#stevecarter

It is a fact of project management life...every project starts off perfect, like a blank canvas ready for the masterpiece to unfold. As the PM, you are prepared to execute on a flawless plan, applying all the PM wisdom you have gained from experience, training, and a few good blogs. It's a fresh start, and you are ready to go.

And yet, somewhere between adding the first task to your project schedule...and completing your project closure steps, things always seem to get off track. The project stumbles, and you find yourself back in that adrenaline-fueled organized chaos that is the reality of most major projects.

Before you know it, you are banging your head on your desk in a post-project lessons learned session because 90% of the things that are identified are not new to you. You KNOW there needs to be better cross-team communication...you KNOW the requirements for an item need to be nailed before you start design on that item...you KNOW that risks associated with critical milestone dates need to be identified earlier.  The list goes on, and they are all good points...and you can't quite figure out how these things happened again.

You want to know...when exactly did my project stumble?  What was the turning point?

While you probably have a lot of documentation associated with your project, you don't have an instant replay camera.  You can't rewind the tape, scanning for that exact moment in time when the project stumbled. And the reason is, in most cases...there is no exact moment.  There is no single point in time where the train jumped the tracks.

Your project made its way from start to finish by way of hundreds or thousands of daily decisions and actions.  And each one considered by itself does not appear to be a project-wrecker. At the moment in time any given action was taken, chances are people did not think it could cause major headaches down the road...until pretty soon you have a stack of actions/decisions with minimal individual impact, but major collective impact.  And that is how you got to this lessons learned session you are in.

So, what can you do about it to lessen the chances of this happening again next time?  Aside from getting an instant replay camera, consider these suggestions:

Know your non-negotiable rules.  A project manager's job is to help utilize a toolbox full of processes, tools, templates, and techniques to ensure the project is executed successfully.  And there will be times you may decide to relax a rule, or allow more flexibility, based on your situation.  That is perfectly acceptable, and is why PM discretion is so important.  But before you get to a cross-road decision, you should already know which project processes or rules are non-negotiable.  And when the request comes to deviate from the stated process, you will be prepared to hold the line on the non-negotiable items, rather than wrongly assuming this small, isolated change won't have a big impact.

Check for lessons learned as you go.  Don't wait until the project is over to capture the lessons. Try doing lessons learned on a periodic basis, either based on some calendar interval, or based on finishing each phase of the project.  It is far better to identify a bad behavior or poor decision during Planning than it is to note it at the end...after you have suffered the cumulative impact over the life of the project.

Audit your project management plan.  If you have defined in a project management plan, or other form of documentation, what your processes will be for issue and risk tracking, change requests/change control, status reporting, logging decisions, etc., don't let the project kickoff be the only time you use that document.  Pull it out for each phase gate review and audit yourself...have I made small deviations that I was not aware of?  Have I slacked off the plan, and need to get back to what we said we would do?  If you can identify it early, you can minimize the downstream impact.

Apply the lessons learned. We all know this...capturing lessons learned at the end is a great way to help define things to do better next time.  But I would bet it is a low percentage of PMs who start their new project off with a team review of the lessons learned from recently completed projects.  Use that accumulated knowledge...make those lessons fresh reminders as you get started on a new one, and gain team commitment to avoid duplicating the mistakes again.

Which leads me to the most important one on my list...make sure you are not the only one with the replay camera.  It is impossible for the PM to be everywhere all the time. You need to leverage as many of the project resources as possible to keep an eye out for those small slips that add up to a major stumble.  Share the concern with them, share your non-negotiable items, enlist them in the gate-review lessons learned...in short, spread the responsibility for preventing "the stumble" to all who are in key roles on the project.

You may have had a project that DID have that one major moment when everyone knew the project stumbled, but most of us don't.  We are always looking for the instant replay camera to try and spot the exact moment.  Don't get caught in that cycle again.  The next time you have that blank canvas of a new project, think about how to address the hundreds of moments instead...and then see how differently your lessons learned session may go at the end. 

A guest blog post I did for pmchat.net on 10/5/11.

So, you want to start a PMO?

©2011 Steve Carter

If you are reading this, you either have an interest in starting a PMO, or helping someone else start a PMO…or are just trying to figure out what a PMO is and does! Whatever the reason, I’m glad you are here, and I will do my best in a short blog entry to give you some useful information.

First of all, let’s clarify what a PMO is. For different companies, the P in PMO can stand for Project, Program, Portfolio, or any combination of those…and the MO stands for Management Office. Most companies use their PMO to oversee a group of projects and resources, which can be for a program or for your entire portfolio of projects. (Some will create a PMO specifically for a major complex project, but not keep it as an ongoing entity.)

There are three traditional primary functions or roles for the PMO. Most PMOs in existence are designed to cover one or more of these roles for the organization:

Resource pool – the PMO can be the home of a centralized or shared set of trained and talented project managers and other project professionals. Often it is more efficient to centralize those resources and apply them to the various prioritized projects rather than have every team staff their own PM resources.

Methodology/Governance stewards – the PMO can define and maintain the project methodology, tools, templates, and processes that all projects are expected to use, and can track and report on adherence to the methodology. The PMO as part of this role can also own/coordinate PM education and training to ensure all resources are capable of following the company project guidelines.

Back-office support – the PMO maintains the project registration, prioritization, and ongoing tracking/reporting processes in support of the organization.

Some mature PMOs handle all three roles for the organization, and are the hub for all project-related activity, including the interface with key partner groups like risk management, finance, procurement, etc. It is much easier for the PMO to work with these groups on standard templates, process steps, compliance guidelines, etc. than to have the partner groups try to resolve that with PMs scattered about the organization.

Many organizations only have a PMO set up in their IT function, which is where most of their projects are sponsored or managed. I am a strong believer in business PMOs to address the broader organizational change and process work that surrounds most IT projects.

The most exciting change in PMO models these days is to add a fourth focus to the three mentioned above, and that is a focus on aligning the project portfolio to the overall business strategy. Mature PMOs can move beyond a narrow focus on consistent application of the methodology to the defined list of projects, and instead can play a real role in ensuring each project is aligned with and supporting the strategic goals of the company. PMI member and author Mark Price Perry has written a great book entitled “Business Driven PMO Setup” that goes into great detail about the expanded role the modern PMO can play.

If you are thinking of starting a PMO, I urge you to make sure you are clear on what your organizational need is, and don’t do it because you hear that other people have one…you need to know what void or need it can fill.

Here are my recommended 5 key steps to create a PMO:

1) Clearly define the business need. Identify the gap between your current state and what leadership wants it to be, and how the way you manage projects needs to change. You need to know that before you determine that a PMO is your solution.

2) Based on the problem you are trying to solve, identify the roles your PMO will play.

a) If you are having trouble sharing PMs across functional or department lines, and you need a better way to take limited resources and apply them to prioritized projects…then you may need to  leverage the resource pool aspect of a PMO. b) If you are struggling with multiple methodologies, and not having a consistent approach that meets the needs of IT, legal, finance, etc….or if you have major differences in the breadth and depth of your PM skillset, then you may need to leverage the methodology/governance and training aspect of a PMO. c) If your leadership team or the broader organization is seeking more consistent approaches to project prioritization and initiation, and wants rolled up info on project statuses…then you may need to leverage the back-office aspect of a PMO. d) If you find there is no clear link between the projects you initiate and the strategy your company has defined, then you may need a PMO that helps facilitate the project selection process in conjunction with your strategic planning process.

3) Work with an executive level sponsor to create a charter for your PMO. The charter needs to clearly define:

a) the future state you defined b) the roles the PMO will play and the deliverables of the PMO c) the key stakeholders of the PMO and what they stand to gain (see my additional note below on this one) d) the authority the PMO will have e) the measures of success

4) Gain CEO and leadership team buy-in. This is critical. 5) Clearly define your implementation plan, including PMO staffing plans and education/communication plans for managers, PMs, business process owners, key partners in other divisions/departments.

I want to underscore two points…

First, make sure you assess what you have now and what the organization needs to be successful. Blindly implementing a PMO without a defined organizational need can lead to poor adoption and a lack of necessary support.

And second, the PMO is most successful when it views itself as an internal provider for multiple sets of customers/stakeholders…the leadership team…the project management community…and the key stakeholder groups like finance, IT, risk management, etc. If you set your PMO up to be the customer and expect all of those groups to do something for YOU, then you are missing the point. The PMO should be a servant function that seeks to enhance the effectiveness of everyone else….when you give them what they need, they are far more likely to give the PMO what it needs.

A PMO can help improve the clarity of priorities and project approvals…it can improve the level of PM skillset across the company…it can provide more effective tracking and reporting that can help organizations recognize and respond to problems faster…and it can help save money through more efficient and effective use of resources.