22. December 2009 by Carol Glover.

Its’ been one month since starting this blog and the holidays are upon us.  vPMO Blog will be taking a short break from posting but we plan to have some exciting topics in the new year. Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for reading and to wish you and your family a safe, happy holiday and a prosperous New Year.   We look forward to writing for you and getting to know you in the new year.

Sincerely,

Sasha Lomas

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11. December 2009 by Carol Glover.

Further to last week’s posting, I’d like to build on the process of starting your PMO. I suggest that you focus on quick wins and plan for a gradual and orderly progression in project and PMO maturity.  How do you do this?  First, be sure to find people you trust to help you work through the initiating process.  You will need to take a cold, hard look at the way you do projects. If possible, review past projects for the following information:

• Were they completed on time? On budget?
• Were there many changes (formal or informal)?
• Did the team perform well together? Were there painful gaps in communication?
• Do you create processes and templates at the start of each project?
• Do you have a formal documentation process or is it adhoc? Is there similarity between projects even if not formalized?
• Was there a review of the project after completion? If so, were any lessons learned documented? 

For each of the questions above, look a little deeper at the answers you give; go beyond yes and no.  Ask yourself if there were any specific pain points that could have been avoided.  Don’t worry if you can’t answer all of these questions.  You have already taken a big step just in starting to examine the possibility of implementing a Project Management Office.   With the information you have gathered from the exercise above, you can start to identify your quick wins.  Some examples of quick wins could be:

• Create Templates for your project charter, requirements documents, work breakdown structure, meeting agendas and minutes as well as any other documents that you normally produce for each project. Don’t underestimate the power of the template.   Once you become familiar with the elements of the template, you will find that you begin to organize your thoughts well in advance of filling in the document.  Familiar templates also promote consistent flow of communication within the team because everyone knows what to expect and when.
• If your projects follow a common flow, create checklists to ensure that you don’t miss details along the way. The checklist should include communication, documentation and decision waypoints.   

You will likely find at least 3 quick wins in your current project processes. You can either implement them all at once or in stages.  You are best advised to look at the culture of your work group and use your judgment on this.  Forcing too much at once will likely create resistance to these small steps and any future progress. Once you have had the chance to take a close look at your current project environment you will likely start developing ideas about what you want your PMO to achieve (see last post).   

Coming up in the next blog – Where do you go from here?

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