PMO Bytes

Does the situation below look familiar? Next time when you encounter similar situation, tell the person – "Go get a life!"

This is the moment where you realize that you really need a Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tool. As a PMO manager, I used to spend a few days every month in the past to chase after my project managers for project status in order to compile the details into monthly report to be distributed out to the project sponsors and stakeholders. Doing this in Excel spreadsheet is a laborious job that anyone that has done it before will swear never to do it again. Fortunately, this torment only lasted for three months for me when we eventually implemented a PPM tool in the PMO to takeover the bulk of these monotonous tasks. However, this is not the end of the nightmare. Now, with the new PPM tool in place, instead of chasing the project managers for project status, I have to chase them to update their project status in the PPM tool. It seems like the vicious cycle has repeated itself...

LaoTzu once said,

"Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;

It is the center hole that makes it useful.

Shape clay into a vessel;

It is the space within that makes it useful.

Cut doors and windows for a room;

It is the holes which make it useful.

Therefore benefit comes from what is there;

Usefulness from what is not there."

Here is the Chinese original version,

In other words, a masterpiece is made up of what are that included and what are that excluded. Imperfection leaves rooms for improvement, while the missing piece evokes imagination and creativity to fill the gap. Take a look at the image below. What do you see?

So next time when the users have requested you to add this and that into the requirement list that will eventually blow up the scope, do not just focus on what should be included. Take a step back and give some serious thoughts on what should be excluded as well. Sometimes, excluding certain things can make the world a whole lot better.

This is my little laboratory to explore the world of project management through the monocles of culture, design, business, technology, politics, social, education, philosophy and music. What I am trying to do here is a little bit different and unconventional but hopefully more useful. I am trying to start a stream of Bytes. I want it to be short and precise so that I do not waste people's time reading it, but I want it to be longer than a tweet. Why I use the word 'Byte'? First of all, I think it sounds cool, and it reminds people of 'Bite' and I want each of them to be in 'Bite-size'. Here is how Wikipedia describes 'Byte': The byte (pronounced /'ba?t/), coined from "bite", but respelled to avoid accidental mutation to "bit", is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications. Well, PMO Bytes should be a small paragraph of words that convey strong and meaningful messages and thoughts in the topics of project, program and portfolio management. In addition, they should be fun and enjoyable to read preferably with a sense of touch in the areas of culture, design, business, technology, politics, social, education, philosophy and music which can serve as metaphors that relate back to the main topics of project, program and portfolio management. I want the PMO Bytes to be lively and preferably able to trigger or fork into other trains of thoughts and discussions with a life form that lives by itself.