An Executive View of the PMO Rami Zakaria Sacramento County – OCIT Chief of e-Government and Business Services

Executives responsibilities: Strategic plan for the division and the organization Multiple organizations units with diverse functions Large portfolio of projects Projects and service delivery issues Significant budget shortfalls and staffing reductions

What Executives want Accountability - Trust Just the facts Patience with the system More time, budget and staff Suggestions & alternatives Successful projects

Tips for Communications with your executive Provide an executive summary Have an agenda for every meeting Send meeting notes or recaps Be prepared with alternatives Be Brief, focus on just the facts Changes will happen, nothing is ever delivered according to original plan

Earning Executive Support Understand your executive priorities Communicate timely and frequently Develop a plan, get executive buy-in, and stick to it. Take the lead on proactively moving the project forward Take the initiative to make things better

PMO Maturity Levels - Gartner Level 0 - The project manager role has not yet been recognized as a distinct position, and good project management practices are “ handed down “ via storytelling. At Level 1, companies begin to recognize project management as a distinct function and start building a reservoir of experiences — good and bad — with project management. Individuals who excel at managing projects emerge. At Level 2, Good processes are written down and preserved. Bad habits and processes are discouraged. A PMO" begins to form, although its function is mostly one of monitoring and tracking ongoing projects, and not management.

PMO Maturity Levels - Gartner At Level 3, companies continue doing all the Level 1 and Level 2 activities, but now they add resource management, cost management, portfolio management or project planning into the PMO, in a concerted effort to integrate people, processes, technology and finances.

PMO is about “The Big Picture” Ability to see projects across the PMO’s area of responsibility Consistency in delivering successful projects Center for Project Management excellence Early warning system for challenged projects Continuous improvement and learning

PMO is not just about Paperwork Bureaucracy Tools processes

Successful PMO is about Having the right mix of project management methodologies, processes, and tools to support project managers in delivering successful projects while giving management a clear view of projects progress across the organization

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