PMO Labs is our way of getting attendees talking about different PMO themes together. We know that every single one of the PMO Flashmobbers has a story to share, an interesting insight from their careers that others would get a great benefit from.
In this PMO Lab, part of the session held at Parliament UK, we continued to look at the insights thrown up from the latest Inside PMO report on KPIs, Metrics and Measures.
This time around we were talking about metrics around a PMO service menu - service levels or SLAs. We started by confirming what a service menu is. Basically, this is a list of all the services that the PMO can perform - the most well-known version of this is Appendix F of the P3O manual.
PMO Learning’s Eileen Roden presented a session at the British Computer Society (BCS) The Chartered Institute of IT’s offices in Covent Garden, London. We've added this session to the PMO Flashmob website because we think you might like the content.
There are two parts to this session:
First the role an effective PMO can play in driving and supporting successful delivery, from setting up the organisation’s delivery infrastructure and ecosystem to pure administrative support (and everything in-between). It also covered how project managers engage with the PMO and identified how best the PMO can help, within the context of their other roles across the organisation.
Second, the session also looked at some of the challenges when dealing with PMOs (particularly an ineffective PMO) and explored strategies and tactics to get the best from them.
The BCS PROMS-G event is the meetup for project management practitioners working in IT [ you can take a look at other events they run here]
The event saw attendance fom both project managers and PMO practitioners and Eileen’s session focused on a couple of things. First the role an effective PMO can play in driving and supporting successful delivery, from setting up the organisation’s delivery infrastructure and ecosystem to pure administrative support (and everything in-between). It also covered how project managers engage with the PMO and identified how best the PMO can help, within the context of their other roles across the organisation. Second the session also looked at some of the challenges when dealing with PMOs (particularly an ineffective PMO) and explored strategies and tactics to get the best from them.
It's another of our 12 Stand Up for PMO Days Before Christmas and insights from the PMO Unconference earlier in the year. This is the eleventh (pipers piping) and it's taken from the PMO Unconference Board.
At the beginning of the day we asked attendees to post up some of the questions they would like to see covered during the day. In this post we take a look at just one of the questions, What Does an Ideal PMO Team Look Like?
It wasn't just one person's question - with the powers of dot voting we could see that others were also interested in this one.
We hear a lot about “how much value does the PMO bring to the business” or versions along those lines and I got thinking about the subject whilst listening to something which, on the surface of it, has no connection whatsoever.
I was listening to the TED talk “Know Your Worth and Ask for It” from Casey Brown [Link to the session]
The session is all about the fact you’re never paid what you think you’re worth – only what other people think you’re worth.
And that earning what you’re worth is a simple equation of:
“Definition of Value” + Clear Communication
A couple of weeks ago we were in Manchester for an evening of The Value of the PMO The evening event explored three different insights that are focused on the value a PMO provides to an organisation. We looked at what P3O had to say; the PMO Value Ring (something we've written about before) and the Business Driven PMO.
The Business Driven PMO comes from Mark Price Perry - he wrote about it first of all back in 2009 in his popular book with the same title - Business Driven PMO Setup: Practical Insights, Techniques and Case Examples for Ensuring Success
Mark came over to the UK earlier in the year for the PMO Conference where he provided the opening keynote - the message was all about putting the horse before the cart when it comes to PMO set up. Take a look at a brief part of the keynote where he talks about the usual journey a PMO set up and ongoing management takes.
Are you proud about what your PMO has achieved?
That’s the first step in taking part in something like APM’s PMO of the Year Award – you need to proud of your achievements and be ready to share the story with the wider industry and community.
Justin Byrd - Head of EPO at Fujitsu
I caught up with Justin Byrd who has done just that. Justin is a great PMO Flashmob supporter – he’s also the Head of the EMEIA Portfolio Office (EPO) at Fujitsu, the IT Technology and Services organisation.
The EPO has a story to tell and one which highlights not only why they could be worthy winners of the Award in November, also what can be achieved in four years.
The EPO has journeyed from an administrative support function into a PMO which consistently adds real tangible value to the PPM function and to the wider business. The drive towards becoming a finalist for the Award has stemmed from taking that time to recognise the achievements of all 211 PMO professionals that make up Fujitsu’s PMO service and as a way to benchmark the PMO externally.
Many PMOs are vulnerable to failing within the first three years of operation due to the changes that continually impact its very existence.
In this session, Robert Joslin explores the top ten key drivers of change that affect the PMO and gives insights into how practitioners can prepare for the PMO’s response to changes.
This session, based on evidence-based findings, introduces the seven core PMO principles, which form the basis of a new international PMO standard. Implementing these seven core PMO principles, within any type of PMO today, will not only underpin PMOs with a solid foundation for delivering high value services, they will also reduce the risk of adverse effects during these turbulent change periods.
Takeaways:
The importance of seven core principles underpinning PMOs
The top 10 drivers changing the PMO today
Why and how PMO principles will increase the long-term value of PMOs within an organisation
At the beginning of March I went along to an APM PMOSIG event in London. It was a session by Americo Pinto - a PMO thought leader and researcher who comes from Brazil.
I've seen Americo's name popping up in places - his research papers, some Linkedin posts, bumped into him at the PMO Symposium, and finally with his work on PMO Tools and something called the PMO Value Ring
A brief exploration into how you can manage the perception of your PMO to move away from the long held and dogged perception of PMOs being an admin/ reporting/ bureaucracy - towards an innovative change support function that is fully aligned with the needs of the business and really adds value across Change programmes or portfolios.
This insightful and creative session looks at the brand of the PMO and how to communicate that brand across the organisation.
Takeaways:
A different perspective on the value of investing time and resource in improving the perception of the PMO
The desire to look at yourself in the mirror and ask whether you are really doing what you can to improve and manage the perception of your PMO
Walk away with some innovative concepts to explore in your own PMO environments
The Video
