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Project & Program Management Best Practices

The document discusses best practices for chartering and establishing an effective Project Management Office (PMO). It emphasizes that senior executive sponsorship and endorsement is critical for the PMO to succeed. The PMO should promote project management practices, develop testing to reinforce knowledge, provide integrated performance views of projects, and focus on addressing current problems around resource management. Bringing in outside experts, maintaining discipline, and creating independent oversight of forecasts and deliverables are also recommended.

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132 views

Project & Program Management Best Practices

The document discusses best practices for chartering and establishing an effective Project Management Office (PMO). It emphasizes that senior executive sponsorship and endorsement is critical for the PMO to succeed. The PMO should promote project management practices, develop testing to reinforce knowledge, provide integrated performance views of projects, and focus on addressing current problems around resource management. Bringing in outside experts, maintaining discipline, and creating independent oversight of forecasts and deliverables are also recommended.

Uploaded by

wahabot
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Project and Program Management Best Practices

Chartering the PMO

Niwot Ridge Consulting 4347 Pebble Beach Niwot, Colorao www.niwotridge.com

Executive Sponsorship: What Does the PMO Do?


w Establish a clear solution relationship to problems currently faced by senior executives.
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What does senior management what to know? What tools are needed to deliver this information?

w Without senior executive sponsorship, the PMO efforts are not likely to succeed.
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Public and private endorsement of the PMO concept Public and private use of tools, reports, and metrics to management our daily business processes.

w At best, passiveaggressive support of a PMO will be the outcome without the public endorsement

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PMOs Marketing Program


w Promote the project management throughout the enterprise with marketing, sales, and education for your team, senior management, and end users.
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Training Engagement Supportive reports and tools Encouragement for process improvement Full integration into the daily work processes

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MiniPMP Test
w Develop ways to test and reinforce the basic tenets of project management knowledge and enterprise business practices.
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Project Management Core Capabilities Tools and processes Repeatable reporting and improvement processes

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What Does the Project Management Office Do?


w The PMO provides an integrated performance management view of all projects.
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Work Authorizations define budget and scope Functional decomposition of the work provided in the Project Server Team decomposition of the work provided in the Project Server Performance provided by Earned Value metrics Feedback, review, and public forum for discussion of performance against plan

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Change Imperative for Project Focused Organization


w Motivate the enterprise by focusing on present problem of resource and budget management. w Our Hobby Shop approach will not change without senior managements directive, public metrics, and performance incentive programs.

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Out Side Experts


w Bring in the experts to tell our management what they do not want to hear from us.
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Earned value management training Team management training All participants and stakeholders provide feedback. Goals defined in the Balanced Scorecard objectives.

w No person is a prophet in her / his own land.


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Running the Railroad


w Project management per se is usually only a small part of a functional managers job. w Functional managers still have to run the railroad.
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Some times this is just train watching Other times it is functional management of core technologies.

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Be Vigilant
w Maintain a system of discipline. w Discipline can rapidly decline if the PMO, the PMs, and senior management are not vigilant. w Do not take our project management system for granted.

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Independent Assessment
w Create an oversight capability in the PMO to assess not just what has happened, but more importantly, what is likely to happen. w Assessment is much more than monitoring cost and schedule.
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Lessons learned with corrective action Forecasting outcomes from past performance Integrity of the deliverables

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Technical Oversight
w Establish a proactive technical oversight to understand the underlying details and develop defensible forecasts of future performance and risks.
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Process models Lessons learned Continuous feedback from customers and stakeholders

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Report Cards
w Report cards to teams, functional managers, and executives on their project performance. w Monthly (a minimum) one up reviews of critical projects. w Dashboard information for all projects maintained in real time.

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Octographs
w Maintain Octographs of the eight most important metrics a manager needs to track.
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They are simple and effective. They become the Big Visible Charts in prominent work areas.

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Octographs
w Octographs are one-page, eight section summaries of a projects key observables, such as:
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Critical issues, Highlights for the reporting period, Action items, Progress on specific development, Integration, and Implementation.

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Stakeholder Motivation
w Keep in mind that successful implementations are 80% people, processes and culture, and only 20% software, hardware and technology.

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