Don’t Let Your Customers Define Your Work

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  CRM   PMO   Stakeholder Management  

Projects in recent years have become a lot more focused on delivering value, rather than simply creating some form of output—the idea that “on benefit” is more important than on time, on scope and on budget. And that value has often specifically referred to customer value, whether that’s external customers paying real money, or internal user groups. The idea is that if the customer values the solution that has been delivered, that will drive business value for the organization. It works, and that’s why it has become popular.

But I have started to come across PMOs that are adopting the same principle, and while conceptually I like the idea, the models that I am seeing are concerning to me. They aren’t using customer needs or preferences as a guideline; they’re directly supporting those needs without any form of analysis or consideration. To understand my concern, let’s take a step back.

In the past, and to some extent today, PMOs have caused problems for themselves by defining their own mandates. They have operated in areas of the organization where the individuals and roles they report to don’t fully understand the purpose of the PMO—so haven’t been able to set appropriate priorities, goals and objectives. That has left PMOs without any direction—and has resulted in PMO leaders taking it on themselves…

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.