Project One and PMO v1.1

Project Management Office (PMO) How to protect your transformation investment and ensure maximum value.

PMO

Project Management Office: Your Investment Guardian

Complex transformation is difficult to manage. There are lots of moving parts, multiple stakeholders with conflicting opinions and pressure to deliver value quickly. Coupled with a lack of resource, or at least, the right resource and poor data leading to no single source of truth, it can often feel like you are in firefighting mode when delivering major programmes. Hard work can be squandered if processes, tools and templates are not aligned, leading to inconsistencies across the enterprise. How do you protect your investment? How do you ensure that the value from your transformation programmes is realised? This is what your Project Management Office (PMO) should be doing. Your PMO is your investment guardian. At Project One, we have seen many PMOs across various sectors and companies. Some have got it right, however many do not understand the real role of the PMO and how it has to underpin the governance of your portfolio. Without a strong and efficient PMO, your projects are likely go off track, people will not be clear on the project status and will lose faith in your delivery team. A best in class PMO is not a silver bullet. There will always be bumps along the way and challenges that need to be addressed; it will not guarantee success on its own. However, an effective and efficient PMO will be an enabler to the project team, governing each project in the right way and underpinning successful and safe delivery.

Your PMO creates maximum value by helping project managers to be successful, as well as enabling senior managers to run the organisation effectively in taking key decisions. There is no ‘one size fits all’ PMO. The type of PMO, its size, its maturity and how it underpins your company strategy and vision all need to be agreed, implemented and nurtured.

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Some of the challenges we have helped to fix

How will a best in class PMO help you? Ultimately you need to deliver; this is probably how you will be judged. You need to ensure that you are driving the strategic initiatives that will achieve your business objectives. This is where your PMO will help you, acting as a centre of excellence for project management, setting standards, ensuring there is efficient project control and governance, optimising project management practices and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Each PMO will face different challenges based on the project methodology (agile, waterfall or hybrid), their complexity and the stakeholder community. At Project One, we have helped to shape and deliver best in class PMOs.

We established a PMO function to support BA’s Customer Transformation Programme to bring control to the inflight portfolio. We created a single baselined view, established effective governance with supporting PM processes, reporting cadence and senior leadership review boards. Our work enabled instant visibility of the status of the portfolio with effective supporting governance ensuring efficient decision making and prioritisation.

Royal Parks needed to overhaul their existing PMO function. After an initial maturity assessment to understand current capability, we pragmatically built and incrementally implemented process, tooling and raining whilst supporting the recruitment of a permanent team. Our work has enabled greater confidence in the delivery portfolio through enhanced oversight, better governance and project delivery assurance.

Telenet delivered a ‘Digital First’ customer experience by delivering their new digital platform. Our PMO brought all of the key elements together in this programme. Using a blended near-shore and on-shore model our PMO ensured an effective overview – enabling control and governance for the sponsor and Senior Executive team.

We designed, built and ran the Transformation Office for a global full manufacturing and logistics supply chain programme across 100 countries. We built a full programme plan and processes for maintaining. Introduced risk and issue management to the programme. Introduced tracking and governance of benefit forecasting and delivery. We worked with global Unilever team to support leadership decision making.

Our PMO was the glue that ensured Test and Trace worked together as a team at a higher level, bringing the component elements of the programme together. Our PMO rapidly established the programme’s structure, process, reporting and integrated programme plan. Our PMO achieved a number of outcomes, including to help support informed decision making, prioritisation of effort and resource.

We designed and implemented an agile PMO to uplift portfolio level control across the product squad-based change delivery landscape. This enabled the Exec team to have much more visibility and the information they needed to make decisions on priorities and investment. The delivery squads implemented new ways of working around a common aggregated backlog view, with efficient dependency and resource management.

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PMO service other considerations

What does a good PMO look like?

Ultimately, your PMO is there to support project delivery and your organisational goals.

As you determine the PMO that you need and how to plan and implement this, there are other items to consider – here are five areas that are key to getting it right.

Your PMO needs to have a well-defined mission that is understood by your project teams and stakeholders. It needs to be led by experienced professionals who can provide strategic direction, promote best practices, ensure compliance and to guide decision making through effective governance frameworks. Standardised project management processes, methodologies and tools need to be implemented by your PMO that suit your business. One size does not fit all - in particular when considering your project methodology, be it Agile, Waterfall or Hybrid. A good PMO fosters open communication and collaboration across the project team, stakeholders, sponsors and external partners. Everyone will be on the same page in terms of status, challenges and what needs to happen next. Other areas that a good PMO will drive are shown, below.

Implement the right size of governance. Don’t have ‘governance for governance sake’. Keep it lean. Ensure roles and responsibilities and accountabilities are clear.

Governance

Your company has a vision and strategy, and everything that you deliver should map back to this. Is your PMO considered to be a strategic partner?

Organisational Goals

As you implement and mature your PMO it is important to have measures to determine benefits being achieved. Simple KPIs around delivery, adherence to standards and financial performance are a good start point.

Benefits Measure

Business Case and Finances Management of finances and support to business case development and realisation

Dependency Management Portfolio view of dependencies to aid decision making

Risk, Issue and Actions Proactive and consistent management of underlying project artefacts

Planning and Roadmap Effective and realistic planning with clear milestones

Your PMO is key to successful project delivery. Your organisation should appoint a senior leader who owns the PMO and ensures that the benefits of a mature PMO are understood throughout the exec team and wider company.

Stakeholder Management Engagement of stakeholders to ensure continued buy in and sponsorship

PMO Sponsorship

Reporting One version of truth driving Exec level reporting and governance

Communications Clear communications to all stakeholders and interested parties

Resource Management Resourcing balanced to demand, and skills needs

Periodically gather feedback from stakeholders and project teams to understand the perception of your PMO. What is working well? What can be improved? Is your PMO having the impact it should?

Feedback

Governance The right level of governance at the right time

Demand Management and Change Control Pragmatic change frameworks, methods and tooling

Project Standards and Templating One way of delivering projects enabling people to work across the portfolio

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PMO Maturity Implementation Implementation of maturity assessment findings. Key stakeholder engagement.

Done on the basis of a PMO Maturity Assessment Execution of the PMO maturity plan Review changes plus continuous improvement reviews Senior stakeholder management Training of the PMO team in new ways of working. Alignment of the PMO to the organisations objectives Understand the current state Define the desired end state and objectives Determine the gaps in the current PMO implementation Develop and implement the PMO transformation roadmap Key stakeholder engagement Project team training and upskilling, plus recruitment. Day to day execution of ePMO or Strategic Project Office, aligning to company vision Management of the governance aspects Close liaison with the project team and wider stakeholders PMO analyst training and recruitment Custodian of the Programme and Project Lifecycle Ownership of Document Templates and best practices Execution of mandatory controls for delivery of the portfolio Secretariat for ePMO/Strategic Project Office Governance meetings and information flows Provision of quality assurance and coaching for Programmes and Projects Facilitation of the annual and multi-year Business Planning process.

How Project One can help you

PMO Transformation (PMO to ePMO/SPO) Transformation from a Project PMO to an Enterprise PMO or Strategic Project Office. Reflects the importance of the PMO activity needed to support a growing or complex project portfolio. Running the PMO Execution of the PMO underpinning the company wide change agenda. Custodian of the portfolio and planning processes.

We have experience in designing and implementing best in class PMOs, maturing your existing PMO or transitioning from a project PMO to an enterprise PMO and running your PMO to govern your project portfolio.

PMO needs analysis To define the services, team and approach for a PMO to support a project portfolio. Typically done where no PMO exists or very immature PMO in place.

Define PMO vision Review current governance approach of portfolio

Stakeholder identification and requirements/ preferences Alignment of the PMO approach to project methodology Definition of PMO services required to support the portfolio Definition of documents/ templates required Definition of tools required Team definition plus roles and responsibilities Define how the PMO works with the wider teams reporting approach, SLA’s and KPI definition. Ensure stakeholder buy in and secure budget Implement PMO methodology, governance and processes Implement tooling, documentation and templates Train the project team and other stakeholders Implement a RACI Implement reporting mechanisms and PMO metrics Implement PMO tools Implement monitoring and control approach for the PMO Recruit team if necessary Produce and execute a PMO communications plan. Review of the maturity of various areas of the PMO service Conducted through review of documentation and interviews with various stakeholders Prioritisation of improvement areas and development of a PMO maturity plan, in conjunction with key stakeholders.

PMO set up (Project PMO, ePMO, Strategic Project Office) Design and implementation of PMO. What is required, complexity and team needed is based on type of PMO. Leads on from needs analysis or based on internal requirements.

PMO Maturity Assessment To evaluate the effectiveness of the PMO. Devise a plan to mature the PMO, based on prioritisation of needs.

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Who is Project One?

We are an award-winning, independent consulting business specialising in change and transformation delivery:

We are change experts who make complex change delivery simple for you, with extensive global experience in multiple sectors Our change services are designed to deliver our customers’ most business-critical change agendas and keep you in control We are recognised in the market; as a leading consultancy; a great place to work; and for being climate leading.

At Project One, we have implemented and run a number of high performing PMO services across multiple sectors. From conducting needs analysis and maturity exercises, to improving existing PMOs and shifting from a project PMO to an enterprise wide, we are able to support you. Our approach is underpinned by the following guiding principles:

We have been delivering complex change for over 25 years. A PMO is crucial to underpin your transformation programmes. It standardises project management practices, ensuring consistency and efficiency across all projects. It offers valuable training and support, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This centralised oversight helps in maintaining project timelines, budgets, and quality standards, ultimately leading to higher project success rates.

One size does not fit all. You need to ensure that your PMO underpins your business strategy and company vision Focus on the areas that you really need implementing, or maturing first. Conduct a prioritisation exercise to make sure that you are hitting the key areas straight away Don’t implement governance for governance sake. Make sure that your PMO is an enabler to the project team and helps to deliver using the right tools and techniques Invest in your people. Your PMO is your investment guardian and your team is key to supporting this Make sure that your PMO has strong sponsorship within your organisation, who will sell the benefits of a high performing PMO to the wider business and stakeholder group.

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