Evolve or go extinct – taking PMOs beyond the triple constraint!

A primary cause of PMO shutdowns is that they are perceived to have not delivered sufficient business value to justify their continued existence.

The original focus for many PMOs is to provide oversight over a portfolio of projects with the objective of increasing project predictability while also improving the visibility into project status and decision making.  This is a good starting point, especially in organizations where most projects are completed outside of established cost, schedule or quality constraints.  However, a sustained focus on this objective is myopic – it does the organization no good if a project is completed on time or within budget if the project produces no business value.

This raises a challenge for PMOs, especially those that are within internal service lines such as an IT department.  With limited formal authority to drive business value realization, how can they help their organization choose the right projects and ensure that the operational stars are all aligned so that the project’s deliverables will be effectively used?

Here are some ideas to help “raise the bar”:

1. Learn the business and “talk the talk” – PMs and PMO staff need to have a solid grounding in basic business functions including sales, marketing and accounting.  This will help them identify early warning signs of poor value projects and will aid them in effectively communicating concerns to senior management.

2. Actively engage project sponsors to try to influence “good” decision making.  To gain sponsors’ trust, PMs and PMO staff will need to demonstrate a solid track record of project delivery coupled with a thorough understanding of the business processes and functional areas that the sponsors oversee.

3. Invest effort in tracking the benefits of completed projects, even if this is not required as part of your organization’s governance practices.  Possessing solid evidence to back up recommendations helps with establishing credibility.

4. Cultivate business change management practices and identify when these practices are not being leveraged appropriately on key projects.  Understand the transition readiness plan for project deliverables even if this is being handled outside of your PMO’s jurisdiction, and don’t be afraid to constructively challenge any issues or gaps you perceive with the planning or execution of these plans.

5. If the PMO is within an internal service line, always communicate an “outside-in” view of decisions and issues.  Understand how the projects your PMO oversees are part of the bigger picture.  In time, this can help to overcome perceptions of a PMO’s bias or tunnel-vision.

Whether or not your organization adopts Project Portfolio Management practices, one of the ways you can increase the odds of your PMO’s sustainability is to broaden its focus beyond the triple constraint.

You can’t say you’re taking PPM/PM “baby steps” if the baby never matures!

One of the most cliched phrases I hear in my role is “baby steps”.  In the context of a project portfolio management or project management improvement initiative, it relates to the organization change management good practice of introducing procedural changes in an incremental fashion such that the changes are assimilated and institutionalized before the next round of improvements is launched.

The reason this makes me wince is that the analogy to a baby taking its first steps is ambitious at best – babies go from being very unsteady to becoming accomplished cruisers, walkers & then runners.  In the absence of any developmental conditions, progress is truly visible.

On the other hand, with PPM/PM initiatives, the baby often never seems to progress past those baby steps – in fact, in many organizations, the baby steps are followed by a regression in capabilities.  Even worse (so much for those so called “Lessons Learned“!), it is not uncommon to find that the same changes are proposed, launched and shelved repeatedly as champions, stakeholders & motivations change.

For that reason, I would like to propose a more appropriate (although arguably more cynical) analogy for most organization’s “experiments” with PPM or PM maturity: a Möbius strip.  Or, for those of you that are more musically inclined, perhaps “one step forward, two steps back”!

A lesson that CIOs should learn from the “Governator”

A depressing article in TechWeb’s Global CIO thread on Saturday about the length of time it took Governor Schwarzenegger to realize just how much unnecessary bureaucracy was impacting entrepreneurs in California should send a clear message to CIOs.

Take a hard look at how straight forward it is for your customers to request a service through your department and have it fulfilled.  Yes, governance over and consistency in work intake is important, but are you introducing too much administration with little value added?  Are there conflicting policies or procedures at play?  What is the cycle time for an “average” request?  Are your customers finding alternate or stealth ways to get their requirements satisfied?

Of course, there is one major difference between your situation and Arnie’s – he had the luxury of having seven years to identify the issues in his shop.  I doubt you’ll be so lucky…