1. Leveraging Your PMO to Start the Right Projects Right
PMI-SVC PMO Forum
May 26, 2010
Scott Hamilton
Sacramento Superior Court
Personal Introduction
Background – Sacramento Superior Court 2 years, Intel prior to that
Result of experiences is this presentation – area of focus
Fundamental problems are occurring earlier in the process
Page 1.1 in handout
print 35 copies
in the room
ready the PRF & charter

2. Presentation Objective
Stress the importance of starting the right projects right
Provide practical suggestions for leveraging your PMO to select the right projects and start them right
SURVEY
. solid project delivery process?
. solid project evaluation process?
abundance of guidance on running a solid project
how do we confirm early we have the right project
how do we take the right steps early, as change gets more expensive with time
how do we leverage our PMO to provide this influence
practical suggestions and templates
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3. Starting the wrong project wrong?
The project manager walks into his boss' office and says, "Here is the bottom line budget needed for the success of the project.“
The boss says, "What can you do for half the money?“
The project manager says, "Fail.“
The boss says, "When can you get started?“
The project manager says, "I think I just did.“
-- from Jokester.com
SURVEY
. how many have experienced this?
How do we fix it?
How do we establish standard processes and improve them over time to avoid this type of ad hoc situation?
Why? More consistent, quality, measurable outcomes from our project factory
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4. Leveraging your PMO to Start the right projects right
Finances are tight, business has to run lean
Need repeatable, high quality results from project factory
PMO, PMs, Executive Decision Makers to feed the factory with the right product mix
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5. Sorting out the Projects
Work
Project Rules
“… temporary endeavor …”
Size of Effort
Complexity
Organizational Impact
Business Criticality
Adjust the rules as you go ?
Work
Work
PM Overhead
One of the first hurdles we have to clear is projects vs. non-projects
Projects have overhead, but it’s required for quality outcomes
Avoid and learn from miscategorizations
Why? To ensure that project overhead is well suited to the work payload
Consistently applied to product consistent, quality results
Goal is to reduce, not eliminate unknowns
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Projects
Creating Processes
Series of Tasks
Collection of Changes
Project Management
“Non-” Projects
Operational Processes
Tasks
Request For Change
Operations Management
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6. Project Request
A Project Request is a formal request documenting a business need to be addressed by a project. It includes:
Who represents the business need (name, department)
What they want to accomplish (problem, objective, scope)
Why they want to accomplish it (measurable benefits)
When they want to accomplish it (expected date)
Funding / Resources
Key Points
Customer’s language (commitment, business benefit)
Level of authority for submission & approval (Executive Sponsor)
Criteria for “valid” requests (less than 80 hours, clear scope)
12:15
PRF is our template, being refined and distributed, Word template in back of packet
Why? Key to quantify benefit early in customer’s terms – start the dialog and secure their commitment
Comment on tangible vs. intangible benefit – for comparison not precision
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7. Project Analysis
Project Analysis consists of assessing the project size (resources, funding), comparing to existing portfolio & priorities, and final disposition of the project (status, start date, Project Manager)
Key Points
Project Assessment (100K ft view)
Project Portfolio & Priorities
Resource Planning Calendar
Financial Cycle Review
Key is to get a high-level resource estimate for all impacted divisions to enable further planning
Needs to be good enough for relative comparison of cost/benefit
Also sets a baseline for future work
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8. Project Portfolio
A Project Portfolio is the collection of projects being considered and managed at any point in time
The portfolio is managed like a financial portfolio:
Where would you invest your limited resources ($, staff) for the biggest return?
How does the project align with your organizational goals?
Address changes over time (reprioritize, stop/start)
SURVEY
. how many actively manage the project portfolio?
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9. Resource Planning Calendar
Reserve limited resources & funding to “slot” the project on the Master Project Schedule
Avoid resource contention and realistically forecast and manage supply & demand for fiscal cycle
Revisit previous planning decisions
some do it with fiscal year, some quarterly
organize around financial calendar
in cycle vs. out of cycle requests
resource gaps
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10. Leveraging your PMO to Start the right projects right
You’ve identified a quality project, get it started on a quality path
Before kick-off, before significant resources have been expended
Why? No resources to waste, highest probability of success, changes are expensive later
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11. Project Initiation Request - Accept customer requests for new projects
Initiated Project
Business Need
Stop
Re-scope
12:30
Typical life cycle
Initiation before planning
Page 4.2 in handout
Request - Accept customer requests for new projects
Approval - Establish resources, funding, and project priority
Initiation - Initiate the project (Kick-Off) under an agreed upon contract with the stakeholders (Project Charter)
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12. Project Charter & Kick-Off
A Project Charter is a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project, and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.*
Developing the Project Charter may require several meetings with the Sponsor and Stakeholders to refine what was provided in the Project Request.
A Project Kick-Off is a meeting to signify the initiation of the project. It is a forum to:
Introduce and level-set all key stakeholders on the purpose, scope, and goals of the project as defined in the Project Charter
Ratify the team membership & approach to move to the next phases of the project (Planning, Execution, etc.)
*A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) Fourth Edition, ©2008 Project Management Institute
We chose more of a two-way contract than is described by this definition
Lots of up front meeting work
This is your contract from PRF and analysis and meetings
Not unchangeable but binding for both parties
Limit scope vs. strict follow-through on future scope for customers
Revisit Cost/Benefit
Manage the triangle – set the boundaries now (Scope, Schedule, Budget, Quality)
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13. Leveraging your PMO to Start the right projects right
What role can the PMO play in ensuring these key activities happen
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14. Program Management Office
“Admin PMO”
“Hands-On PMO”
Project Management Support
Direct Project Management
“Influential PMO”
Key decision-maker in early phases of Project Definition
Active manager of Project Requests, Analysis, Portfolio, Resource Calendar
Fill the gap from business objectives (Sponsor) to project outcomes (Project Manager)
Independent 3rd party to ensure best practices compliance
Assuming PMO is taking an active role in managing the project requests, analysis, portfolio, resource calendar
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15. PMO Action Items
Enact and monitor Project Rules to guide when the project process is engaged
Capture customer business needs in their language via quality Project Requests that specify the Business Impact / Benefit
Perform data-based Project Analysis to evaluate candidate projects and place them in the Project Portfolio and on the Resource Calendar
Initiate projects with a clear scope in mind (Project Charter) and the appropriate resources to plan against that scope (Project Kick-Off)
Embrace the “unhappy” path and continuously improve via measured results
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16. Conclusion Stress the importance of starting the right projects right
Provide practical suggestions for leveraging your PMO to select the right projects and start them right
12:45
abundance of guidance but it’s important to begin with the end in mind
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17. … the end in mind
Despite best intentions, there will be ambiguity and other pressures that impact our projects – the real work now begins
One step at a time with continuous improvement
PMO has a critical function to instill processes, concepts, terminology that allow us to communicate and deliver consistent, quality results
Ensure the project goals are clearly documented, tracked, and communicated from high-level request all the way down to the detailed deliverables
Give ourselves the best shot by starting the right projects right
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