Where is the PMO heading? As project management continues to mature and organisations increasingly use programmes and projects to manage big changes, the role of the PMO will also evolve and change to meet the demands of increasingly risky and complex strategy execution. At the helm of the PMO of the future, strong, senior leadership with a seat at the top table will be inevitable.
Taking a look back at historical changes in the PMO and considering the business landscape we work in today we can begin to understand the shape of the future. In this session we take a look at the future PMO where the focus is about delivering real value; being aligned with the business and being a real expert in change. The session discusses the contributing factors that will make the role of the Chief Change Officer a reality.
Is this the new PMO? The Enterprise Change Leadership Office headed up by a Chief Change Officer? Will we see a CCO at board level?
Takeaways:
How the PMO structure, functions and services today shapes the PMO of tomorrow
The driving factors that lead towards the eCLO and the CCO role becoming a reality
What makes a good Chief Change Officer
About the PMO Mini-Masterclass - Evolving the PMO
Ever heard the PMO statistic that many PMOs have a shelf life on average of three years? We’re back in Edinburgh – at the heart of Scottish Government – to discuss what this statistic actually means – is it that PMOs are actually disbanded after three years or is it more likely that PMOs evolve and change since their initial incarnation into something else?
If this is the case, why is that? What changes do the PMO have to make? And is it a push or pull evolution? Lots of questions that need answers! We’ll also be looking at getting the PMO ready for evolution and also what future states of the PMO can look like. We’ll explore the potential differences in the functions and services from now and into the future.
The evening session included:
What factors could drive the evolution of a PMO?
What models might we consider in the evolution?
Where do maturity models figure in the evolution?
An insight into what is driving the PMO at the Scottish Government
What out practitioners need to stop, start and continue doing in their PMO.
With the term PMO recognised as covering all manner of activities this session will give you perspective from the BBC's corporate PMO.
Stuart will outline the role his team performs in supporting and challenging the BBC's critical projects and how the PMO's course has adjusted over time with experiences.
Developing capability has remained a cornerstone of their approach and with the BBC facing unprecedented levels of change, Stuart will share a view on the PMOs role in helping to project leaders to deliver change successfully.
Takeaways:
Opportunity to compare function and reflect priorities
Recognition of the journey in maturing a PMO function
Offer a view on the PMOs role with business change
The Video
Does your PMO have any involvement with change management? At the March PMO Flashmob, held at Shell Centre on the Southbank, we wanted to find out more about Change Management and if there is a role for the PMO within that.
We had Ranjit Sidhu with us and Change Management is totally her bag (have a look at ChangeQuest to see what I mean) which was ideal for us because as far as I know there hasn't really been any conversations around the subject of Change Management and the PMO.
So just to be clear what we are talking about when we say Change Management, Ranjit gave us two definitions:
The application of processes and tools for leading the people side of change to achieve a desired outcome
and:
An approach to transitioning individuals, teams and organisations to a desired future state
So it's all about the soft, fluffy human side of projects and how people are affected when a project is being run and completed. So when thinking about Change Management, the ideal situation is to weave in these approaches, processes and tools as the project is being delivered. If we think about traditional projects, we tend to focus on the deliverables - when will they be delivered and by whom. Sometimes this focus on hard and fast deliverables means we often forget to think about what the impact of these deliverables might be on the people who will have to experience and work with them. If they're not happy it doesn't matter how well that project was managed, how quickly it was delivered and how much it cost, it won't be successful.
The PMO Manifesto includes the line -
Enabling Change over Restraining Delivery
At the PMO Flashmob back in June, the World Cafe event gave us the opportunity to understand more about what this actually means. The idea behind this part of the manifesto is as a PMO function we prefer to be seen as an entity that enables our project organisations to run better and more successful projects without being seen as a hindrance or 'project police'. It is about being able to find the balance between 'control' (the restraining part) and the 'free rein' (the enabling part) first and then thinking about a future state where 'restraint' becomes a word of the past.
In this article there are no conclusions, just thoughts and opinions conveyed by those who attended. I hope the overview is useful. Here's how the conversation unfolded:
My first ever PMO Flashmob ended up in a pub – which is no bad thing from a networking point of view! The format of the evening revolved around the typical word café menu. The menu included 5 topics of conversation to challenge PMOs and the PMO Manifesto.
A musical chairs style atmosphere enabled all delegates to attend three discussions that were of particular interest. I selected 'how do we make the PMO an enabler for change?', 'how can we get PMO to become a permanent business fixture?' and 'how do we bring the PMO Manifesto to life?'.
The enabling change discussion really started off covering items such as having the right people in the right jobs and how PMO can support communicating with the wider audience as well as education. It swiftly moved onto what PMOs could add as a change enabler in the higher echelons of business strategy. It was commonly agreed that for a PMO to work at such a level and not have to concentrate too much on the delivery aspect that all the project and programme people would have to be absolutely trusted to the right job every time. I don’t know about you but I would say that this ‘nirvana’ state for PMOs has not been achieved by many leaders.
The conversation swiftly then moved onto what PMOs add as a change enabler and we decided on the integration of projects and programmes, process management and getting to the ‘sweet spot’ between strategy & delivery.
At this PMO Flashmob event we had a Learn and Live session - a PMO Cafe!
World Cafe's are a way of getting a bunch of people to focus on a particular topic and to talk through what their views and opinions are. One of the menu items was, 'What makes a PMO an Enabler of Change?'. This question stemmed from the PMO Manifesto which aims to show the PMO as a progressive, proactive function within project management within an organisation.
The PMO will uncover better ways of improving, governing, controlling, and assuring change within an organization, leading by example and helping others to accomplish it.
We wanted to explore the question and see what kind of ideas the group came up with. Incidentally, many of the people who come to the PMO Flashmob are from a wide variety of backgrounds which always makes for an interesting conversation.
What makes a PMO an Enabler of Change?
