The Path To The Corner Cube - A Project Management Fable, Chapter II: I Meet The PMO

 

The week after I had met ACME’s Deputy PMO Director Oscar Pennington I had an appointment to meet his boss, PMO Director Jane West, at ACME’s main office complex. The receptionist signed me in, gave me my temporary badge, and directed me to the Hatfield Conference Room.

“The what Conference Room?” I asked.

“It’s in the basement. It’s named after some obscure PMNetwork columnist.”

I arrived precisely on-time and, refreshingly, Jane, Oscar, and several other members of the PMO were already at the table.

“Mr. Raspberry, so good to meet you” Jane began. “I’m Jane West – I believe you already know Oscar. Brian, Michael, and Penny are my three senior-most Project Controls Analysts, and make up my core team.”

“Pleased to meet all of you.” As we all sat down, I asked “So, how can I help?”

A look of near panic came over their faces.

“Wait, we thought that Oscar had brought you up to speed enough so that you would come here today with at least a trial strategy!” Jane objected.

“A strategy to do what?”

“To help us advance our capability maturity in Project Management, of course!”

“Aren’t all of you experts?” I asked.

“Not us, the rest of the company!” Penny exclaimed.

I smiled broadly, and leaned back in my chair. It helped to ease the tension in the room.

“Relax, everybody. I’ve seen this type of case over and over – it’s almost clichéd at this point. Correct me if I’m wrong. Jane, you and your team have a clear-eyed vision of the technical agenda you would like to see in place, but you perceive that the rest of the macro-organization isn’t playing along. Unless I very much miss my guess, you and your team have tried to write up policies and procedures that proscribe the kind of organizational behavior and cooperation you need to make your project performance information systems function. You’ve also gone to significant measures to identify the optimal Earned Value and Critical Path Management systems you believe are best for ACME, purchased and installed those systems, and have arranged for training for your PMO staff. You’ve also secured verbal assurances from a variety of managers and executives, and yet a reliable portfolio-wide performance management structure evades you. Am I right so far?”

Jane looked astonished.

“How did you know all of that?”

“Like I said, I’ve seen this kind of case many, many times.”
Brian spoke up.
“So, if you have seen this case so many times, what comes next?”

“That depends on the people in this room. There’s an axiom where I come from, but it’s a bit counterintuitive. You can’t advance a capability maturity by leveraging organizational authority.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Michael interjected. “If your boss tells you that you need to do a certain thing, how can you not do that thing without suffering consequences?”

“There are two very common tactics, but organizations assuming a no-cooperation stance can vary. The two tactics are the Silent Veto and the Slow Roll. The Silent Veto happens when the organization that’s been targeted for any sort of Management Information System implementation sees the communications sent their way, but simply ignore them. This is often seen as a failure of communications, but it’s really a way of evading even the hint of participating in any new initiative. The Slow Roll is like the Silent Veto, except the targeted team openly acknowledges the initiative, and even gives verbal assurances of participation. But, when it comes time to actually put fingers on keyboards, they only do the bare minimum necessary to keep from being accused of resisting said initiative. They know that there’s only so much energy behind these things and, if they Slow Roll long enough, that energy will dissipate, and the whole effort grinds to a halt. These two tactics are really rather insidious, but they are prevalent.”

The whole time I was describing the Slow Roll and the Silent Veto, I could see Jane and her team exchanging knowing glances.

“If you have seen this case so many times, what comes next?” Brian repeated.
“What’s needed is a distinct implementation strategy, one that’s free of any expectation of upper management force-leveraging, or freely-offered non-PMO participation.”

“That’s impossible!” Jane exclaimed.

“It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. Tell me, Jane – what percentage of the project portfolio is currently being tracked by an EVMS?”

“Well, all the major projects – those with a Budget at Completion (BAC) of over $10M, are loaded into our cost processor. The problem is with the multiple, smaller projects that are basically comparing budgets to actuals.”

“Have you tried to make them participate in the same EVMS as the larger projects?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Stop. At your next opportunity, communicate to them that you only want from them one thing: an estimate of their projects’ percent complete as of the end of the accounting period.”

“Well, that will cause a lot of celebration among the PMs, but how does that help us?”

“Trust me.”

Next Week: A Captured Portfolio, And I Get With The Strategic Managers