I'm in the process of taking over our new PMO from my coach who is now our CIO. Although we have had a PMO in the past we only had 2 project managers (myself and my coach). Now we have 6 developers who are going to manage their own projects. They are in the middle of their projects, which are all required to be done quickly. Any words of advice in ensuring they are moving in the right direction and in making changes to the PMO. Saving Changes...
My advice would be to keep things simple. Avoid the temptation to re-organize or enlarge the PMO. Also, avoid the temptation to, initially, expend new time and money on new IT infrastructure and project management applications. I would focus on three things. First, understand and help your CIO attain his objectives. If he is a "1", you can't be far behind. If he is "unsat", you can't be far ahead. So, strategically use the PMO to drive the objectives of your CIO. Second, I would establish a culture of continuous improvement or "Kaizen", see attached. A PMO can be a lot of things to a lot of people. Everyday is an opportunity to succeed as well as have a mishap. Many PMOs fail because of a "Quantum Shift" mindset that requires too much change and too much stress on the organization as well as it established a false sense of "mission accomplished" as if all of the problems suddenly stop at a certain point in time. A continuous improvement culture, on the other hand, enables and fosters incremental improvements on an on-going basis that are limited only by one's imaginiation. Third, I would establish the core PMO processes such as project management, portfolio management, governance, continuous improvement, etc. If you are publicly traded and have revenues over $50 million per year, then I would invite the CFO to assist you in auditing your IT processes and internal controls to ensure that they are Sarbanes-Oxley compliant. If you are a defense contractor, you might want to ensure that you are EVM ASNI 748 compliant. Unlike traditional approaches to setting up the PMO and the PMO project management processes that can often be too detailed and too rigid and too expensive, I would seek to keep your processes as simple as possible. Use the IT infrastructure and the tools that you already have and know and allow your continuous improvement processes to identify opportunities and confirm the business need and justification for new investments in such things as vendor applications, PM training and certification, and PMO consulting services. Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me ([email protected]) if you would like to discuss further and good luck...! Mark Perry, Vice President of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
