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In the final session from the PMO Lab, we're looking at metrics and measures that ultimately help to drive executive and business decisions. The PMO's objective as a function which enables decision-making encompasses many areas. It could be the physical mechanisms that would allow decisions to be made, for example, producing reports, updating dashboards and so on. It can mean helping to create an environment where decisions and approvals can flow - the governance side. Even the more behavioural side of decision-making and ensuring staff are well-trained in communications, influence and negotiation.
We also cover the final two sessions which looked at PPM tools and the PMO business case benefits.
First up, business decisions and the lab rats concentrated on the PMO as a portfolio management office and how it can help drive executive business decisions. No other reason, other than they can!
Let's see what they undercovered:
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Taken from the #PMOwfh series we had Nicole Reilly giving us an overview of Office365 and how it can work for PMO teams.
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A few weeks back it was the PMO Flashmob in Edinburgh and the session was all about PPM tools. The session was held at Sainsbury's Bank -thanks to Maggie McGreary for hosting it - and thank you to Nicole Reilly for letting us (hopefully) learn from her experience when it comes to the PMO gaining a brand spanking new PPM tool.
These sessions about tools can be either deathly boring or a sales pitch - but we found a third way. A practical session on what to think about and plan when it comes to you and your organisation implementing a PPM tool. This is the PMO's view - from someone who has worked in many PMOs and has done many PPM tool implementations.
The honest questions to be asked and answered gives you a big insight into this session:
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I went to the recent PMO Flashmob Hackathon. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the concept of a Hackathon, it’s an event where programmers get together to write (or “hack”) some computer code over an extended period (hence “-athon”, from the ending of “marathon”) to solve problems posed by the attendees.
PMO Flashmob decided to hold one of these, with a PMO focus. I was initially somewhat wary. I have done a bit of programming in my time (Fortran, Java and VBA if you’re interested) but most of that is quite a while ago now (I did say some of it was Fortran), and I was concerned at the little I would be able to “bring to the table” for a hackathon. A week or so before the event, a post came out from host John Mcintyre saying the PMO hackathon would have a less technical focus than typical for traditional hackathons, so I took the plunge and signed up.
But we had been asked to come up with a suggestion for something to work on. So what to suggest?
I have seen much discussion heated debate on the web on the merits of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tools vs. Spreadsheets, including this comment from PMO Flashmobber Nicole Reilly “Part of my initial discussions with a potential client will be to assess their openness to using [...] the ever-increasing number low-cost or even free tools now out there”. This prompted me to wonder:
What useful PPM functionality can be implemented using just free (or nearly free) tools?
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Every so often there's a time when I think, that's a really useful cool tool. Then I talk to some of the people at PMO Flashmob - or online in social media groups and they also recommend their stuff too. So I thought, let's share them on here - and hopefully you'll add something that you use in the comments section below.
Here's my recent finds:
Dropbox Paper
Thanks to Donnie M for this one - we've been working on a collaboration and needed to write a document together. He suggested Dropbox Paper - and it really is cool.
So you're working on a document together - it's web-based and you can do all the usual word processing stuff - adding links, formatting, just plain good old typing. So far so good.
The cool stuff happens when you can see each other writing at the same time - or just watching what the other person is putting on there.
It just works - there's no chance of overwriting each others stuff and it's just easy to get going and use it. Plus you can export whenever you're ready.
Why I think it's a good tool for PMO? It's definitely something your project teams can use if you don't already have any kind of collaboration software in place - in fact the whole team can use it at once.
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Access the video presentation from The PMO Mini-Masterclass on PMO Tooling – Tricks, Tips and Things to Consider which took place in Edinburgh.
This video is 58 minutes long.
The session was carried out at Sainsbury's Bank by Maggie McGeary and Nicole Reilly
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Our portfolios typically contain strategic and business delivery portfolio items, which are initiated through top down imperatives or BAU work.
However, how do we deal with ideas from the bottom up? How do we set idea challenges and nurture ideation? How do we capture and develop the good idea? Does that need to be part of the portfolio management and what part does the ‘PMO’ play in creating the environment for, and perhaps managing that process?
Takeaways:
Understanding what is involved to embrace innovation within your organisation
Awareness of what benefits bottom up innovation can deliver
An appreciation of the part technology can play and advice on getting an initiative off the ground
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This research-based presentation addresses the role of the PMO in the combination of governance as structure and governmentality as human agency for success at the project and organizational level.
Three stages are discussed: 1) the enablers of governance and governmentality; 2) the practices in terms of different governmentality approaches, governance paradigms and mechanisms, and project sovereignty; and 3) the consequences of and for governance and governmentality in terms of project results, ethical issues in projects, and the alignment of the organization to their particular context.
Real life cases will be discussed and tools for assessment and profiling of governance and governmentality approaches will be presented.
Takeaways:
The role of the PMO in establishing organizational enablers and practices for governance and governmentality
The link between governance approaches and its consequences
Tools for PMOs to assess and profile their own organization
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