Reporting

We Need to Talk About Status Reports

Status Reports - that was the subject for the last PMO Flashmob in Manchester. The evening was held at the Manchester Metropolitan University Business School so we thought, an educational establishment deserves an evening of learning. So we headed to the classroom for a session on project status reports (we really know how to let our hair down!)
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Beyond Portfolio Reporting – The Challenges and Reality of Portfolio Management

Early December in London’s Fleet Street and PMO Flashmob - the PMO networking group - hosted the first ‘PMO Managers’ Lunch’. These events bring together PMO Managers, from a number of different industries, to talk in-depth about a particular PMO topic. At this lunch, the subject was “Beyond portfolio reporting – the challenges and reality of portfolio management”.
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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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