You might be a bad PPM initiative sponsor if…

I’ll preface this post by apologizing to Jeff Foxworthy – I’m sure he never planned for his You Might Be A Redneck humor to be plagiarized for use in the Project Portfolio Management domain, but my defense is that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

A common source of PPM initiative failures is the lack of effective executive sponsorship.  As such, I thought it might be instructive (and fun!) to provide a few telltale indicators to help in avoiding picking the wrong sponsor for your PPM capability improvement project.

Your candidate might be a bad PPM initiative sponsor if

1. He once tried to sue Nike for use of HIS phrase “Just do it”!

2. She breaks her piggy bank and starts counting the change when you ask whether she can secure sufficient funding for the initiative.

3. Hysterical laughter is the only reaction you receive when you tell your colleagues who you are trying to recruit.

4. The last major initiative he sponsored was written up by Harvard Business School as an MBA case study on how NOT to sponsor a project.

5. Her common reaction when faced with change resistance is to say “Twist my rubber arm”.

6. Apprentice ninjas have approached him for training in the art of invisibility.

7. She is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the greatest number of executive jobs held in different companies in the shortest period of time.

8. His initial response when you asked him to sponsor your initiative is to say “You said the P word!”.

9. Chicken Little is her idol.

10. When you ask him to be your sponsor, he gives you the number of the local AA chapter.

Questioning the value of PMOs’ (redux) – you can only manage what you measure…

My article from a couple of weeks ago related to the unfortunate, but common need to validate the existence of PMOs was written before I had the chance to fully read the August 2011 issue of PM Network.  While perusing the last page (Metrics) of the issue, I read an interesting set of metrics reported under the heading “PMOs under pressure” that were extracted from a recent survey conducted by ESI International:

1. 60% of senior-level project professionals reported their PMO’s value has been questioned
2. 15% reported that they track ROI and benefits realization
3. 40% said that their PMO was operating to a fair or poor extent

The first statistic is hardly a revelation – in fact, I was expecting to see a much higher percentage given that most PMOs are funded as cost centers and like any cost center are required to justify their existence.

The second statistic is surprising as it appears to be the opposite of what one would expect given the conclusions one could draw from the first one.  If I know the value of my PMO is likely to be questioned, am I not more likely to want to provide quantitative evidence?  Isn’t one of the best ways to do this to demonstrate ROI or benefits realization from its existence?

Then, one reads the third statistic and all seems clear – the survey group of “3,740 senior-level project and program managers” must have been quite honest as they chose not to paint an unrealistic picture of their PMOs’ capabilities.  If a PMO is incapable of providing empirical objective proof of its value, then it’s no surprise that in almost half the cases it was considered mediocre.

Kudos to PMI for publishing such statistics and for pairing them in the same issue with an article titled “Selling the value of a PMO” which makes frequent mention of the need to provide quantitative data to support a PMO’s continued existence.

As a PMO leader, what are YOU doing to NOT contribute to the second and third statistics?

When process gets in the way of “doing the right thing”

Recently, while attempting to book a two night stay online with a major hotel chain using a combination of reward points and a car association discount rate, I discovered I could either book both nights using points (of which I had enough for one but not both nights) or using the discount rate, but not one night using each.

My assumption was that this was merely a case of the automated reservation system having some limitations so I called the hotel reservations call center.  The first line agent was unable to help so I requested to be escalated to the next level of authority.  The senior agent had no better luck but was kind enough to contact the location directly and spoke with the manager on duty.  At the end of the process, it was determined that this was simply not a feasible booking.  Neither the senior agent nor the hotel manager appeared to have the motivation or authority to make an exception or to attempt to “sweeten the pill” in any fashion (in spite of the fact that the hotel chain has received a significant amount of business from me over the last decade).

Rather than accept one of the two standard options I chose to go elsewhere.

So who lost?

While I might have preferred to stay at this chain’s location, there were other hotels in close proximity so I was quite happy to take my business to them.  On the other hand, the hotel chain lost the revenue from at least one night and now has a frequent traveler who will be considering other options before going to them in the future.

Do your staff try to do the right thing, or try to do process right?

Have you empowered your staff to be able to override default processes when it makes sense and if not, do they have the flexibility to be able to recover customer satisfaction in some other manner?