Can A PMO Bring You Value?
Value Area: Technology and Project Management Consulting/Coaching
Intro
Most mid-sized companies have probably never heard of a Project Management Office (PMO). On the other hand, if you speak with project professionals in larger companies that make use of PMOs, you’ll find they hardly resemble each other in function and structure. You might say to yourself:
If I’ve never heard of it, I probably don’t need it
If there is no industry consensus about how they structure and function, that’s more evidence that my organization isn’t missing anything
Are you sure….?
How good are you at reading between the lines?
The two statements above should be telling you something very different…
The value of PMOs in broad terms is a little-known secret
Of those organizations that leverage PMOs, they have been tailored to meet the specific needs of that organization
In a very competitive global marketplace where you seek advantage, can you afford to be cavalier and quickly dismissive?
Are you sure the other guy isn’t on to something?
Lend an ear…
The Context of your Organization and Growth
In my experience, most small to mid-sized companies are becoming more and more sophisticated in their strategy planning. In the past 10 years, most have adopted strategic planning practices which previously may only have been found in larger companies. The root laws of business are universal. Strategy and growth go hand in hand. You want to be successful in the future, you better start leading strategically.
Oh, and by the way, you better execute well if you hope to get there.
If your business is like most, strategic goals are bundled in projects of some kind. Whether it be a new technology or a new service or product, you envision something yet to be created, which you believe fills a need in your marketplace. So… you spend great time and effort describing the thing you believe you need and task a team to go create it.
You might have a strategic group of projects, upon which you are hinging the whole future stability and success of your organization. Sure, you win some, you lose some, but the guy that wins in the end has learned to win more often than the poor sod who just launches into something and hopes for the best.
From and organizational standpoint, how to you execute projects? How do you:
Monitor real time if things are on track from a time and requirement standpoint?
Avoid scope creep that inevitably adds to project budgets
Plan for the various risks associated with projects whether known or unknown
Validate that what you get out of the project meets expectation of you and your customer?
Avoid repeating the organizational mistakes that previous projects have succumb to?
These questions are all very real and the outcomes can be very expensive, if not tragic for some failed organizations.
Are you used to getting project progress reports that merely qualitative? You kind of feel OK but coming out of the meeting or reading the report, you no smarter than when you started.
You’re not alone…
The Value a Strong Project Management Office Can Create
PMOs can be structured to provide common benefits to project execution but can also be structured to need the specific needs of your organization. For example, how would you feel knowing:
At the beginning of a project, previous lessons learned were effectively communicated?
Each project had a similar business case and charter laying out the ground rules for how the project will be executed and governed.
You had good cost data from similar project to benchmark new cost estimates
You are receiving project results on a timely basis with a common scorecard that you can immediately make sense to know where the gaps are and who’s working them
When things change (and they always do) there is clarity about roles, responsibilities and necessary authorization to approve changes
You had a 2 of 3 simple metrics common to all projects to let you know how you are doing against schedule and cost
Projects were all closed according to the same procedure and results archived for future reference
These functions are among the roles for the PMO. Once these things have been institutionalized in your organization, the gap between strategic planning and execution can be significantly narrowed.
If you want more information on the value of a PMO or want help forming a PMO let’s discuss it over a coffee. If you need expert coaching on your technology and projects, we can bring peace of mind.