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Half of new PMOs are shut down within 3 years1. Scary… and it reminds me a bit of a TV program we have in the UK.
Grand Designs follows a member of the public who has taken on a massive project: building a new home. The homes are usually rather grand (hence the title) or unusual (one guy built a house out of straw, another built a cave-house).
Most of the “victims” have chosen to act as project manager themselves. Why do they make that decision? Well, they believe it will save money and, really, how hard can it be? Yet this one decision – to take on the project management themselves - is often the root cause of many of massive cost over-runs, delays and sleepless nights.
Setting up a PMO is a little bit like building a house, only worse. So, what’s to be done?
Why is setting up a PMO so difficult?
Setting up a PMO is hard work. It takes time and skill. Not only do you have lots of things to “get done”, you also have multiple stakeholders who have diverse opinions. This “input” not only covers what should be done but also how it should be done. Not all of these opinions are useful… or even benign.
Think about what needs to happen. Here is a subset of the things a PMO is often expected to achieve. Note that the PMO does not have “total control” over any of these items:
|
Task |
Goal |
Barriers |
|
Get control of projects |
Put in place project reporting and governance |
Tools, systems, processes, organizational resistance to “overheads”, resistance to change, lack of clarity of goals and ownership, exec sponsorship…. |
|
Standardize methodologies |
Ensure consistency in project delivery. |
|
|
Project/portfolio status reporting |
Ensure timely and effective governance and resource allocation. |
|
|
Manage risk |
Reduce project failure rates. |
|
|
Scheduling projects |
Maximize the project throughput given constraints and project dependencies |
|
|
Prioritize / select projects |
Maximize the value delivered to the organization from the portfolio. |
Lots of moving parts. Difficult organizational change. The need to “sell the value” at all levels and influence others. These are some of the career-limiting factors that the leadership of new PMOs face. No wonder half of them fail.
Ways to set up a new PMO
If you've been entrusted with setting up a PMO you'll be wanting to ensure that it succeeds. Here are our top tips:
- Be clear about your requirements. You can approach the challenges of setting up a PMO from a number of different directions so find the one that gets you the results you're paying for. Many of our partners operate a Healthcheck scheme - for example take a look at the the PMO Squad.
- Get the right type of PMO. In recent years the core "process police" heritage of the project office has given way to Enterprise PMOs, Transformation Management Offices, Value Management Offices to name but a few. Decide which acronym best describes your use case.
- Set your nascent PMO up for success. Hiring a new PMO should not be 'job done'. They will need support to succeed, and the best support in the market comes from PMO Strategies. Through rigorous practical coaching your new hire will learn, deliver and succeed.
- Bring in external support. Why not consider a PMO-as-a-service model to get you started, where can experienced contractor can deliver the service, find the right tooling and generally hit the ground running. We have some fantasctic partners offering this support.
- Keep executive support dialed up. PMO success relies heavilly on building a positive connection with leaders whose projects they are organizing or whose resources they are scheduling. Include them in hiring to build buy-in, then make your new PMO gets regular senior exposure.
So if you have a Grand Design for your PMO, I highly recommend you take a moment before you start hiring to make sure you have a clear vision for what you want, and expert support in place to get it. That way in 3 years time you'll not be in the 50% of executives closing down their new PMO.
1 Data from Assn Project Management
