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Selling PMO to Your Organization

PMI-MN Breakfast Series


September 14, 2004
Agenda
Abstract & Overview
Sales Objectives
Customer and Functional Landscape
Sales Strategies
Assessing your progress – and your success
Poll results
Q&A

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Abstract
Many organizations today face ever-present pressure for
short term tangible results.
PMOs (like other process functions) find it increasingly
difficult to obtain funding.
PMOs offer the promise for improved project quality,
consistency and visibility, which in turn permits timely and
confident decisions making.
Justifying PMOs must go beyond intuitive or common
sense arguments - value must be demonstrated and
measured (e.g. quality, timeliness, costs)

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Selling the PMO – an Overview
Process and efficiency areas must present and
justify their operations in terms valued by the
organization
 Contributions to bottom line should be more direct
 Value propositions need to be succinct and measurable,
in spite of limited resources to provide metrics or prove
value
 Justifications must tie directly to desired results of key
sponsors and management

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Selling the PMO – An Overview
PMOs must find a way to contribute to the
company in terms which are
 Measurable
 Understood by management
 Aligned with stated corporate strategies

PMOs must be able to contribute


 For regular, expected activities
 For unscheduled, emergency situations

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PMO Sales Objectives
Value measured in contribution to other critical
objectives. Examples:
 Reduction of administrative time
 Swifter communication of actionable issues
 Improved satisfaction
 Consistency of project execution
 Improvement in projects’ ‘success criteria’
Demonstrate value regularly and visibly
Risk: Promoting value without over promising the
benefits and results
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PMO Defined
What does the ‘P’ mean?
 Project Management Office
 Program Management Office

 Portfolio Management Office

The type of PMO desired impacts the


strategy on how to sell the PMO

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PMO Customer Landscape

Project Owners
Team
Executives

PSOs*

Support & Sponsors


Maintenance
PMO

Operational Strategic

* Project Support Organization

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PMO Function Landscape Examples

Planning Monitoring and/or


Prioritization & tracking
alignment Quality assurance
Delivery and Risk management
execution Issue resolution
Mentoring Governance
Reporting and Tools, best practices
visibility

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Customer/Function Alignment

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Executives X X X
Sponsors X X X X X
Owners X X X
Users/Consumers
Project Team X X X X X
PMO X X X
PSOs X X X
Support &
Maintenance X X

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Planning
 Facilitates communication
 Oversees consistency completeness of content
 A central point for requests
 Consolidates and coordinates data into a cohesive
presentation
 Interaction across organization provides broader sense
of ‘what is going on’

Transmits a common message, reduces confusion, simplifies &


improves consistency, improves communications, enables
development of portfolio management
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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Prioritization & Alignment


 Confirms portfolio allocations
 Facilitates Demand Management
 Aligns resources to company objectives
 Reduces risk of working on too many projects
simultaneously
 Speeds resource assignments to approved efforts

Organizes and manages future requests, governs resource issues,


integrates scheduling, streamlines project workflow

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Delivery & Execution


 Ensures projects are progressing
 Validates risks and issues
 Facilities minor problem resolution
 Mentors and aids project team in execution
 Project rescues

Improves compliance, assists lower skilled staff to become successful,


contributes to project performance, reduces risk to projects

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Mentoring
 Delivers directed education with immediate application
 Promotes Project Management principles and practices
 Provides training on roles and responsibilities
 Assists in use of tools and templates
 Communicates topics using a common language

Improves consistency of effort, contributes to professional


development and project performance, promotes continuous
process improvement

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Reporting and visibility


 Consolidates performance and health into a common
format
 Early identification of trends and patterns
 Uses high impact vehicles (dashboards, etc) for all
projects
 Financial management

Clarifies communications, improves compliance, helps focus on key


objectives, targets situations demanding attention, continues to
aligns what’s important to decision makers and the project
objectives

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Project Monitoring and Tracking


 Independent evaluation of performance
 Confirms where improvements have been made and
future opportunities exist (lessons learned)
 Determines project earned value or ROI
 Supports Change Management practices

Provide independent assessment of progress, uncovers risks and


issues, builds consistency in project control and integration ,
promotes reliable and credible expectations

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Quality assurance
 Increases focus on ‘doing the right things’
 Increases quality of ‘doing things right’
 Reviews artifacts objectively
 Project Audits

Facilitates project execution, improves consistent controls and


ensures all the proper processes are followed

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Issue & Risk Management


 Assists stakeholders in driving open issues to closure
 Provides a framework to identifying risk
 Houses abatement and mitigation techniques
 Impartial assessment of projects

Helps keep projects on track; anticipates and deals with problems


proactively, minimizes collateral damage of project problems on
other work and the company

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Governance
 Educates stakeholders on the roles and responsibilities
 Constructs and advises oversight groups for projects
and programs
 Referees conflicts/disputes within and across projects
 Escalates major situations to executive management

Brings clarity to project ownership, removes obstacles to project


success

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Selling Strategies Features / Benefits

Tools and Best Practices


 Support for implemented tools
 Improves Project Management and Methodology
Maturity
 Delivers best practices to all PM practitioners
 Promotes common language to reduce
misunderstanding
 Maintains KM repository document libraries
Improves consistency, simplifies process workflows, contributes to
project performance, promotes continuous process improvement

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Strategy Assessment
Contract with sponsors to achieve results with
explicit success criteria
Define success metrics and timeframe
Communicate regularly
 Both status and successes
Reset expectations based on strategic changes

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Local Survey Results

Survey distributed to recipients on on-line


PMI-MN newsletter
Survey period August 2-13
Members asked to forward to their PMOs
91 respondents

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Local Survey Results

Distribution of PMOs (86 responses)


Distribution of PMOs

17%

2%

2%
10% 7%

71% 1%

Project Program Portfolio


Project & Portfolio Project & Program All 3

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Local Survey Results

Scope of PMOs (88 respondents)


Scope of PMOs
38%
5%

19%

38%

Enterprise Divisional / Local Both Other

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Local Survey Results

Age of PMO (84 respondents)


Age of PMO as of 2004
25%

Less than 1 year


24% 1 - 3 years
7% 3 - 5 years
5 - 10 years
10 - 15 years
5%
15 + years
Unknown/Other
6%
None

2%
7%
24%

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Local Survey Results
What function(s) does your PMO perform (86 respondents)?
What functions does the PMO perform?
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Planning
and visibility

Monitoring

Delivery and

Prioritization
Mentoring
Tools best

Other
and/or issue

assurance
Risk mgmt
practices
Reporting

execution

Quality
tracking

resolution
and/or

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Questions

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References
General
 PMFORUM www.pmforum.org
 Project Management Institute www.pmi.org
 PMI’s Knowledge & Wisdom Center - Pros and Cons of Project Offices
https://secure.pmi.org/memberapp/code/premium_content/kwc/KWCtopic_pmo.asp
 Center for Business Practices Project Management Resources http://www.cbponline.com/
 gantthead.com http://www.gantthead.com
 Max’s http://www.maxwideman.com
 PMO USA http://www.pmousa.com
 PM Solutions http://www.pmsolutions.com
 ProjectConnections.com www.ProjectConnections.com
 Projects @ Work http://www.projectsatwork.com
 International Institute for learning, http://www.iil.com/free_resources/articles.asp
 Optimizec(IW) www.optimizemag.com
 CIO www.cio.com
 Computerworld (IDG) www.computerworld.com
 Project Magazine http://www.projectmagazine.com
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References
PMO Justification
 Dinsmore, Paul C. Sixteen reasons not to implement a project office, PM Network 2002.
February
 Kerzner, Harold, Strategic planning for a project office, 2003 Project Management Journal
2003. June;
 Lipper, Stan, An effective approach to establish a Program Management Office, 2003
Proceedings of the PMI Global Congress 2003 - N American
 Kendall, Gerald I. And Rollins, Steve, How to Get Value Out of a Project Management Office
(PMO), IIL, November 2002
 Mullaly, Mark E., Making the Case For a PMO: Building Your Presentation, gantthead.com
August 4, 2003
 Mullaly, Mark E., PMP, Project Management: A New Definition, gantthead.com July 23, 2003
 PMI® Project Management Software Survey. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management
Institute. 1999.
 Santosus, Megan, Project Management Office Discipline: Why You Need a Project
Management Office, CIO Magazine July 1, 2003
 Ware, Lorraine Cosgrove, Best Practices for Project Management Offices, CIO Magazine
July 02, 2003

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References
PMO Definitions
 Archibald, Russell D, Project Management State of the Art – 2004
 Archibald, Russell D, What CEOs Must Demand To Compete and Collaborate in
2005
 Archibald, Russell D., and Vladimir I. Voropaev, Commonalities and Differences in
Project Management Around the World – A Survey of Project Categories and Life
Cycle Models. Proceedings of the 17th IPMA World Congress on Project
Management
 Crawford, Lynn, J. Brian Hobbs, and J. Rodney Turner, Matching People, Projects,
Processes, and Organizations’ Proceedings of the Project Management Institute
Annual Seminars & Symposium, Oct. 3-10, 2002.
 Bullock, James, The Top 10 Ways Software Projects are Different.
http://www.pmforum.org/pmwt03/papers03-09.htm .
 Dye, Lowell D., and James S. Pennypacker, Project Portfolio Managing and
Managing Multiple Projects: Two Sides of the Same Coin?” Proceedings of the
2000 PMI Seminars & Symposium.

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