Project Management Office (PMO) fundamentals Part IV

– – The PMO has emerged from the construction and defense sectors providing a half century of services to its customers. However, PMOs are not always well built or well understood, i.e. according to the PMO Executive Council (A function in transition: emerging organizational models for the PMO, 2006, V), “more than 70% of PMOs have reorganized in the past three years” illustrating a need to better understand and explore their organizational posture, or as the Random House Dictionary states, the PMOs “position, condition, or state, as of affairs.” Reflecting back on the PMO Supplier-Customer Relationships (Part II) recall the five PMOs aligned within the value chain. Our drawing (upper right) illustrates three primary domains: identity, relationships, and information. Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers state that “from these simple dynamics emerge widely different expressions of organization;” and from my work with PMOs over the last 15 years it is these expressions that can cause a PMO to fail or succeed. As they also assert: “the domains of identity, information, and relationships operate in a dynamic cycle so intertwined that it becomes difficult to distinguish among the three elements.” I’ve broken down each of the three domains to contains three areas of focus: three activities that will build structural capital that is clearly discerned by its stakeholders (sponsors, supporters, users and representatives). Weaknesses in efficiently executing these activities will impact the PMOs effectiveness and ultimately the interpretation of its outcomes and satisfaction ratings.

“Almost all work today is organized into bite-sized packets called projects…today you have to think, breathe, act, and work in projects." Tom Peters
Think of your PMO as a project—here are three bite-sized packets!

– – Identity: stakeholders need to know what the purpose of the PMO is, its value proposition, how it will impact current and future capabilities, and what products and services it will offer. This is marketing 101—if customers don’t perceive value they will not buy into the PMO, you need to deliver products and services customers will value.

– – Relationships: who are your stakeholders, who is funding the PMO, who is critical to its success, who do you need to keep satisfied, informed and engaged? Are there standards organizations and communities of practice to support the PMO to build credibility and critical mass? If you haven’t identified those critical to your success and are not talking to those that could value you most—the PMO may be destined to be out of commission before the ink is dry on its business plan. It is imperative that the PMO work closely with business stakeholders to help align to a strategy that meets its customer’s needs while satisfying scalability, reliability, performance, and cost.

– – Information: it has been said, is the “medium of the organization.” How will you communicate with your stakeholders, where is the information to help create the basis for making decisions, and the nuggets of knowledge that can be used and reused to improve margins and satisfaction metrics? Knowledge is power and according to Bill Gates, “every new project should directly build on the learning from any similar project undertaken anywhere else in the world.” The PMO should help “raise your corporate IQ.”

– –In Fundamentals Part V we will focus on Identity with a sample mission statement, goals and objectives, an easy approach to measuring organizational capability and suggested PMO services.