Inside PMO \\ KPIs, Metrics and Measures

The fourth PMO Manager’s Lunch took place in November 2018, the outcomes to that day are now available in the fourth Inside PMO Report.

KPIs, Metrics and Measures

Manchester’s Malmaison provided the venue for the PMO Flashmob’s PMO Managers Lunch.

PMO Managers, from several different industries, are invited to talk in-depth about a particular PMO topic.

At this lunch, the subject was ‘PMO: KPIs, Metrics and Measures’

PMO Flashmob presents the Inside PMO report bringing insights from experienced PMO Managers and looks at the question – can we measure the value of a PMO to the business?

The report looks at different aspects including PMO metrics; Service Level Agreements; organisation KPIs and the links to PMO and where our PMO Managers focus when it comes to metrics.

Conclusions from the Lunch

1. The business is not interested in the minutiae of naval-gazing PMO metrics. What they’re interested in are the metrics that show them the goals for the delivery/change side of the business are being met.
2. The PMO has a more significant role to play in helping the business to initially define metrics for portfolios, programmes and projects and ensure they are aligned to business KPIs and metrics.
3. Focusing on metrics to demonstrate the value of the PMO has limited benefit to the PMO and the business.
4. Time is better spent developing metrics which focus on the performance of the PMO, enabling the PMO Manager to work on improvements in the key areas.
5. Numbers are not enough. The PMO needs to unpack the numbers and give them meaning by providing narratives, stories, insights and actions to help to demonstrate what the metrics mean and how to improve on them.
6. Organisations should stop focusing on the value the PMO brings to the organisation and focus more on the influence, impact and contribution the PMO makes to the organisation.
7. The delivery of PMO services can be measured by the use of Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
8. The Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) framework is a useful approach for setting goals for the PMO.
9. The ability to gain insights from metrics requires that project data is clean, consistent and maintained.
10. Do we need to accept that some ‘value’ metrics need to be done in some organisations where an initial business case was created to justify the PMO in the first place? If so, the collection and reporting of these value metrics should be limited to the early years of the PMO.
11. Ensure the metrics the PMO reports on are still needed; are aligned to stretch goals as the delivery organisation matures; are simple and focused – choose a few that show what the business needs to know.
12. If your PMO is relatively new, don’t worry about KPIs for now, concentrate on collecting consistent data and learning how to interrogate it. If no one is asking for metrics, don’t sweat it unless you can clearly show that it is necessary and why.

Download the Report

>> Read the Report

PMO Managers:

• John McIntyre – Ticketmaster UK
• Anke Bysouth – CAFOD
• Lain Burgos-Lovèce – Manchester Unversity
• Tim Crawford – Freshfields
• Carey Leach – Rackspace
• Sarah Carroll – Arriva
• Nicole Reilly – Independent
• Stuart Dixon – Independent
• Chris Walters – Independent
• Matthew Milsom – Independent
• Ken Burrell – Independent

Hosts:

Lindsay Scott   Eileen Roden   Click Here to download the report!