'UNDERSTANDING THE VALUE

OF THE PMO PMO continuous improvement lessons learnt

Avonisha Parsotham

PMO CHALLENGES

SUCCESSES & LESSONS LEARNT

KEY LEARNINGS

1. Define a PMO charter • Vision

• Objectives

• Service catalogue

• PMO metrics

• Roles & responsibilities, key relationships

2. Define handbooks & governance standards • Assists with on boarding of new staff & provides a readily available

guide on procedures & templates for current staff

• Markets the project/program management discipline to stakeholders

• Use as a basis for continuous improvement

• Conduct internal audits to deliver on improvement objectives

• Start of with hygiene factors & evolve incrementally

• Establish a governance oversight committee

Use to measure the value of the PMO

KEY LEARNINGS

3. Change management • Communication is key (reduce uncertainty & create buy-in)

• Be emotive – “Call to duty”

• Identify & use champions

• Buy in = “what’s in it for me?”

• Use a top down, bottom up approach

• Leverage off expert knowledge & referent skills

• Be strategic, expect the unexpected - plan ahead for

questions/concerns

4. Reward & recognition that suits the project team/s

• Consider organisational culture, generation etc.

5. Create your personal reference library

KEY LEARNINGS

6. Coaching & mentorship • Utilise competency frameworks & career plans to motivate &

develop skills

• Identify internal diamonds in the rough & coach – change champions

• Establish Communities of Practices

• Establish a “safe” forum

7. Project prioritisation matrix • Numerically/factual based (remove emotions/escalated commitment)

• Aligned to the organisations strategic objectives

• Use a industry recognised framework e.g. Gartner's 5 perspective, balanced scorecard/ ROI etc.

SIMPLIFIED EXAMPLE

KEY LEARNINGS

8. Focus on 3 things at a time (short term, medium

term, long term) • Be strategic on what to implement: prioritise quick wins & high return

initiatives

9. Balance operational objectives & strategic alignment • Use program and portfolio management to group operational projects to

illustrate the alignment to strategic objectives

• Provide customised dashboards, with interpretation of results

• Provide forecasts to enable business decisions

KEY LEARNINGS

10. Project performance reporting Transparency & accountability fuels performance

– Delivery: Actual vs. planned delivery of key milestones

– Costs/Savings: Actual vs. planned costs

– Costs/Savings of decisions: Summation of costs/savings of decisions

– Cost of risk non containment: Summation of costs/savings relating to

risk containment

KEY LEARNINGS

11. Adopt a structured approached based on best practices for improvements

Scope

Define current state

Determine business drivers

Define future state

Identify roadmap activities

Test & execute

Review

Use industry best practice

maturity models

KEY LEARNINGS

12. Create visual roadmaps • A picture says a thousand words

• Communicate the PMO’s objectives

• Manage expectations (sponsors, PM team, general staff)

• Tie operational objectives back to strategic objectives

EXAMPLE ROADMAPS

EXAMPLE ROADMAPS

Thank you!

“All things are created twice; first mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision & a blue print of the desired results” - Stephen Covey