Demand Management needs to be understood and managed in the context of the benefits of change, not in the context of local processes, subject to pressures that lead to an endless tweaking of low-value outcomes.
In this article, Lodger Lain is back in the Heptagon and he shares insights that include PRUB, Impact Mapping, tactical and strategic things your PMO could be doing to improve demand management.
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We really love listening to other PMO practitioners' experiences and we know many of our members do too. In this session, we listen to Gary Heath, a long time supporter of House of PMO and luckily for us, vastly experienced in PMO. As he says in his opening introduction, he's worked in pretty much any type of role, for example, permanent, contractor, fixed-term, consultant, associate - you name it he's done it.
A great session for anyone at any level in the PMO - it's always interesting to hear how other practitioners have managed their careers and the insights they've learnt along the way.
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We talk a lot about PMO practitioners being curious - wanting to try different approaches and think differently about the work they do. It's never easy to find the time to take a step back to think - even more so to find the time for the PMO team to come together with the sole aim of thinking about what we do and how we might change that.
PMO leaders and managers are still finding ways to engage with their teams through the pandemic - hosting "away" days virtually - using that time for micro-learning, exercises and sharing insights and lessons.
In this post, we look at a thinking tool approach that could be used either by yourself - or even better - with the whole PMO team. Perhaps it would make a good exercise for the next PMO team get together.
The thinking tool comes from a brilliant book called The Idea Generator - which features a number of different tools you can use to come up with new ideas. It's a business book but it's easily applied to PMO. It's a boundary thinking tool - and it's a simple equation we'll be using. Read on to understand the tool and gain access to the templates:
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Many people do not fully understand benefits, see them as a side-activity unconnected to the main activities of project, programme or change management – or just do not consider them at all.
Benefits management is not an activity, it is a mind-set. Described as ‘the golden thread’ from business case to business as usual, benefits are the reason we invest in doing things differently.
In this interactive session, PMO Flashmobbers will learn what benefits are, how they are identified and begin to develop an understanding of the part we all play in realising them. Attendees will learn, through practical exercises, how to use tools such as the Dellar Success Case to start shifting your mindset to a benefits one.
Carry on reading and listen to the full recorded session PLUS a full breakdown of the practical exercise:
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How bad is that title? Acronym overload! Put that aside for a moment and let's look at DARPEC.
It's a tool that is featured in a book called, "The Idea Generator" with a subtitle, "15 clever thinking tools to create winning ideas quickly".
It's a tool or approach you can use to "understand how every interaction has six generic aspects" and how you can deconstruct any challenge or situation by deconstructing the six aspects individually.
DARPEC stands for:
D - Deliverer
A - Action
R - Recipient
P - Process
E - Environment
C - Constraints
For each issue or situation, we are trying to resolve, there is a Deliverer, who performs an Action for the benefit of a Recipient using a Process in an Environment under certain Constraints.
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Last week's PMO Flashmob was a diamond - a real old skool PMO Flashmob night where there was lots of chat, debate, a few laughs, some brilliant thinking and ideas literally zinging around the room.
We were back at Ticketmaster's bar (if they ever stopped supporting us I think there will be a collective howl and sobs from the PMO Flashmobbers - thanks again TM-mob!) and this time we were experimenting with 2x2 matrices/matrix.
We see 2x2 matrices in lots of different places - a common one is the Stephen Covey time management one (to the right) that people in all walks of life have used (there's a big explanation of it here). We also see them within different fields of management, including project management. The stakeholder management matrix of power vs interest has long been a popular one and can be seen below.
The aim of the evening was twofold.
The first, for people to share the 2x2s, they really like or just wanted to show others to get the conversation going.
The second part was all about creating new 2x2s specifically for the PMO world.
Now, I thought the second part might be quite difficult, but how wrong was I. Let's share some of the ones from the evening and see what you think.
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The road to maturity of project management in an organisation is inevitably leading many PMOs to consider digitalisation as a step in that journey. It's not an easy journey and we'll always be interested ito hear how others have tackled it.
In this one-hour webinar you'll hear from Guy Jelley from Project Portfolio Office (PPO) and Richard Humphrey from Aspen Insurance Group’s Enterprise Project Management Office (ePMO).
This is their journey over the last four years.
Aspen Insurance Group’s Enterprise Project Management Office (ePMO) are accountable for the portfolio management, standards, methodology and reporting of the Aspen portfolio to the EXCO, Group Operations Committee, Change Board and various business forums.
Since joining Aspen in late 2015, Richard Humphrey, Head of Group ePMO, has journeyed the business and the PMO to remove data duplication, retire spreadsheets, reduce administrative and data consolidation activities, link cost, resource and forecast data in a single data model and process flow, introduce consistent reporting standards and heartbeat across the group and gain 1 FTE (Full-time equivalent) for the EPMO and 2 FTE’s for the project managers in the process.
In this session you’ll learn:
Why your PMO doesn’t have enough time focus on analytics and metrics
How to get Project Manager’s seeing value in the ePMO
How to retire those spreadsheets and numerous data sources
Whether parallel runs are required.
If you can change format and process at the same time.
How to deal with very different types of Project Managers, yet achieve a standardised approach.
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The maturity of the PMO has been a theme area that lots of PMO practitioners have been interested in for a while now. It's certainly something that is talked about at PMO Flashmob events and at last year's PMO Conference this theme was explored by Guy Jelley at PPO and it went down a storm. Delegates loved it, so we thought the rest of the PMO Flashmobbers would love it too.
Here's what it is about:
The common misconception for PMOs is that by focusing inward on increasing project management maturity, its portfolios, programmes and projects will be delivered more effectively. The reality is that it’s the people, process, governance, technology and ORGANISATION that play a crucial role in improving the organisation’s project delivery capability.
Typically, PMO leaders have an arsenal of tools to overcome PMO challenges like portfolio visibility and reporting, project prioritisation or resource capacity planning. Irrespective of what’s in your toolkit, the reality is that only with the effective usage of these tools will PMOs be able to maximise their maturity.
You’ll learn:
How to map your toolkit’s capabilities to your current maturity level
How to optimise your toolkit to your current and then targeted project management maturity level
Lessons learnt and proven approach to the effective usage of your tools
It doesn't matter what your tools are - how you optimise what you have got is the first step to greater PMO maturity. Interested? Watch the recording now:
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Change Management is about the change from current workings to the desired end state. The focus is on people and helping them through this transition. The skills go hand in hand with project management, but the two roles require different skill sets.
However, there are techniques and tools that a PMO can incorporate into best project management practice which enables both them and project managers to manage change more effectively.
This session will focus on some of the basic concepts of change management and how they can be used to help understand the size of the transformation and make sure that it aligns to key project activities.
The session will include real examples that demonstrate the impact of change management approaches on a project. If you’re currently exploring the adoption of change management principles and approaches within your organisation or PMO, this session is a great place to start.
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