Career Development In A PM-Hostile Environment

I rather envy those whose Project Management career trajectory happened in an organization that valued the practices and techniques of PM, and could provide a stable and reliable path forward over the long term within the industry. Or, rather, I should say that I would envy those people if they, in fact, existed.
Cynical? Maybe. It’s just that in the strong majority of organizations where I’ve been employed in a PM- or PM-derivative role, the truly stellar PMOs would eventually fall to executives who were, to some degree or another, hostile towards PM practices and techniques. In organizations with mediocre (or even lame) PMOs, the zeitgeist was, at best, neutral tolerance masquerading as acceptance. In between these two extremes are probably the most dangerous organizations for attempting to advance a career in Project Management, those that appear to be amenable towards it on the surface, but are, in reality, rather resentful of the whole codex.
But before I go into what strategies might be effective for advancing a career in these environs, I want to explore the ways that a given company might be gauged as to its willingness or capacity to graft PM practices into its existing business model. The answers to the following multiple-choice questions might be highly instructive to discovering this key parameter.
1.At your job interview, when the HR Director asks if you have any questions for them, and you ask where the PMO Director’s office is situated, the response is:
a.      Two doors down from the CEO, in the executive suite.
b.     One floor down from the CEO, and one floor above the Facility Manager’s.
c.      In a transportable building near the parking lot.
d.     What’s a PMO?
2.Where and when are the Project Review Meetings held?
a.      The third working day of each month, in the executive boardroom.
b.     Sometime during the second week of each month, when the PMO Director wants to have them, held in the Main Floor Conference Room.
c.      It depends on when the Chief Financial Officer closes the books – usually by mid-month, and held in the warehouse after most of the staff has gone home for the day.
d.     Down the street at Bob’s Bar and Grill, after some project or other has gone completely off the rails, and we’re trying to figure out who to blame.
3.How are Estimates at Completion (EACs) derived?
a.      The average of the three most accurate formulae listed in the NAVSEA Estimate at Completion study, depending on how far along the specific Project is.
b.     Just the Budget at Completion divided by the Cost Performance Index.
c.      We re-estimate the remaining work, add that to the cumulative actuals, and go with that.
d.     One of the Control Account Managers who shows up at Bob’s, the one who just lost a bar bet about drawing a square with three lines, gives us his “expert opinion.”
4.What are your minimum qualifications for a Project Controls Manager?
a.      We prefer a Masters’ Degree, in Business or some technical area, and at least one certification, ideally a PMP®, with at least ten years in the profession.
b.     College degree, cert is a plus, but not required. Five years in the field, knows how to drive a Critical Path Methodology software package, and has generated a Cost Performance Report in Format 1.
c.      A good administrative worker, who knows how to conduct a Performance Review.
d.     The CEO’s nephew/niece, who needs a managerial role.
If the answer was D to any of the above, or even an occasional C, you’re probably in a PM-hostile environment.
What to do now? First off, don’t put on airs. Give absolutely nobody any reason whatsoever to resent what you’re trying to bring to the organization. You’re there to offer a service, even if it’s one they don’t realize they desperately need, and confronting execs with evidence that they’re messing up, even if you are 100% right, is counter-productive in the extreme.
Next, you should know that your most powerful information stream stems from the calculated EAC. Amazingly, this can be derived with just two data points: the specific Project’s cumulative actual costs, and an estimate of their percent complete. Divide the cumulative actuals by that percent complete, and you have a fairly accurate EAC. Compare this EAC to the Project’s Budget at Completion (BAC), and you have management information gold: the projected Variance at Completion. Using those VACs from the Projects showing a major overrun, but have not informed upper management that they are in trouble, is your key. If you are the person informing the execs where they are in Project Portfolio trouble, when everyone else is saying everything is fine, you almost instantaneously become indispensable, haters notwithstanding.
And the payback for all of the organizational hostility you’ve had to deal with comes about on those occasions when you can document that the PMs of the Projects with the highest negative calculated Variances at Completion are the same ones making your corporate life difficult.