PMO Services

So, You Want to Get into PMO Contracting?

My name is Ken Burrell, and since July 2011 I have been operating as an independent contractor, providing my PMO services to various clients (mostly London market insurance companies) through short-to-medium-term engagements of my company, Pragmatic PMO Limited. I often get asked about contracting by the client employees I work alongside, and so I have written this article for PMO FlashMob to share some of my experiences with you, in the hope that you will find my observations useful if you’re planning a similar move. I’m starting from the assumption that you’ve already made the decision to make the move, or you are at least seriously considering it. Everyone has their own reasons for moving into contracting, and you need to be certain that for you the (very real) risks are worth the (hopefully real but in no way guaranteed) rewards. So, having decided to start the process, what should you actually do? As well as the obvious stuff (like sorting out your CV, doing a skills audit and so on), the steps I suggest below are based on what I actually did, with a few additions based on my experience:
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What Role Do You Perform in the PMO?

Thanks for landing on the page! The research has now been completed! At the last PMO Flashmob in June we produced a list of all the PMO service areas we could think of. The idea was to visually demonstrate just how many service areas are currently associated with PMOs today. It sounded like a good basis for conversations with the group. The service areas were taken from P3O, some of the work we previously carried out in relation to competencies and by looking at current PMO practitioners CVs. We thought it might be interesting to see if there were hotspots - are there areas of commonality? This was interesting because we often hear that every PMO is different yet there are obviously core service areas that can be found in almost every PMO. I've often thought that the more we hear that every PMO is different, the more PMO practitioners get short-changed because different inevitably means difficult. It means things like specific PMO training courses or a PMO competency framework which a wide range of PMO practitioners could benefit from never seem to get created. Different means we give up. But are we that different? We had a small group in June yet with the service areas pinned up on the walls of the pub we could see quite quickly that there were areas of commonality. So we thought why not get more PMO practitioners to fill it in and see what the results look like.
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PMO Flashmob Bans “Added Value”

Last week it was the APMG Showcase, an annual event that showcases the APMG products. It's a mix of expo, masterclasses, keynotes and something called "birds of a feather" sessions. These are just a roundtable discussion for about 45 minutes on a given topic. The PMO Flashmob hosted two sessions. We started out just getting an understanding of who people were and what their pain points might be in their PMO today. Like any random session like this, we had no idea who was going to sit down and start chatting - a bit like a PMO Flashmob in other words - so we had no idea what direction it might take. Needless to say we came away with loads more questions which would work particularly well at a future PMO Flashmob event - in fact, why not come along to the next one and we'll try some out on you :) One of the takeaways for me was BANNING the phrase "VALUE ADD"and "ADDING VALUE" in relation to PMOs. Why?
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PMOs – The Walking Talking Lessons Learnt

Just like the first PMO Flashmob two years ago, the first PMO Flashmob in Birmingham was a cosy affair. We had the opportunity to speak together as one group which is certainly something we can't do anymore in London because the network has become so much bigger. We're sowing the seeds in Birmingham and its only a matter of time before the great and good of the Midlands will join us at future events. So last night. We had so many different conversations from systems and tools, through to the likes and dislikes of the job and some thoughts about where the PMO should be working in the future. The interesting thing about getting PMO practitioners together is regardless of the type of PMO you are working in or managing there is always something you'll take away from the discussions. In fact at one point it felt like a PMO support group! So what were my takeaways from the first PMO Flashmob in Birmingham? A few things.
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Stop, Do More Of and Start in the PMO

Last month's PMO Flashmob was all about taking a look at our PMOs with a P3O lens. P3O, Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices, first created as a piece of guidance back in 2008 from the same stable as PRINCE2, and refreshed in 2013 is one of the more prominent literatures in this field. Many people within the PMO world have either read it or taken the step further and taken the training course and accreditation. One of the most prominent pieces of feedback has long been that P3O is a good place to start if you're setting up a PMO for the first time or indeed looking to reboot an existing one. What it has never done or claimed to do is set out how to manage a PMO or looked in any detail at the types of functions and services a PMO provides - and how to do them. We were lucky on Thursday night to have refresh author Eileen Roden run a session for us at QA's International House training venue (fabulous views BTW). We wanted to think about the world of PMO post P3O in so much that yes we have some good useful practice that is written and available but really we want to understand what has changed since 2008. We decided to have an interactive session in that PMO Flashmobbers would take a moment to stop and reflect. We asked the question: What has your PMO stopped doing?
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PMO Town Hall or Old Folks Home

Here’s a little exercise for you.  Grab a piece of paper and a box of wax crayons and draw me a picture of the Loch Ness Monster. Sure it doesn’t exist in any tangible form but you know of it and you can give me your interpretation... Three humps, water, wearing a Tam O’Shanter and kilt... That kind of thing. Now... turn the page over and draw me a picture of a PMO. Not quite so easy, huh? For a start it’s unlikely to be wearing any fetching head gear – but it’s a much more difficult concept to draw than old Nessie. You can explain in words what a PMO is and does... but what it looks like is far more complex to articulate – even Michelangelo would struggle to paint a masterpiece called “PMO”.
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