Course Description
Learn vital processes and techniques needed to establish and run a value-added PMO. Make sure that you are not adding overhead but adding recognized value instead.
In this project management training course, you will learn how to:
- Articulate the value of a PMO
- Perform a current state assessment and compare to the future state vision
- Learn how a value-added PMO can help lead your organization to its desired future state
- Identify the potential products and services of typical PMOs
- Create a PMO Roadmap to provide guidance and direction to the PMO for the next 18 months
- Understand how to proactively communicate the value that the PMO is providing
- Create a PMO Scorecard to measure the value of the PMO
- See how to apply the value-added concepts to new and existing PMOs
Why Do You Need a Value-added PMO?
PMOs help organizations successfully implement goals and strategies.
- Organizations have goals and strategies to help them reach their future state.
- Projects are the way to achieve these goals and strategies.
- Project management is an enabler to help your organization execute projects successfully.
- PMOs help organizations implement solid project management practices and build project management competencies.
If you think you can implement a project management
culture by introducing some templates and a training class, you will not
be successful. You need a multi-faceted and long-term approach. For
example, you have to build/acquire a common project management process,
train the staff, educate your clients, coach project managers, set up a
governance process, etc. This does not have to be a large group of
people (although it could be). It could just be one, or even a few
people. The point is that it will take resource commitment to implement
project management and resources to support the long-term project
management initiative.
The resources assigned to successfully implement a project
management culture form a Project Management Office. Unfortunately many
PMO staff members think of PMOs as the place that makes processes and
templates. There is a limited amount of value to this model and it is
important that the PMO be focused on providing much more value in
everything it does. It is a term we call the "Value-added PMO."
You Need a PMO that Provides Value to the Organization
The nature of the PMO is they can quickly be viewed as
overheard – a barrier to swift completion of projects. Of course, that
is just the opposite of what they should be doing. In fact, the focus of
the PMO should be to help execute projects better, faster and cheaper.
Negative perception of the PMO is twofold. In many cases the PMO
is, in fact, not providing value-added services that result in better
project outcomes. The second problem is that many PMOs are doing great
things, but not measuring and communicating the value they provide.
This project management training class puts all the
pieces in place to make sure work the PMO does provides value and that
value is measured and communicated.
Active Learning
This project management training class is a stimulating
combination of class interaction, active learning exercises and group
collaboration. Each is designed to teach through practice so that you
are readily able to apply what you learn to your work immediately. In
this project management training class we will have exercises and a
progressive case study to:
- Understand the difference between projects, programs and portfolios
- Practice a current state assessment and future state vision
- Determine the appropriate PMO products and services to close the gap to the future state
- Estimate short-term and long-term resource needs
- Create a PMO Roadmap that provides guidance to the PMO for the next 12-18 months
- Build a PMO Communication Plan
- Develop a PMO Scorecard
IMMEDIATE benefits of participating in this project management training workshop:
- Understand the differences between projects, programs and portfolios
- Review the multiple models for creating PMOs
- Learn the importance of identifying PMO sponsors, customers and stakeholders
- Determine how to identify the right aspects of your organization for evaluation
- Practice conducting current state assessments
- See how to gather requirements for the future state vision
- Create a gap analysis showing the work to be done to move to the future state
- Discover why the gap analysis is the key to defining a PMO (not the future state vision)
- Understand how implementing project management is a culture change initiative
- List the common products and services that are the core of most PMOs
- Discuss many of the advanced products and services that are needed by many PMOs
- Narrow down the specific set of products and services that your PMO will offer that provide the most value to the organization
- Gain the knowledge to tie the work of the PMO to objectives, goals or future state vision
- Calculate the right number of resources required to adequately staff a PMO
- Learn about various specialty roles in larger PMOs
- Determine the relative timeframe for deploying the various products and services of the PMO
- Create a PMO Roadmap to provide direction for the PMO for the next 12-18 months
- Build a PMO Communication Plan to proactively market the value the PMO provides
- Define the details of a PMO Scorecard to measure the value delivered by the PMO
- Create a PMO Deployment Plan to tie all of the PMO definition work together
Who Should Attend PMO Training
This project management training course is designed for anyone who
is considering implementing a Value-Added Project Management Office.
This includes staff from current PMOs that want to move toward a
value-added model and people implementing PMOs for the first time.
- PMO Managers
- PMO Staff
- Project Managers
- PMO Sponsors
PMO Course Outline
I. Understanding Project Management Offices
Organizations around the world are implementing
formal project management processes and discipline to deliver their work
initiatives on time, within budget and to an agreed upon level of
quality. Many companies are coordinating this work through centralized
organizations that are responsible for implementing varying aspects of
project management and building project management competencies. In this
section we will cover:
- Projects, programs and portfolios
- Aligning projects to goals and strategies
- How PMOs help project managers become more successful
- The 4 ½ organization models for PMO
- Overview of organizational change management
Class Exercise: The class
will break into small teams that will form the working groups for the
rest of the class. Students will identify whether certain phrases
represent projects, programs or portfolios. There is also an exercise to
align projects to organizational goals and strategies.
II. Organization Context of the PMO
PMOs don't exist in isolation. They are created to help
move the organization from its current state to the desired future
state. Therefore, the starting point for building the value-added PMO is
to understand where you are at today, where you want to be in the
future and the gaps that must be closed to move toward the desired
future state. In this section we will learn:
- The sponsor, customers and stakeholders
- Categories for describing current state
- Current state assessment
- Future state vision
- Gap analysis
Class Exercise: A case
study will be introduced to utilize for the rest of the class. The team
will practice creating aspects of a current state assessment and future
state vision.
III. PMO Value-Added Products and Services
After you know the gap between the current state and
future state, you must identify how the PMO can help close the gap. This
is the time to identify the products and services the PMO will deliver
and provid. Since the gaps are different for all organizations, the PMO
products and services will also be different for each organization. This
is where you make sure the work the PMO provides adds value by ensuring
it ties to the desired future state. In this section we will cover:
- Definition of PMO products and services
- Tying the work of the value-added PMO to close the identified gaps
- Basic products and services of many PMOs
- Advanced PMO products and services
Class Exercise: A gap
analysis will be introduced which will be the basis for identifying the
appropriate set of products and services of the case study project.
IV. Determine the Resource Needs of the PMO
Once we have the potential value-added products and
services identified, we need to identify the resources needed. This
usually involves two efforts – resources to build and deploy the
products and services to the organization, and the ongoing and long-term
resources needed to support the products and services over time. In
this section we will cover:
- High-level labor and non-labor resource estimates
- Estimating for initial deployment work
- Estimating long-term support and enhancement work
Class Exercise: The case
study is explored further as a candidate set of products and services is
introduced. Each team will estimate the resources (labor and non-labor)
required to successfully deploy the products and services in the
organization.
V. Prioritizing and Scheduling the Work of the PMO
We have the work identified for the value-added PMO.
However, we cannot do everything at once. Next we must prioritize the
work. Work priorities recognize task dependencies and the resource
constraints that every organization faces. The resulting deliverable is
the PMO Roadmap. Here we will learn to:
- Identify work dependencies
- Prioritize the work
- Plan the 12-18 month deployment window
- Create the PMO Roadmap
Class Exercise: The teams
will take all of the information collected so far on the case study to
create a PMO Roadmap to guide the direction of the PMO for the next
12-18 months.
Build a PMO Communication Plan.
Develop a PMO Scorecard.
VI. PMO Communication Plan
In general, PMOs tend to be viewed as a department
that adds overhead to an organization. If your PMO is, in fact,
providing value but no one knows about it, you will still end up with
that negative perception. Your PMO needs to spend time communicating its
value using the framework of a PMO Communication Plan. The
Communication Plan will balance fact-based status information as well as
proactive and positive marketing messages to emphasize the value of the
PMO. We will cover:
- PMO stakeholders
- Stakeholder communication needs
- Communicating value instead of activity
- Marketing communication
- Communication media
- Communication rhythm
Class Exercise: The teams will create components of a PMO Communication Plan to communicate appropriately with stakeholders.
VII. PMO Scorecard
Most PMOs struggle to understand what success means
and how to validate they are meeting success criteria. The PMO Scorecard
is the tool used to measure success. The Scorecard includes a level of
detail that can be successfully implemented during the year. We will
learn:
- Success criteria
- Potential metrics
- A holistic view of metrics
- Metric targets
- Collection and reporting details
- What it all means
Class Exercise: The teams will create
components of a PMO Scorecard to identify what it means to be successful
and how to measure the value delivered to the organization.
VIII. Putting it All Together – the PMO Deployment Plan
We have all the details, pieces and parts. Now we can
create the PMO Deployment Plan that includes all of the information
captured in the prior exercises. This is the document that you take
forward to your sponsor and management team for validation and
negotiation. Once approved, the Deployment Plan will provide overall
direction for the value-added PMO for the next one to two years. In this
section we will learn:
- PMO Roles
- The Deployment Plan
- Validating the Plan
- Executing the Plan
Substitution & Cancellation Policy:
You may cancel or reschedule up to 21 days prior to the start date of the class at no penalty. For any cancellation or reschedule requests within 21 days, the full course tuition is still due and not eligible for refund. Any paid tuition will be credited towards a future class and must be used within 12 months.
*Partner delivered courses may be subject to different cancellation terms