supporting reviews and performance: the role of the pmo

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 1

Supporting Reviews & Assurance

The Role of the PMO

Outline

!  Projects fail

!  That’s OK

!  Portfolio mgt is easier than project mgt…

!  … provided you can get the right information

!  Setting up an assurance programme

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 2

Why do projects fail?

Simon Schoeters

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 3

Christiaan Triebert

We lose touch with reality Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 4

Simon Schoeters

Failure becomes obvious when we run back into reality

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 5

Failure is OK!

L Gnome

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 6

There are 2 types of failure: Inherent & Unnecessary

macrophile

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 7

Statistics don’t work for project managers

Steve A Johnson

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 8

Statistics do work for portfolio & programme managers

James Bowe

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 9

Portfolio & programme managers have more tools

veryuseful

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 10

But they often don’t have the information they need

IsaacMao

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 11

But they often don’t have the information they need

derekGavey

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 12

But they often don’t have the information they need

maveric2003

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 13

But they often don’t have the information they need

Jeroen_bennink

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 14

Grand Canyon NPS

That’s where the PMO helps – providing clear information

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 15

Kheel Centre, Cornell University

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 16

IvanWalsh.com

Right Information – Skills – Process – Stakeholders

The role of assurance is to provide validated information

owenwbrown

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 17

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 18 ell brown

PMOs can work at three levels

How do we set up an effective programme of reviews?

Colin_K

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 19

1) Make reviews the norm

Lars P.

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 20

2) Be clear who you’re serving

Bird Brian

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 21

3) Tune investment to risk levels

digitalmoneyworld

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 22

4) Use a mix of review types

vie_ascenseur

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5) Negotiate clear objectives for each review

Richard_of_England

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 24

Recommendations to improve review artefacts

Review execution

Inputs

Artefacts & other items to review, plus supporting details.

Outputs

Improved artefacts. Go / No - go

decision.

Baseline Criteria Reference Models

Control parameters Feedback to improve reference models

Analysis Loop

6) Run a structured process Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 25

7) Focus on evidence

Simon Schoeters

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 26

8) Manage logistics

strudelt

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 27

9) Minimise overheads

jcroninone

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 28

10) Train people

One Laptop per Child

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 29

11) Act on findings

mikebaird

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 30

12) Monitor effectiveness

SearchEnginePeopleBlog

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13) Disseminate lessons learned

The U.S. Army

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 32

Assurance supports stakeholder communications

Keoni Cabral

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 33

Summary

!  We engage with risks to achieve rewards

!  Sometimes the risks win

!  Aim is to eliminate unnecessary failure

!  Program & portfolio mgrs have a lot of tools

!  They need information in order to use them

!  Reviews & assurance provide this information

!  PMOs can do a lot to set up effective reviews

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 34

Unnecessary Failure…

… happens when people with the skills, resources and authority to act effectively don’t get full, validated information about

project status and issues.

The role of reviews and assurance is to provide this information.

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 35

Thank you

graham@grahamoakes.co.uk @GrahamDOakes

36 Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014

Supporting Reviews & Assurance APM, Feb 2014 37

!  Making sense of technology… "  Many organisations are caught up in the

complexity of technology and systems. "  This complexity may be inherent to the

technology itself. It may be created by the pace of technology change. Or it may arise from the surrounding process, people and governance structures.

"  We help untangle this complexity and define business strategies that both can be implemented and will be adopted by people throughout the organisation and its partner network. We then help assure delivery of implementation projects.

!  Clients… "  Cisco Worldwide Education – Architecture and research for e-learning and educational systems "  Council of Europe – Systems for monitoring compliance with international treaties; e-learning systems "  Dover Harbour Board – Systems and architecture review "  Greenpeace – Project reviews, enterprise architecture, digital strategy "  MessageLabs – Architecture and assurance for partner management portal "  National Savings & Investments – Helped NS&I and BPO partner develop joint IS strategy "  The Open University – Enterprise architecture, CRM and product development strategies "  Oxfam – Content management, CRM, e-Commerce "  Thames Valley Police – Internet Consultancy "  Sony Computer Entertainment – Global process definition "  Amnesty International, Endemol, Intel, tsoosayLabs, Vodafone, …

Graham Oakes Ltd