PMO Setup T3 - Tips, Tools, and Techniques

Top 10 Tips for Managing Your Peers

Tip 1: Assume a leadership role. Leadership is not something that comes with title and that can be given. You must assume it. Take command. Don’t be concerned with formal titles or reporting structures and relationships. When seeking to manage peers, don’t look for and wait on a formal permission to act; assume a leadership role.

Tip 2: Be courageous. Most people are understandably a little nervous about being too assertive in working with and communicating to peers. After all, seeming to manage or to direct a peer might not be received well. It may come back to you later in the form of resentment. These feelings are natural for both you and your peer. To help with the possible tension and stress, consider the worst thing that your peer can say to you which is likely to be just a no to your request. If needed, make a contingency plan for dealing with a negative response or attitude, but don’t be worried about hurt feelings. Leadership is part of business and in many situations peers have to work together without benefit of a direct report. Peer leadership is much preferred than having to have management involvement for every little thing.

Tip 3: Peer to peer feedback. Situational leadership is situational. One thing peers often do not get is regular, honest, peer to peer feedback. Seek to deliver this in a respectful, positive way it will often be much appreciated and earn you some respect in return.

Tip 4: Kind in mind that you need each other. Just as you rely on your peer worker for support, your peer worker also relies on you. Managing your peers involves a healthy give and take relationship. The more that you are able to support your peer in time of their need, the more that they will be able to support you and be managed by you in time of your need. You can bank on the favors that you have deposited.

Tip 5: Manage your peer’s time respectfully. Management peers are very busy people and anything you can do to show that you understand this will work to your advantage. Your peer won’t have time to deal with every issue you’d like to bring to their attention, so prioritize and be selective with your requests. Also, be prepared and have facts, figures and examples ready. Any vagueness on your part will lengthen the conversation and represents time wasted. Also, don’t just drop in. Book time with your peer in advance by making an appointment.

Tip 6: Use the right words. Every conversation you have with your peer is important. And, you don’t have the luxury of a direct reporting employee to manager relationship to fall back on. Choose your words carefully and don’t beat around the bush. Be open, honest, and non-confrontation from a personal point of view. It is perfect fine to be confrontation for the purposes of confronting an important business issue or problem in which there may be a lack of understanding of differing points of view on account of differing levels of perspective and information that is available. But don’t fall into the personal attack trap where questioning your peer's abilities or intelligence may compromise your ability to work together. Take the lead in complex dialog, take the highest of high roads, and use good, unambiguous language.

Tip 7: Use the right style of communication. How does your peer like to communicate? Does your peer prefer formal by the book style communications and working relationships or does your peer prefer informal style communications and more personal relationships such as discussing issues and problems over lunch or even over a beer after work. Ensure that you match your situational leadership and peer management techniques to the style appropriate for your peer.

Tip 8: Frame your requests. In managing your peers, seek to always frame your requests. Find the win-win angle that benefits your peer and protects your peer interests. And, if there is not a win-win angle, then create one. Find a way to make it worth it for your peer to follow your lead, take your direction, and perform the work that you need to be performed.

Tip 9: Know your peer. As all good leaders, managers, negotiators know, reaching win-win outcomes requires understanding the interests of both parties. To fully engage with your peer you need to mentally take a moment and walk in their shoes. What is your peer’s reputation in the organization? What is your peer expected to achieve? To whom does your peer answer to and owe their allegiance to? What are your peer’s goals and ambitions? What stands in your peer’s way? The more answers to these questions that you know, the more likely you can effectively manage your peer.

Tip 10: Recognize your peer. How many times have we heard the saying, “there is no limit to what a person can achieve if they don’t care who gets the credit.” This is especially true in peer relationships and when you have to lead and, in essence, manage your peer. Spread the credit around, don’t hoard it or claim it all for yourself. For one, not recognizing the peer that you have just lead and managed in a successful achievement is the surest way to sour them on ever helping you again. For another, it’s just bad form.

Top 10 Tips for Continuous Improvement

Tip 1: Recognize the problem. For most organizations, a change in behavior does not come naturally. Though one might think that continuous improvement would be a natural mind set for the PMO, in reality few PMOs have a culture of continuous not to mention processes or best practices to facilitate it. Sure, lessons learned are documented as part of project closing, but they are almost always filed away and forgotten rather than acted upon. The first step in establishing a continuous improvement mind set is to recognize the problem. That is, recognize the fact that your organization does not have or could do quite better exhibiting a continuous improvement mind set.

Tip 2: Establish an enduring culture. For continuous improvement to work, there must be a relentless focus on and commitment to getting things right. Adaptability and an action oriented leadership team are inherent components of a continuous improvement culture. Resistance to change exists in all organizations to a degree and it must be recognized for what it is, an impediment to improvement.

Tip 3: Think Kaizen and Cross the Chasm. Many people advocate Kaizen oriented thinking and behavior where continual small, incremental improvements provide tremendous benefits in performance and end results achieved over time. Others advocate a Crossing the Chasm mind set where drastic change is introduced completely replacing inefficient execution rather than slightly improving upon it. In a continuous improvement culture, there is room for both approaches. And often, after achieving the mega change that is made possible when Crossing the Chasm improvement initiatives are implemented, a Kaizen mind set is required to refine, sustain, and continually improve upon such change.

Tip 4: Facilitate process-centric thinking. Process-centric thinking does not have to be overly complex. Sometimes, all it takes is a thoughtful examination to uncover significant areas for improvement. Rather than tolerating mistakes and repeat errors, facilitate process-centric thinking to continually improve, correct, and overcome execution difficulties.

Tip 5: Educate the workplace. Like any other business strategy, ongoing education of the workplace is critical in establishing awareness, developing skills, and institutionalizing the needed mindset and behaviors to bring about effective change. It is no different with Continuous Improvement. Expect and overcome resistance to change with ongoing training, reinforcement of expected behaviors, and recognition of those who are learning and doing.

Tip 6: Ensure a penalty-free exchange of ideas. In many organizations, expressing one's opinion on how to do things better may not necessarily be a welcomed activity. Management can feel threatened or pressured to act resulting in immediate resistances. And, those expressing ideas may be viewed as complainers or trouble makers. In such an environment, it doesn't take long for the potential risks of making a suggestion to stifle enthusiasm and participation in improvement oriented thinking. Ensuring a penalty-free exchange of ideas is beneficial to both the giver and the receiver of new ideas and approaches and will ensure a safe two way exchange of thoughts and ideas.

Tip 7: Use a consistent approach for projects. A consistent and structured approach for project identification and execution will provide the organization with the ability to identify, select, and manage continuous improvement projects. The continuous improvement project process should also provide post-closing process steps to continually refine the improvement project methodology and to act upon the lessons learn from the project effort.

Tip 8: Measure performance. It is not possible to improve what is not measured. Determine in advance the approach and techniques to be used in measurements. Scorecards can be useful to monitor the key performance indicators of processes that support capability and performance.

Tip 9: Communication planning. Ensure regular communications to foster collaborative interactions among leaders, stakeholders, and practitioners at all levels. Take advantage of communications techniques appropriate for the information being conveyed. Where needed, schedule face to face meetings and where not needed, use the communication and collaboration tools and capabilities of the enterprise to keep all members updated and involved.

Top 10 Tips for Managing PMO Processes

Tip 1: Think process, not methodology. Methodologies are static and quickly become out of date. Methodologies often give an illusion of project management consistency, when in reality most users don't read or follow lengthy, "one size fits all sizes," methodologies. Focus on PMO processes and best practices that are scalable to project type and size and answer not just the "what is to be done", but the "who, when, where, how, and why" of the work effort as well.

Tip 2: Think processes, tools, and collaboration. There are those in the Project Portfolio Management (PPM) vendor community that say their product has everything you need to manage a PMO. While PPM tools can be very helpful to a PMO, also required are processes that are scalable to project type and size, whether used with the PPM tool or not, and a collaboration platform to share project documents and information. Though PPM tools provide some collaboration features, most PMOs seek to use the existing enterprise collaboration platform rather than placing project files and folders in an additional repository. Processes, tools, and collaboration work together and are each required to effectively manage projects and continually improve the organization.

Tip 3: Flexibility within structure. Some people believe that project management processes are by nature rigid and inflexible. This can often be a result of implementing a "one shoe fits all sizes" methodology. However, PMO processes that provide workflows scalable to project type and size enable the project team to effectively execute a wide variety of projects without being burdened by too much bureaucracy. PMO processes can provide the structure, guidance, and flexibility to truly help, not create additional work for, the project manager and project participants.

Tip 4: People oriented processes. People oriented processes anticipate and help with people's challenges and constraints and free them up to do what they do best on projects such as thinking, planking, and doing. The best processes don't create extra work; rather they streamline it or make it easier. People oriented processes serve specific purposes, ensure efficiency and consistency, and tend to become "roadmaps" for continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.

Tip 5: Process owners. Process owners can play a key role in ensuring that the PMO processes are kept up to date, useful, usable, and auditable. PMO processes or best practices without process owners will likely become outdated over time and at some point will even become inconsequential to the organization. On the other hand, PMO processes and best practices that have process owners or "care-takers" are continually improved upon by reviewing and applying lessons learned feedback and process improvement suggestions. Hence, process owners help drive continuous improvement and institutionalization of the PMO processes and best practice knowledge, skill, and execution capabilities.

Tip 6: Process reviews. Don't wait until there is a problem to review the processes and best practices of the PMO. Establish process owners and delegate to them the duty of periodic assessment of their assigned processes and best practices. Encourage them to proactively find ways to streamline and improve existing processes and to identify new processes and best practices that could be of value to the PMO.

Tip 7: Provide recognition and incentives for process improvement. How do you recognize project managers? Most of them are every good at what they do and it is expected that they will manage projects well. One approach that more and more PMOs are adopting is to provide incentives and recognition for process improvement and process ownership. Rather than experiencing the same difficulty over and over again, recognition and incentives for process improvement encourage and reward project team members to get involved. The end results are not just lessons learned documents, but practical improvement suggestions to streamline processes, improve best practices, and eliminate defects and waste. As Edward Deming put it, "Fix the process and you fix the problem."

Tip 8: Define the "as-is" state. Quite often, it is helpful to first define the "as-is" state of a process before discussing and debating options to arrive at the "desired" state of the process. A clear understanding of the "as-is" state enables the team to discuss and debate what works well, what needs improving, and to agree upon actionable process improvement suggestions. Conversely, trying to achieve the "desired" state for a process without a full understanding and agreement of the "as-is" state can often lead to miscommunication due to differing points of reference as well as process improvement suggestions that may not meet the needs of all parties involved in the process.

Tip 9: Project management processes are more than the PMBOK® Guide. Some PMOs establish a fine project management process aligned to the PMBOK® Guide and are disappointed to find out that it is not being used throughout the organization. Some project managers may use a more streamlined process for smaller projects. Other project managers, especially outside of the United States, may use a different approach to project management such as PRINCE2. And, development teams may manage their projects using a traditional SDLC or Agile process. In managing the project management processes of the PMO, recognize that project management processes extend far beyond just the PMBOK® Guide.

Tip 10: PMO processes comprise of more than just the methodology for managing projects. A project management methodology alone is not sufficient for the PMO. In addition to the methodology, PMO processes and policies need to be put in place for such things as where specifically to store project documents, when project status reports are due, how and when project data is to be entered into the PPM tool, how and when complex and situational techniques as Earned Value Management (EVM) and Monte Carlo Risk Analysis are to be employed. Ensure that your PMO processes provide not just the “what” of the “what is to be done,” but also the practical context and specifics of the “Who, When, Where, How, and Why.”

Top 10 Tips for Microsoft Project Server

Tip 1: Valuable, but not a simple tool. Microsoft Project Server is an extremely valuable application for companies seeking to engage in enterprise project management and project team collaboration. However, Project Server is not a simple tool, even for those who have used Project Server before and have experience using Microsoft Project Professional. Ensure adequate administrator and user training when implementing Project Server.

Tip 2: The difference between saving and publishing. There is a difference between saving and publishing your project to Project Server. When you are working on a project plan, you will want to save your project from time to time to protect against losing your work. However, you may not have finalized your project plan and want to continue to add information to it, review it, and/or modify it before publishing. Therefore, you save it first, and publish your project only when you believe that it contains enough information that will make it useful to other viewers of the project plan on Project Server.

Tip 3: Enterprise projects. A project is an enterprise project when you create the project schedule using Microsoft Project Professional while connected to Project Server with Enterprise Features enabled and you import the project to the enterprise using the Import Project to Enterprise wizard. In a Project Server environment, no other non-programmatic method of creating an enterprise project is possible because all projects are stored in the Project Server database.

Tip 4: Enterprise resources. A resource is an enterprise resource when it is either created in the Enterprise Resource Pool using the Microsoft Project Professional client while connected to Project Server with Enterprise Features enabled or when the resource is imported into the Enterprise Resource Pool using the Import Resource to Enterprise Wizard in Microsoft Project Professional. Resources that exist in local projects, but not the Enterprise Resource Pool, are termed a local resource, meaning that it is local to the project only.

Tip 5: Enterprise resource pool. The centralized enterprise resource pool is key and required in order to implement the advanced resource management functionality in Project Server. The resource pool contains resources and attributions that drive functionality like matching people to tasks. After you complete task planning, you can then begin the resource management process and build a team for your project.

Tip 6: Understanding the project communications life cycle. At the heart of Project Server is the cyclical assignment and update process between project managers and team members. Work assignments flow from the project plan to the project resources that perform the work and resources report progress data back to the plan. This communications life cycle flows through the following five steps.

1. Project manager publishes the plan to the Project Server database
2. Project Server notifies resources of their new task assignments
3. Team members update their progress on the project
4. Project manager receives and reviews team member task updates
5. Project manager publishes the latest project schedule

At any time throughout the project, executives can view the project portfolio of the organization.

Tip 7: Additional communication tools. In addition to the core communication between project managers, project team members, and the leadership team, Project Server provides additional features for communication and collaboration. Some of these features are native to Project Server, others leverage SharePoint. Features native to Project Server include Status Reports, Automated Alerts and Reminders, To Do Lists, Outlook Integration, Task Delegation, and Ad hoc Reporting.

Tip 8: Understanding Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). Each time a new project is saved in the Project Server database, the system optionally provisions a new project workspace on the server running Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). The project workspace contains the WSS services customized specifically for Project Server such as document libraries, issues and risks, lists, discussions and surveys, which users access through the Project Web Access interface.

Tip 9: Understanding OLAP. Online Analytic Processing (OLAP) technology relies upon a multidimensional view of data. While relational database structures are two dimensional, OLAP leverages data cubes which contain preprocessed three-dimensional data, time-phased and aggregated by business dimension. Each time Project Server processes the OLAP Cube, it stores the data in a collection of tables labeled with the prefix "msp_cube."

Tip 10: Portfolio Modeling. Project Server offers a Portfolio Modeler Tool for portfolio analysis that allows you to perform basic what-if analysis for such things as staffing changes in a single project or across a portfolio of projects. This tool can help you improve resource assignments and avoid resource over allocation.

Top 10 Tips for Project Portfolio Management

Tip 1: Start at the top. Start at the top with senior management buy-in and participation. Senior management buy-in is required to achieve consensus, motivate, and to ensure adherence to the processes, tasks, and activities required to manage the project portfolio. Without senior management participation, project portfolio management doesn't work and you are likely to end up with, or return to, a squeaky wheel gets the grease mindset for those involved.

Tip 2: Avoid the Big Bang. Don’t overwhelm the organization with a “big bang” approach. Each organization is different in terms of its level of maturity and ability to handle change. A phased approach should be used based on an assessment of the company’s abilities. In implementing PPM, seek to identify your strengths and weaknesses, use a proof of concept, and roll out PPM with toleration for information that is not perfect. And whatever approach and tools are selected, don't go too long without showing results.

Tip 3: Develop a governance process. PPM implementations with a strong governance structure will be more likely to be accepted and to work. Things to consider include: timing, decision style, organizational level, thresholds, decision criteria, and decision making. Understanding each of these areas will help structure an effective governance process for the organization.

Tip 4: Use a proven PPM tool. PPM involves tradeoffs of value, cost, resources, and risk. This can quickly become complex and requires software that can mathematically weight, balance, and optimize a portfolio in a seamless manner. In selecting PPM tools, organizations should look not only at the breadth of functionality the tools offer, but also at the vendor’s experience in PPM. With the evolving market for PPM tools and solutions, vendors who have the most implementation experience are the ones who are likely to have the most sophisticated and scalable solutions.

Tip 5: Forgive human errors, but not process errors. Don’t assume things will automatically play or can run on auto-pilot. Business dynamics and changing conditions prevail and require portfolio agility, the ability to stay current with your investment status and respond to changes. Also prevalent can be legacy attitudes, behaviors, and quiet dissension from those that fared well under the old system. Expect human errors and execution difficulties. In fact, embrace them, as they can lead to an understanding and resolution of those things in the process that led to the problem in the first place.

Tip 6: Use the tool in your operations reviews. Use the capabilities and outputs of the PPM tool to make decisions. If different tools, reports, and data is being used for management and review, it won't take long for the support for the PPM tool to dissipate. Conversely, if the PPM tool is used as the driver of portfolio management operations, then all involved will get and stay on board.

Tip 7: Use executive dashboards. Few executives will take the time to login to your PPM tool much less navigate through reports or search through data. They will no doubt want the PMO to have and use and master the PPM tool and its capabilities, but they themselves may or may not be so inclined. Whether within your PPM tool or external to it, maintain high-level executive summary dashboards that serve to both provide an executive overview of the status of the top projects of the portfolio and to provide direct access to the appropriate area of the PPM tool where useful reports and data can be immediately accessed. Keep it simple.

Tip 8: Be open to project failures. Most project management methodologies anticipate project difficulties and provide monitoring and controlling processes for change, issues, and problem management. However, the resulting mindset for the project effort can often be singularly focused on getting the project back on track to the exclusion of any real consideration given to the fact that the project may very well be failing. Be open to the possibility that the project effort could be failing and should be scrubbed from the portfolio.

Tip 9: Anticipate business opportunities and constraints. Economic cycles and business issues can impact the project portfolio both positively and negatively. Many of these new business opportunities and constraints can be identified and acted upon early to manage the portfolio and to confirm the integrity of the programs and projects of the portfolio. Being continually aware of and acting upon these business opportunities and constraints will ensure the project portfolio is balanced and optimized.

Tip 10 - Remember who the boss is. Project portfolio management can be a tremendous discipline for management and the leadership team. It will facilitate the strategic alignment of projects and programs to the priorities of the business. However, there will come times when the business intuition and market instinct of the CEO and the top tier executives will seemingly compromise the portfolio management process and available metrics. Hence, there always needs to be a certain degree of flexibility and understanding that no matter how regimented the process is made to be, certain data points and judgments might very well fall outside of the process to no discredit of all those involved.