PMO Setup T3 - Tips, Tools, and Techniques

Did you know that the 500 most popular words in the English language have over 14,000 meanings? No wonder communications can be difficult under even the best of circumstances. As Mark Twain puts it, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”

Consider the wisdom of Sigmund Freud who said that words have a power, a magical power. They can bring either the greatest of happiness or the deepest of despair. They can transfer knowledge from teacher to student.

Words are powerful and we need to choose our words carefully and accurately. It doesn’t take much effort to think of the many politicians, public figures, or business people that get into trouble when they use the wrong words.

Calvin Coolidge, a great American President, said, “I have never been hurt by anything that I didn’t say.” Coolidge was known for not mixing or mincing words. On one such occasion, a young woman, attractive woman approached President Coolidge at a dinner and announced, “Mr. Coolidge, I have a bet with my husband that I can get you to say more than two words.” Coolidge simply replied, “You lose.”

Take the case of the construction worker that enters the doctor’s office. He says to the receptionist, “Ma’am, I have shingles.” She asks him to wait a moment and about thirty minutes later a nurse appears. When the nurse appears, the man says to her, “I am here with shingles.” The nurse hurriedly takes his temperature and blood pressure and asks him to wait just a little longer. An hour later, the doctor appeared and asked him what he had. The construction worker replied, “Shingles, I have the shingles.” And when the doctor asked where, he said, “Out in the truck, where to you want them?”

Make sure people understand what you are trying to say. Communication is not just talking or sending a message. It is creating a shared meaning and understanding. In just about any business setting and especially project management, it is important that people understand you. Speak their language. Don’t use terms they will not understand. And, if necessary, Say it again, and again, and again.

Not too long ago, I was asked by a CIO to help him and his to-be-named PMO Manager with their Strategic Plan for the PMO. My response to him was, “you have a Strategic for the PMO, that’s great. You know many PMOs don’t really have a Strategic Plan.” We both laughed a bit and then he explained his problem to me.

The to-be-named PMO Manager created a Strategic Plan for the PMO and reviewed it with the CIO. It contained a mission statement, objectives, and critical success factors. The mission statement, in essence, stated that the mission was to (1) provide project management assistance to the organization, and (2) to implement a project management system and methodology. To me, that is not a mission. The Objectives section of the document listed out three areas; planning process, control process, and management, and it described activities within each of these three areas. But nowhere within the list of objectives were any kind of “how much, by when” declarations. The Critical Success Factors area of the PMO Strategic Plan was almost exclusively centered on establishing a Project Management Center of Excellence, providing project management training and mentoring, and implementing the project management system. Whether or not these things were truly critical success factors for the Strategic Plan of the PMO, or were the most critical, was in effect not possible to discern as the success factors were not tangibly related to any of the objectives.

So, at the end of the day, the CIO was pondering a Strategic Plan that basically entailed implementing a project management system, establishing a center of excellence, and providing training and mentoring. And what did the CIO think about and see in the plan? He saw cost, cost, cost, and more cost. And how could the CIO answer the CFO when the CFO asks him about the benefits and value and the potential payback or return on investment? The PMO Strategic Plan that the to-be-named PMO Manager created was of no value to the CFO, nor to the CIO, and in reality, it was of little value to the PMO.

So how do you create a PMO Strategic Plan that does provide value? Well, first of all, recognize that the Strategic Plan for the PMO is not the PMO Charter. The PMO charter is the organizational mandate for the PMO. It defines the role, purpose and functions of the PMO. It articulates who the PMO's sponsors and customers are, the services that it offers, and the staffing and support structures required to deliver those services. And, it assumes that a decision to have a PMO has already been made. And second, align the Strategic Plan for the PMO to the needs of the business for which the PMO exists to serve. For example, when you do this, providing project management assistance to the organization and implementing a project management system is not the mission. They are not even objectives. Rather, they become strategies in support of the goals and objectives to be achieved.

To create a results-driven Strategic Plan for the PMO, it is helpful to follow a top down format. The most commonly used and accepted format is the classical strategic planning outline. This outline consists of the following:

• Vision - this needs to be a vivid and common image
• Mission - this is the special assignment that is given to a group
• Goals - these are broad statements of future conditions
• Objectives - these are operational statements that indicate how much and by when
• Strategies - these are the set of actions that need to take place
• Needs - these are the things required to carry out the strategy
• Critical Success Factors - these are the key areas of activity in which favorable results are necessary in order to reach the goal

The benefits of following this outline are many fold. First, you answer some very straight forward questions that any business unit needs to be able to answer. Second, you speak a common strategic language that will be understood from the members of the business unit to those the business unit supports and on up to executive management, especially the CFO. And third, you place in the proper context of the strategic plan those things that make up the strategic plan, the components. For example, a goal isn’t to implement a project management system or to establish a project management center of excellence. The project management system is likely to be a need that supports a strategy. Likewise, the project management center of excellence is likely to be a strategy to support an objective. Important to note, in developing your Strategic Plan, you don’t have to start at the top and go down to the bottom in top down order all in one setting. Often, it is helpful to brainstorm as a small team or individually to come up with a number of ideas. You might first focus on just the vision component. You might be surprised to find out the differing views on what the vision of the PMO ought to be.

For any business organization, it is quite important to have these things - a common vision, an unambiguous mission statement, goals, and for each goal specific objectives that are measurable in terms of how much by when, and so on. If you follow this kind of an outline, you will have a Strategic Plan that makes sense and can be used at all levels of the organization. If not, you might end up with a list of good ideas for your PMO that your management may, or may not, be able to support, fund, and act upon.

In some IT organizations, there is a subtle rift between project managers and developers. In other IT organizations, the rift is not so subtle. Typically, developers complain about the project managers. A common complaint of the developer's is that project managers are not technically competent enough to have an accurate insight into the project and into the real technical challenges for development. Following this complaint is another complaint that project managers are continually asking developers about the status of their work in terms of a percentage of completion for the development tasks they are assigned which they, the developer, may not know and which is only used by the project manager to create a status report. And, the last complaint is usually along the lines that the project manager is always calling a status meeting or sitting in on a someone else's meeting. While there is no doubt that project managers must ask developers about the status of their tasks in order to understand the progress of the project and regularly hold and attend meetings to communicate with the project team and others, these actions alone do not earn the respect of the developers. Then, what will?

For most developers, project reporting and meetings are bothersome and if that is all the project manager brings to the table (or is perceived to bring to the table), then the developers will not have a high degree of respect for the project manager. In reality, project management brings far more to the table than that and it is up to the project manager to exhibit their competencies. So many areas come to mind, such as:

• Understanding and framing the scope of the project in terms that all involved can relate to
• Developing a comprehensive work breakdown structure relative to the phases, activities, and tasks of the project
• Identifying the critical path and key constraints for the project
• Tracking key priorities and recognizing early warning signs
• Planning for risks and mitigating them when incurred
• Identification, tracking, and resolution of project issues that impact development

When project managers display their competence, show an interest in the high level technical development details, and proactively manage the roadblocks faced by development, developers are quick to take notice. And, rather than a noticeable rift between project managers and developers, there is an atmosphere of mutual respect and a gut feeling and appreciation by the developers of all that could go wrong if that project management guy or gal wasn't there.

Some folks advocate that every project manager should be PMP certified and many organizations struggle when asked this question by their employees, those folks wanting to get certified. Often times, we make assumptions in our discussions with one another. And with respect to PMP certification, two common assumptions that we make are:

1. What makes you a project management professional?
2. What makes you eligible to become a certified project management professional?

Regarding the first question, is every project manager a project management professional? Maybe, maybe not. Or perhaps put another way, is everyone who manages a project a project management professional. Well, when put forth that way, the answer is clearly not. Some people use the term PM for project manager and assume that this is a person with Project Manager in their title and that this person manages projects and that this person knows how to use project management software and that this person knows all about project management methodology and best practices and that this is a person that should pursue PMP certification. Other folks take time to say "formal PM" when referring to such a person to ensure that there is an understanding that when we say PM we are referring to those real project managers as opposed to all of those accidental and informal project managers out there. Hence, when discussing whether or not every project manager should be certified, it would be well spent time to first confirm that all parties in the discussion have a common understanding of what kind of person we are talking about when we say "project manager."

And for the second question, one of the best ways to assess whether or not an individual is eligible to be certified is to actually read the eligibility criteria for the certification. For example, for the PMP Certification, the eligibility criteria to become and remain a PMP include:

• A high school diploma or equivalent
• Specific education requirements
• Specific experience requirements
• Adherence to a code of professional conduct
• Passing an examination
• Satisfaction of continuing certification requirements

Requirements include a candidate to have performed 7,500 hours in a lead role directing tasks, performed tasks associated with being a Project Manager over a period of 60 months within the past 8 years, and completed 35 hours of education specific to Project Management and aligned with PMI methodologies. Persons possessing a bachelor's degree only require 4,500 hours leading and 36 months of experience.

So what is the answer to the question? Should all project managers become PMP certified? As a starting point for debate, a good approach to take would be that all project managers that manage projects for a living and that meet the eligibility criteria for PMP certification should be encouraged to get, and supported in getting, their PMP.

Have you ever been involved with or know someone who has been involved with an effort to justify the PMO? Sometimes, such an effort can be undertaken with a mindset that is focused more on and aligned to theoretical PMO models than it is on the needs of the business. And typically, that is when attempts to justify or sell the PMO miss the mark. Two tips for proposing a PMO to the company include:

• Tip Number 1: Sell the PMO.
  • Think of a PMO as a complex solution to a business problem.
  • Think of selling the PMO as an internal "sales" effort, not a new project initiative.
  • If your company has a suitable sales process for complex solution sales, familiarize yourself with it and use it.
    • Otherwise, look to the proven approaches such as Miller Heiman's "Strategic Selling."
    • Identify your buyer types (Economic, Technical, User, Champion), assess their buying modes (High Growth, Even Keel, In trouble, Over Confident), and develop "win-win" strategies for each buyer type to articulate the benefits of the PMO proposal and to gain their support.
  • Do this in support of your existing decision making process, not instead of it.
• Tip Number 2: Avoid the Hype.
  • Seek to overcome the challenges that need to be addressed in order for your company to be more successful.
  • The justification for a PMO should not be centered on anecdotal evidence or the desire to change the organization just to meet the latest buzz of the pundits.
  • Avoid the hype and prepare your proposal with the singular purpose of meeting the objectives of your company in the best possible manner.
  • The decision to set up a PMO should not be a leap of faith, rather it is a business decision.