Well the guidance has been launched and if you’re still unsure about whether you want or need to purchase it, this chapter may be the decider. I didn’t manage to make it to the Launch Party but one of my colleagues from the PPSOSIG did. With a glass of wine in hand he had chance to listen to Sue Vowler launch the guidance and hear from some the trainers. If you’re interested in P3O and want to attend the PPSOSIG conference in March, you need to book pretty quickly (it’s filling up fast!) Check out the PPSOSIG link above.
Anyhow, Chapter 4 is the “P3O Project” in other words when it comes to usingthis guidance to either put in place a new PMO or give the current PMO you have in place a good shake up, this chapter concentrates on approaching this as a project (or indeed as a programme, the implementation guide in here follows the MSP principles closely). So I ask the question again, as a PMO Manager with a remit to put together a new PMO wouldn’t I be better investing in the MSP course? I think one of the useful questions to ask here is how much does a P3O project cost? The guidance advocates a team of qualified people being brought together to staff the project – and that could/should include internal as well as external people – P3O accredited consultants anyone? It’s also advised that the Head of PMO is in place before the P3O project kicks off – an interesting chicken and egg question here – you could appoint the Head of PMO before fully understanding what kind of PMO the organisation needs and therefore could be left with a redundant team member pretty early in the process.
So the guidance takes us through the P3O project – following the concepts of MSP – e.g., Identify, Define, Delivery, Closure. Each stage is then broken down, i.e., Definition – Team, Vision, Stakeholder, Blueprint, Benefits and Risk. There are tips, checklists and advice for each of the key activities. One area which jumped out for me was the communication planning in the Stakeholder section. Obviously communication is a vital part of any project and P3O is no exceptionbut I believe that communication management is a very neglected skill when it comes to PMOs and it’s often overlooked as a key requiste for PMO personnel and I think this area of the chapter could have been more proactive – maybe by providing a good few examples of tools or by showing a bit more of the how and what.
The P3O guidance also looks at the P3M3 – the organisation maturity, and PMO personnel should become knowledgeable in this too. In fact, the important thing to remember is to keep the organisation’s issues at the forefront of the mind when working through the project – remembering why the P3O was needed in the first place! It’s easy to take the eye of the ball when there is a P3O to be planned and managed.
A favourite topic for many PMO staff over the years has been – how do we know we are successful? How can we demonstrate our successes to senior managers? In other words how do we justify our existence. This has been a topic at previous PPSOSIG events – essentially what are the benefits the PPSO provides to the organisation. On the Blueprint section, the guidance looks at performance levels – the metrics or KPIs. The usual suspects are there – “projects delivered to plan”, “variance between budget and actual total investment”, “cost of risk mitigation against level of residual risk”as well as measures based on staff within the PMO. One of the main issues many face in today’s exsiting PMOs are that KPIs were never thought about or set up in the first place and now they’re missing some vital data/information that could be provided to justify a shake up in their PMOs or even allow themselves to blow their own trumpets – no-one knows how well the PMO unit has been performing over the last few years because someone forgot to take a baseline!
There are some good pointers in helping the reader adopt the “normal” project plan to fit the P3O project – pointers which should be sufficient to stimulate conversation in the P3O project team and give a good starter for ten. This is all good stuff – this book was never intended to be ready made PMO in a book guide to implementation but it does provide the reader with enough information not to be starting the mammoth P3O project from a standing start.
An interesting quote here; “Around half the P3Os created are restructured or closed down in a 2 year time frame” which is why continous process improvement or incremental delivery of the P3O structure should be consider. Half of P3Os within 2 years, that’s a pretty big statistic – enough to make any organisation wonder if this P3O stuff is for them after all. Has your PMO been through this before? Is this statistic true for you?
The chapter also looks at the other P3O models and adapts the approach depending on the size and service delivered – again don’t forget the little guys but I wonder if the small section given other to these models is enough (especially as these are the majority of PMOs I’ve come across in the last ten years). Not every organisation may want or need the full P3O concept and some readers may come away thinking a little overwhelmed (and no doubt a little envious!)
I have a feeling this chapter will spawn a hundred consultancies that specialise in P3O implementation – which I’m sure there will always be a need for those services – let’s hope the PMO Managers don’t feel too overwhelmed by the task in front of them because I think the P3O guidance is a good companion for making the P3O implementation a little fun (and why let the consultancies have all the fun!)
Written by Lindsay Scott at PPSOSIG and Arras People – Project Management Recruitment Specialists check back for the next Chapter and also the new post “P3O and Project Management Recruitment”
