysts, project managers, developers and other project stakeholders information to help transform the way they produce and manage software requirements.

The building of capable project management processes and the transformation of a company’s project management culture go hand in hand. Project management offices and the standard known as OPM3 should play a lead role in accomplishing both.

Organizational transformation isn't anything magical. It's a matter of taking a few calculated steps in the right direction. And it can do wonders for your business.

What do the prevailing wisdom purveyors and pundits believe the top information technologies will be over the next 12 months? Since 2009, these predictions have been pretty volatile...can you guess what's hot and what's not for 2012?

The second State of Requirements Management Survey, sponsored by Ravenflow and Jama Software, is open through December 10, 2010.

Does the process of scaling Agile in large organizations destroy its value? What can be done when its principles clash with corporate culture? Applying simple rules that reinforce Agile values can sow seeds of change and produce far-reaching results. Let’s explore, including suggestions from Diana Larsen and Esther Derby.

Does your PPM solution help you understand the cost of IT operations or just your projects and portfolios? Technology Business Management is an emerging category of software solutions designed to help CIOs and IT executives manage and communicate the cost, quality and value of IT Services.

Projects benefit from tools that promote communication and collaboration among stakeholders and team members. By increasing understanding of goals, priorities, issues and expectations, tools such as Microsoft SharePoint also help to identify — and eliminate — areas of duplication, improving productivity.

What’s more common on your projects: a “thumbs up” or finger-pointing? The ability to compliment, sincerely and fairly, is an important but overlooked dimension of leadership. And in pressurized environments, praise can go a lot further than criticism in motivating and energizing teams.

What does it mean to be service-oriented? A service-oriented project management model adopts its philosophies from the professional services arena.

The future of too many organizations — and individuals, for that matter — seems to be set on "default." Change initiatives and process improvements come and go, but the underlying problems remain. Steve Zaffron says project leaders and teams can help rewrite the future together by understanding three fundamental laws of performance.

On new development projects, the production stage can be the point of no return. Before it’s too late, a rigorous gating process can help to ensure that development activities, teamwide input and critical stakeholder priorities are all aligned with the overall project vision.

While many consider politics to bring out the worst in people and try to shy away from or ignore internal and external politics, they are a reality in the corporate world. Ideally, politics can be a force put to use for the common good--are you utilizing the power?

Trying to figure out how you can use social media marketing to your advantage is an exercise in head scratching. But the medium is also considerably less expensive than other marketing methods (at least initially) and is a frontier that needs adventurers.

Project managers usually tend to focus on the methodology for executing the technical part of the project. However, a good understanding of a practical SOA landscape and its associated challenges can help a technical PM make the SOA adoption on technology projects run even smoother.

There are certain strategies and actions that the PM may take when managing a virtual team in order to make it more productive. These strategies will also increase the likelihood for a successful project implementation--and hopefully a very satisfied customer post-deployment.

A team at the insurance company implemented a project that evolved into a blueprint described as “…the beginning of our future.”

Matrix organizations have inherent weaknesses and pitfalls, but a project manager can transform those weaknesses for the benefit of the project. Here's some help.

The head of the PMO has a significant responsibility to the project managers to act as career coaches and mentors. Are you taking that role seriously?

Beyond obtaining more certifications, project managers should take the processes, tools and techniques learned in a certification project and focus on putting them into practice. Training and education is great, but it’s not until you apply the knowledge that you’ll benefit from the hours studying to pass an exam. Here are are just a few ideas on how you can apply your certifications.

How can organizational change be implemented with a minimum of distress? Change frequently results in unrest, uncertainty and concern caused by nothing more than fear. People lose focus, become less productive and potentially seek out alternative employment because of the fear of something that is not going to happen. In this article, we look at how we can manage those situations more effectively.

From the Saudi Arabian MOI NIC
The history and culture of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia posed unique challenges to the Ministry of Interior’s PMO. Like Harris Corporation, they understood the four reasons why many organizations fail to transform their Project Management cultures, and avoided these pitfalls working with OPM Experts LLC. But as a counterpoint to Harris, the NIC’s case shows how the culture can be the driver of process deployment.

Agile vendors have done a good job providing project managers and product owners with planning and tracking tools. But the primary creators of project deliverables are software developers, and they have consistently been an afterthought. To scale across the enterprise, Agile work processes must embrace the individual contributors doing the actual work.

ITIL brings with it tremendous potential to transform an organization. However, it requires unwavering persistence and commitment to leverage the transformation potential.

If your processes aren't properly aligned, you may need to call in the process chiropractor. In just nine steps, you can be on back on the straight and narrow.

gantthead ushers in a new era with its OPM3 department, and this welcome from subject matter expert John Schlichter provides an overview of PMI's organizational project management standard--and gives us a look at things to come.

The four guiding principles of Agile project management can be compared to the Chinese concept of yin-yang. They are "opposing ... mutually rooted ... mutually transforming ... and mutually waxing and waning." By better understanding how these principles work in harmony, project managers can then translate them from concepts into concrete actions.

Here’s our March roundup of the latest technology solutions for project leaders, teams and enterprises, including an Android app for project managers, iPad-enabled video conferencing for virtual teams, critical chain-based PPM, an Agile assessment service and more.

For global organizations with diverse workforces and clients, maintaining a consistent level of project management excellence requires a permanent commitment to training. IT infrastructure provider EMC teamed with PMI to launch a talent development program for its project managers.