Project Management Office (PMO) fundamentals Part III

– – According to Tenner & DeToro (Process Redesign, 1997, 17), organizations “can be described as a network of processes that can be identified, documented, controlled, and improved…a network of processes identifies the internal as well as external supplier-customer relationships that generate products or services.” Reflecting back on the PMO Supplier-Customer Relationships from the previous discussion, our drawing (upper right) illustrates the business process model—a process, according to Wesner, Hiatt, & Trimble (Winning with Quality, 1994, 38) define a process as “one or more tasks that transform a set of inputs into a specified set of outputs (goods or services) for another person [customer] or process via a combination of people, procedures, and tools.” If we look back to the operations PMO-Services which spanned into finance and marketing we could see several processes this PMO might focus, e.g. Proposal Management in order to staff, build, and publish while optimizing the Cost of Sales (marketing); moreover, the monitoring and control of pro-forma invoicing to ensure accurate time and expenses and acceptable variance to safeguard gross margin (finance). These two processes initially could observe levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Burton, DeSanctis, & Obel (Organizational Design, 2006, 11) state: “efficiency is a primary focus on inputs, use of resources, and costs…focusing on minimizing the costs of producing goods or services [and] effectiveness is a focus more on outputs, products, services, and revenues…focusing on generating revenues or seizing leading edge innovation in the marketplace.”

– – While the Director of Microsoft Consulting Services worldwide PMO I had the opportunity to work with the People & Organizational Capability organization, as I was the owner for the Consulting Project Management role/discipline. With over one hundred accredited project managers globally Microsoft needed to determine high-value or essential-to-the-business processes. RoleGuide was then created out of this need, i.e. roles would have 3 to 7 processes with identified deliverables broken into tasks, and mapped to competencies and success criteria—all of this inside an e-business portal that project managers could use, anywhere, anytime. RoleGuide allowed self assessment on these processes and was capable of provided suggested structured development to help build capability, just-in-time. Imagine an inventory by role of what your current capabilities and capacity to deliver are! I also worked with ESI International, the International Institute for Learning (IIL), and Novations Services to map their curriculum to these processes which allowed project managers’ on-demand and scheduled on-site courses—continuous learning supporting process excellence.

Example for Process X
Deliverable + Success Criteria
Task 1 + Success Criteria
Competency + Level
Task 2 + Success Criteria
Competency + Level

– – Quick wins for the enterprise PMO could be as simple as focusing on a few pain-points in the business, processes that are either broken or don’t exist, that once addressed could improve efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction metrics. In Fundamentals Part IV we will discuss organizational posture fundamentals, i.e. value-chain alignment by creating the enterprise PMO identity, relationships, and information components—nine minimum areas to success.

Project Management Office (PMO) fundamentals - Part II

– – When building the enterprise PMO we must think of the stakeholders that will sustain its operation, i.e. those that have a share in, or interest in, the products and services offered by the PMO that will provide benefit—provide value. Reflecting back on our value-chain discussion, our drawing (upper right) illustrates five PMO’s within a single organization supporting both primary and support activities. Who’s the customer?

Finance: the PMO-SOX was established to provide compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) act of 2002, i.e. as a publically traded company this PMO provides assurance in accounting oversight, corporate responsibility and financial disclosure. The customer is the board of directors and shareholders.

Operations: the PMO-SERVICES spans into finance and marketing by providing internal services that help sales in preparing proposals and statements of work; by reporting time and expenses and monitoring invoices/costs; and providing project managers with best-practices, process and tools. The customer is finance, operations and marketing helping control cost of sales, gross margin, and satisfaction metrics.

Law and Corporate Affairs: the PMO-PL01, or PMO for Product Line 01, to provide compliance with the European Union (EU) and Department of Justice (DOJ) prior to Release-to-Manufacture of their software product. The customer is the product group.

Information Technology: the PMO-IT provides assurance and governance in anaging the IT portfolio of capital and operational investments—building the right projects and building them right. The customers are the customers, partners, employees and shareholders.

Customer: the PMO is positioned to assist in the rapid deployment of technology and its productive use—to assure that the products that they purchased are deployed with minimum risk and attainment of business value. Important customer capital is
built in this relationship. The customers are the end-users and sponsor.

– – From a marketing standpoint, as Kotler & Armstrong (Principles of Marketing, 2010) state—customer-driven companies research current customers deeply to learn about their desires, gather new product and service ideas, and test proposed product improvements.” The PMO Architect must ask if they are relevant in their current offerings and if there is additional value to be had in their enterprise through building and supporting competency in project management. So the answer is one-to-many, i.e. an enterprise may begin with a single PMO and evolve to have those that may specialize, as in our examples, to facilitate a unique focus on the organization from building human capital, gleaning new perspectives in process and innovation capital, and deeper relationships through customer capital. In Fundamentals Part III we will discuss: how any one of the five PMOs discussed here could quickly provide value through a collection of high-value or essential-to-the-business business processes.