Criteria for Successful Project Management Offices

I was recently reviewing articles that I’ve written about successes and failures of Project Management Offices (PMOs) and some of the things that make that success or failure happen. I started making a list of these items and thought it might be helpful to share that info with the readers here on PM Tips again in this very condensed format. Remember, these are just my opinions that I’ve expressed in some of my articles along the way.

For PMO to be Effective:

• Director must be a key role in the organization
  • Must have backing and support of executive management
• Director must champion the efforts of the PMs
  • Don’t take credit for their actions
  • Provide ongoing support
  • Assist on critical/visible projects
  • Help breakdown resource acquisition barriers
• Director must run the PMO, not many projects
  • Project focus for the director should mainly be on the highly visible projects where exec decision-making is going to be needed on a regular basis or the business is extremely critical to the organization
  • Organization must value the PMO enough to ensure the director is not bogged down too much to be a successful leader

PMO Promotion

It is the responsibility of the PMO leadership to properly promote the PMO and help ensure its viability and visibility. Its viability is maintained by doing the following:

• Implementing proper and repeatable processes to consistently and successfully manage projects
• Implementing consistent templates for managing project and reporting status to customers and executive management
• Hiring competent, experienced Project Managers to lead projects for the organization
• Implementing proper compensation plans to retain good PM resources
• Implementing adequate training and on-boarding programs and processes to ensure that PMs are well-trained and up to speed on the PMO processes and practices

The PMO’s visibility is maintained by doing the following:

• Reporting project portfolio status on a regular basis and in a meaningful and useful format so that executive management realizes the PMO’s value
• Implementing solid PMO practices to ensure that the high-visibility customers are happy and referencable and the high-visibility projects are successful
• Inviting executive leadership to regularly attend weekly PMO meetings and sit in on project status meetings for the critical, high-visibility projects
• Managing project budgets thoroughly and reporting budget status up through executive leadership to show bottom-line PMO and Project Manager value

The PMO Director, as the leader of the PMO, must be a strong leader with pull inside the organization to ensure that these things happen. Otherwise, the PMO runs the danger of becoming obsolete or, at the very least, insignificant…and the mission critical projects will pass right by the PMO to special teams outside the PMO’s jurisdiction. Executive leadership must see value and ensuring that happens begins with the PMO leadership.

PMOs fail usually for one of the following three reasons:

• Lack of strong, focused leadership
• Lack of repeatable process
• Lack of executive leadership support

Five Signs Your PMO is not Meeting Your Organization’s Needs:

• Executive Management is not Included in the PMO Process
• Training Plans are Non-Existent
• Common Templates and Processes do not Exist
• Poor Upward Project Reporting
• Major Projects Circumvent the Process

All successful PMOs feature four basic components:

• The right processes
• The right tools
• The right people
• Executive level organization support

You can always hire different people. You can bring in consultants to help define better processes or identify better tracking tools. But without the executive-level support, none of it will happen or at least it won’t succeed.

Successful PMOs make an impact on organizational success by performing the following tasks:

• Aligning project delivery with strategic business goals and priorities
• Requiring that every project have an effective PM
• Implementing an appropriate PM methodology
• Consistent management and oversight of the project portfolio
• Obtaining and maintaining company leadership support

Book Review: Project Governance

The July 2009 book review from Project Management Tipoffs (brought to you by Arras People) covers Ralf Muller’s book entitled, “Project Governance.”

The concept of the book is that without a governance structure, an organization runs the risk of conflicts and inconsistencies between the various means of achieving organizational goals, the processes and resources, causing costly inefficiencies that impact negatively on both smooth running and bottom line profitability. Please read on…

Project Governance

A night to read and some real practical solutions to implementing governance in your organisation – either at portfolio, programme or project level. “Project Governance” from Ralf Muller is a little misleading as it doesn’t just cover project level governance. Starting at the corporate level, with academic theory, the book soon moves onto programme and project governance taking into account different organisational models. Is your organisation a “Flexible Economist Paradigm”? Or in others words has your organisation established project management as a core competence, with professional project managers? Governance within this environment will follow a different path to that of a “Conformist Paradigm” organisation where project management is performed by technical experts as an on-the-side task.

So what is governance and why would you want to know more about this area of project management? Governance is defined in the book as:

“Governance provides a framework for ethical decision making and managerial action within an organisation that is based on transparency, accountability and defined roles”

This book covers everything from portfolio management, sponsors & steering groups, strategic and tactical project management offices, programme management, in fact it brings together a lot of areas and topics already within the public domain. There are two sections that are particularly worthy of note; a governance framework for project management and how much governance is enough? The framework provides a three step process which enables an organisation to increase its PPM governance. Within each step there are three areas; what can be done, what should be done and what is done. Step 1, includes basic training and methodology use (it talks about the adoption of methodologies such as PRINCE2), introducing steering committees (ensuring what is learnt is adopted and put into use) and the use of audits and reviews to ensure the “what is done” or learnt has translated to successful project delivery.  A simple framework which covers the different levels of organisational maturity has been conveyed well in this book and would be a welcome addition to any programme office manager, portfolio manager or organisational change specialist’s bookshelf.  That said, this is also a book aimed at the project manager, especially their role within project governance but also programme level, portfolio level and ultimately how their delivery impacts the corporation as a whole.

Knowing when there is enough governance – appropriate to your organisation and the programmes and projects it delivers – is also covered. A simple approach which focuses on the relationship between project manager and steering group and the roles & responsibilities of each may be useful insight for any project manager.  Like much in project management, communication is the key for effective governance at each level of the organisation and Muller’s book goes a long way to showing how to utilise effective communication to achieve a integrated governance model.

More information and review text about Mr. Muller’s book, as well ordering information, is available at Gower Publishing.

Conclusive Proof That a Centralized PMO Is Good for Your Health

Another great article I came across at IT Business Edge that should make for some interesting reading.

They know who they are, but they probably prefer to remain anonymous. They’re the dispossessed organizations still out there relying on fragmented and siloed project management processes, like spreadsheets or other home-grown systems. You have to feel sorry for them: struggling to juggle multiple systems to track costs, trying to align IT spend with business priorities ? when they can’t tell what the costs are and what the business priorities need to be. They might not want to publicize their misdeeds, but they know they have problems, because their unhinged IT financials and internal customer dissatisfaction tell them so.

Their IT projects are more likely to fail too. Research by the Standish Group tells us that 24 percent of all projects still fail and 55 percent are somehow ‘challenged’ because of a lack of visibility into long-term project needs. Without proper visibility, organizations are unable to see what is needed six months, three months or even two months down the road, which results in poorly constructed project plans that do not capture critical dependencies, including assigning key project resources and key milestones.

One day these organizations will see the light. There will come a time what they climb out of the darkened hole they’ve buried themselves in and wake up to the fact that a centralized Project Management Office (PMO) can make a world of difference to the delivery of projects for their organization and their business performance.

Many companies have begun the journey already. They’ve adopted a PMO to help define and maintain the standards of process ? generally related to project management ? within the organization. Their PMO is striving to standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects. It is also the source of documentation, guidance and metrics on the practice of project management and execution.

But it is that word “centralized” that makes all the difference. A recent independent survey commissioned by CA in 14 countries, with data from 249 respondents, indicates that the centralized approach is key to the successful implementation of process improvements. It also ensures development teams finish projects on time and on budget through the use of established best practices.

Read the entire article here..

Agile Project Management and a SIEBEL PM Job

A rather thought provoking article I came across on Agile Project Management.

Agile teams: Focus on the people rather than the process

Rick Freedman believes the agile PM’s most important roles are to create a collaborative environment that enables teams to achieve creative results and to encourage contributors to focus on group goals and agendas rather than the individual.

The NBA Finals are over, and LA Lakers coach Phil Jackson has broken the record of the legendary Red Auerbach by leading his team to the NBA championship for the 10^th time. Jackson’s ability to coach superstar players Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and to get superstar results from role players Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher, illustrates that leadership matters, and that a group of skilled, confident, and occasionally arrogant individuals can be guided to success and can coalesce as a team.

While other coaches struggle with players who are more interested in individual statistics and personal highlight reels than in getting team results, Jackson has been able to channel the ambitions and skills of his players, both in Chicago and Los Angeles, towards team achievement. Shaquille O’Neal and Scottie Pippen make winning championships a bit easier, but, despite all the outstanding players in the NBA, no other coach demonstrates Jackson’s ability to inspire teams to great outcomes.

What does the NBA have to do with agile PM?

Like Jackson, agile project managers often have teams composed of supremely skilled and confident contributors. Like Jackson, many agile project managers often struggle to get arrogant or immature team members to subsume their personal ambitions and instead focus on team results. And, like Jackson, agile project managers must develop a leadership style that inspires and enables team members to achieve.

The coaching metaphor is, in my view, an appropriate analogy to illustrate the type of project leadership that agile methods require. Great agile project managers are coaches, with the critical understanding that, whether it’s shooting hoops or developing software, only the player can make the right decision under the pressure of the moment. Creating the environment that enables the experts to do what they do and setting the strategy while allowing the players to create are attributes of a winning coach and an agile project leader.

SIEBEL CRM Senior Project Manager.

Our global multinational client in the french speaking part of Switzerland is now looking for a Senior Siebel Project Manager/Program Manager to join the project on a long term basis here in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

THE ROLE:
Senior PM for Siebel implementation with role evolving to Program Manager (multiple projects/more countries) as Siebel initiative is planned across next 3 years. You will be in charge of the overall Siebel global implementation.

YOU NEED:
At least 8 years CRM projects, Siebel experience (SFA/BI/Call Centre), global/large scale projects(multi-country deployment), strong project management skills (end-to-end project life cycle, good command of all project areas; technical, process, change, etc), process manufacturing experience, strong communications skills, experience of vendor management.

• University degree or equivalent. Good education is mandatory.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken)
• At least 10 years large complex international experience in delivery of IT/consulting services in the area of CRM with in-depth expertise in implementing CRM software such as Oracle CRM/Siebel
• Experience on business process re-engineering;
• Experience in international working environments; Experience of off-shore delivery model
• Management of project teams
• Advanced business consulting competencies

Nice to have:

• Deep understanding of leading and emerging IT solutions; experience of Siebel on-demand will be appreciated
• Selling skills on high added value services
• Good business acumen for marketing and sales in specific industry/process manufacturing/pharmaceutical/chemical are an advantage

Project Management Jobs

Project Management-Oman-Construction

Location: South Island
Salary: Negotiable
Company: Globester Recruitment
Sector: Building services
Job role: Project manager
Job type: Permanent

The client is a leader in the construction and engineering industries in Oman. With 30 years experience in this sector.

The company have an urgent requirement for a Project Manager to join their team in Oman. The successful candidate will have experience and knowledge of the Middle East construction sector.

The Requirements
o The candidate need to have a civil engineering degree
o At least 10 years experience in roads ,bridges and pipelines
o  Strong ability to successfully manage, delegate and motivate others
o  Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
o  Good technical skills
o  Fluency in English is required

This is an urgent requirement and to be considered for this position applicants should fulfill the above client requirements to be considered.

If you are suit this role and possess the relevant skills and experience please forward your CV for review to the email address provided. You will be contacted by a representative from Globester Recruitment to discuss before your application is sent to the client.

Please register your interest by emailing your CV to the email address provided (matt@globesterrecruitment.com) .

For all national and international vacancies, please log on to www.globesterjobs.com

Project Quality Manager

Location: Oman
Salary: £65000 – £85000 per annum + Car + Housing + Flights
Company: Digby Morris
Sector: Oil / Gas / Power
Job role: Civil engineer
Job type: Permanent

The Company

Digby Morris’ client has been providing a comprehensive range of professional services to the power industry for over 100 years. They focus on long term partnerships with their customers to develop and execute effective solutions to a diverse range of energy challenges facing the industry such as meeting growing energy demand, maximizing performance of existing assets, and reducing carbon footprint.

Their capabilities and experience cover the full spectrum of professional services from pre-feasibility and environmental delivered through Select to full scope project delivery and support of operations, including operations and maintenance of the asset via their ‘improve offering’.

They optimize their customer’s investments across the entire asset life cycle, from detailed engineering, through vendor quality assurance, construction management to start-up and operations. They pride themselves on a culture characterized by flexibility, capability and partnering. They can act as the prime contractor or work as a member of a joint venture to deliver the most effective service to meet their customers’ needs.

Purpose of the Job

To effectively manage the Quality Assurance / Quality Control resources required to safely execute and handover the Harweel project on schedule, to quality specifications and budget in a way that fulfils PDO’s policy of sustained mutually beneficial relationships with stakeholders and the environment.