At the beginning of the project, Bucero—the assigned senior program man- ager—ran a survey to determine how well HPC supported project management. Sixty-five percent of the staff answered the survey. The results identified specific areas where theproject culture was weak: • No holistic view of theproject portfolio • Lack of knowledge or access to reuse previous work • No consistent approach for complex projects • Lack of project culture • No consistent PM skills • Poor scope definition, validation, and management • Bad risk identification • Lack of sponsorship • Project closing delays The results indicated HP needed an effective infrastructure for people, processes, and tools in theproject office. Mission and Objectives People who have never worked on a project have difficulty understanding that, to achieve project success, the organization must support theproject manager. It took almost six weeks to get an agreement with the management team about the rea- son for this project. 168 CreatingtheProject Office Establish sense of urgency— clear danger • establish infrastructure: • people, processes, and tools • manage stakeholders • evolve capabilities and capacity • review case studies Leading Organizational Change to PBO Create guiding coalition— powerful forces Develop vision and strategy—focus Manage the change— short-term wins, broad-based action, consolidate gains Develop broad-based action— keep moving, implementing Make change stick— new PBO culture The tale we tell Communicate the change vision—tell the tale Staff and operate— In or out? The big question Bucero had to deal with was, “Why do we need a project of- fice at all?” He explained to the management team that theproject office adds value to project team members by providing mentors, consultants, training, struc- tured intellectual capital, and tools to be more effective. Theproject office also adds value to HPC by providing culture shift to project management, reusable tools and techniques, document and methodology support, global recognition, profitability improvement, and quality support. And theproject office adds value to customers by providing visible signs of HP commitment, competent HP team support, and quicker and more effective answers. The key to setting upper management sup- port at this point was showing how the PMO solved current problems and pro- vided immense business impact. A complete business case was presented to the management team in the language and format of “management think.” The business case presented tangible benefits that could be achieved in a short time. The content of that presentation was to explain the PMO value to the or- ganization, cost, flexibility and creativity obstacles, PMO functions, staffing, loca- tion, virtual teams, and establishing theproject office. Bucero defended the value of a PMO to project team members, providing mentoring and consulting services, training, tools to be more effective, a project library, global recognition, profitability improvement, and organizational im- provement and quality support. Explaining the value to the organization, he described the benefits of the cul- tural shift to project management, in terms of reusable tools and techniques, ad- ministrative support, visible signs of management commitment, competent project team support, and quicker and more effective answers to questions. In terms of cost, he argued that although establishing and running a PMO would not be cheap, it would be worthwhile because it would be no more expen- sive than the cumulative cost of conducting project efforts without such an office, and might well cost less in the long run. A major feature of a PMO would be a com- prehensive approach to PM, and it would pay for itself very soon. The PMO would help project managers feel they were not alone on the customer site. Somebody was supporting them from the HP organization in a way that would make them feel more comfortable not only to implement and execute projects but also to sell more. The business case also included a role for the PMO to support creativity, re- flecting a bias toward centralized decision making, and supporting team members to be more effective. The PMO team would be there to help project managers and project teams, not thwart their efforts to do the right thing. The first key suc- cess factor is to support project managers. In terms of services, he proposed to start with a Document Management Sys- tem group (DMS) as a first priority, helping PMs and consultants to generate bids faster and with higher quality. Implementing theProject Office 169 Regarding PMO staff he proposed two alternatives: • To serve in a simple support and facilitation role, the PMO would only need three or four people. • To play a central role in guiding an organization’s project efforts, the PMO would need up to a dozen people. He argued the approach selected would make a big difference to the kinds of efforts the office would carry out. One key factor considered was the visibility and accessibility of this group of people. The PMO should be located where it made most sense, in this case inside the existing department where it is accessible by all project managers and con- sultants. The HPC Project Office belongs to the Business Operation group at HP Consulting. They assigned a physical location for the office at the beginning of theproject and hung up a poster with the words “Project Office” above the phys- ical space designated for the office. The advantages were that everybody could see where theproject office was located and identify where to go to request ser- vices. Eventually the team members all added a PMO logo on their badges. Project office members identified as a team and worked in that way. He also included comments about their virtual world, arguing most projects are in remote sites. The PMO, as the link between project managers and the rest of the organization, greatly facilitates the reuse of libraries, methods, and stan- dards. He told them establishing a PMO requires a lot of effort, and it demands thorough and careful planning. Finally he got management agreement about the mission and objectives for this project. Some discussions were kept between the management team and him- self to achieve this agreement because some people perceived the PMO was a bu- reaucratic organism. He demonstrated there were more and more projects under way; lack of knowledge about project management existed; and new people in the organization had little experience in project management. Following the ap- proach in Figure 7.1, the proposal was presented, studied, discussed and finally accepted by the management team in February 2000. The PMO project started on March 1 at the Madrid office. Progress was aided by collecting data on current projects that encountered extreme deviations and showing this information at management meetings. He audited projects that suffered from lack of scope and risk planning, noting the cost impact on the organization. He demonstrated that most projects had no formal sponsor and explained that impact on the organization. Making a presentation to the management team and setting clear expectations and deliverables at the be- ginning were key to achieving the go-ahead decision. 170 CreatingtheProject Office Because project managers were used to doing all the work themselves, in- cluding documentation and project file archiving, and did not know that help was available, a marketing campaign was necessary to communicate the existence of the PO and sell its benefits to the whole organization. Bucero announced the PO’s mission statement: To support HP Project Managers during theproject selling and delivery processes so they can focus on high-quality project man- agement and added value. He followed up by describing its objectives as follows: • Relieve HP consultants of standard activities (low added value) • Provide quality assurance within theproject delivery process • Serve as a breeding ground for knowledge sharing, conducting project snapshots • Be the home front for all PM initiatives Scope Theproject office was born to relieve consultants and project managers of some administrative activities in the delivery of customer projects, helping them to focus on project management activities. Project office duties include managing the Implementing theProject Office 171 FIGURE 7.1. APPROACH TO PROPOSING AND IMPLEMENTING A PMO. Conduct assessment Obtain funding and staffing Conduct pilot test Roll out Determine functions and staffing Identify sponsor Prepare communications plan Prepare plan and budget project file—the documents to be authorized during theproject life cycle—as well as supporting proposal development, taking project meeting minutes, distributing documentation, managing labor time registration, assuring invoicing schedule is followed, and backing up theproject manager. After breaking down the first objective into smaller activities, one question came to mind: How did the end users feel about it? The program manager had several meetings with consultants and project managers to verify the initial scope. Figure 7.2 shows the different types of meet- ings he conducted. These meetings were extremely valuable. Getting these people involved from the beginning was the only way to convince them to use theproject office. Bucero notes that being aligned with real user needs was his personal objective during the whole project. PMO Meetings These meetings were conducted on a monthly basis and tremendously aided the scope verification and management processes. “All the time invested preparing 172 CreatingtheProject Office FIGURE 7.2. SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS. Presenter Management Meetings PMO lead Duration 1 hour Preparation Effort 2 hours preparing strategy and material Material Delivered Objective Slides copy and PMO white paper Inform and get upper management commitment AttendeesMeeting Type Management team PM Meetings PMO lead 2 hours 4 hours preparing material and examples Slides copy and PMO proposed services Share plans and ideas and ask for feedback Project managers Presales Consultants Meetings PMO lead and PMO coordinator 1 hour 3 hours preparing material and slides Slides copy and presales PMO services Share information and ask for feedback and validation Senior consultants in presales activities and running these meetings was extremely helpful for me to implement the PMO,” says Bucero. Participants in these meetings defined the following responsibilities for theproject office throughout theproject delivery process: • Make sure that mandatory documents are used. • Improve quality system. • Guide project manager through PM methodology. • Report to project manager about project status and progress (alerts!). • Monitor outstanding actions. • Track labor time. • Provide third-party and subcontractor management. Knowledge sharing is another key element in project office success; it is even more relevant when theproject culture level is very low. The PO also needed to support project snapshots and establish a PM coaching program. Theproject office advises Resource Management personnel regarding project manager allocation. This includes sharing knowledge about PM soft skills and best practices in conjunction with the Human Resource manager. It acts as a central- ized organ that collects documentation for reuse and provides collected docu- mentation when needed in other projects. Theproject office is the home front for all PM initiatives, facilitating PM Fo- rums and establishing a PM coaching and mentoring program. Outside the Scope Theproject office must not be a black hole that absorbs everyone’s project prob- lems, logistical glitches, and other difficult issues. This group is not covering non- operational activities, not doing all activities presently executed by administrative people, not substituting PM work, and not curing all the organization’s ills. It is providing support and information for project managers, and needs to keep the difference straight. Critical Success Factors Bucero sums up his experience as follows: In all the projects I managed in my professional career, I found that project suc- cess depends on how well you work with and lead people. Theproject office approach must be aligned with the culture of the organization. Technical prob- lems can be solved with new releases or different hardware or software, but it is Implementing theProject Office 173 different when we talk about people interactions and relationships among team members. Although we identified some factors as critical in the PMO implementation project, one of the most important things is to focus on being prepared to answer questions and demands. Each consultant and PM expects the PMO to be there to help them on a daily basis and that means to be pre- pared for a world of uncertainty. Many times the type of demand is driven by pressure in terms of time or expectations, and we as PMO members need to transmit feasibility and security. I always ask for proactive behavior from each PMO team member. Bucero’s critical factors: • Scope agreement and setting clear expectations between all users and stake- holders. (This took some weeks of meetings and validations.) • Forming, storming, and norming the PMO team. (In this case, 80 percent of the team were contractors rather than employees. This required additional time for initial training on methods, tools, and procedures.) • Clearly defined functions, roles, and responsibilities for the PMO. (Bucero ver- ified each person’s expectations in one-to-one talks.) • Sponsorship from upper-level management. (Bucero asked the general man- ager to request that people use theproject office services.) • Clear communication plan deployment. (A stakeholder map guided this activity.) • Periodic communications to the management team and to the end users about project status. (Bucero participated in meetings at all levels of the organization.) The Plan Starting with a deliverables-oriented work breakdown structure (WBS), Bucero elaborated a plan among team members. Elapsed time for completing the imple- mentation plan was eighteen months, but he had to demonstrate that the PMO added value to the business month by month. That made the two first months dif- ficult as it was hard to come up with concrete results so quickly, especially given that all team members were new hires. He received much pressure from the whole organization. Reducing the time to prepare proposals and clarifying scope helped to ease the pressure. He organized the PMO project in the four stages outlined in the center of Figure 7.3 and described in subsequent sections. Stage 1: Set-Up and Rollout. Project managers know that starting up a project is always hard. First, you have to “create the basement for the building.” The first 174 CreatingtheProject Office O b j e c t i v e s W h y d o w e n e e d a p l a n ? Milestones • M1: 2nd month • M2: 6th month • M3: 10th month • M4: 18th month Measures • 100% on-time Stages Management Reporting • Monthly integrated status • Quarterly executive report • Yearly review - quarterly summary, accomplishments, and learnings Communications • PMO newsletters • E-mail • Internal web site Situations We recognize the importance of sharing our practices. We want global consistency in what we deliver to our internal clients. We want global consistency in what HPC delivers to clients We are globally distributed. To keep our stakeholders informed. To share our practices. To make it happen, we need a plan. Stage 1 Stage 4 • Continuous improvement Stage 3 • Fully functional Stage 2 • Operational • Set-up and Rollout We implement based on our client needs—which are different, but similar. April 30th for FY ’00 August 30th for FY ’00 December 31st FY ’01 September 30th for FY ’01 FIGURE 7.3. A PMO IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. activity was to establish the necessary infrastructure, staff the PMO, and define roles and responsibilities with clear objectives for all team members. Due to internal resource restrictions, Bucero had to use outsourced people. As soon as the PMO project was approved, he asked theproject sponsor for six resources to staff the PMO. Management suggested they start with three people and look at the results. He then asked for three people but started with two, fol- lowing this process: After explaining the main functions and responsibilities to each candidate, questions that helped understand their people skills were “Will you be able to con- tribute added value?” and “What does customer service mean to you?” Team member selection followed these steps: 1. People solicitation from third parties according to document management skills (office skills were previously defined) 2. People interviews (face-to-face interviews with the PMO lead) 3. Dry run test (documents and presentation elaboration) Initially Bucero focused on finding people with office and administrative skills because the document management system was their first priority for PMO im- plementation. He also observed desire for the job, looking for assertive and proac- tive people. “I appreciate the attitude of people during the interviews more than having the best skills. I selected open-minded people who are ready for action. I try to transmit the need for proactive behavior and transparent communication. Sentences like ‘passion, persistence, and patience’ were ways to involve new peo- ple in the PMO. We are customer focus-oriented. Since the PMO must help proj- ect managers to focus on project management practices, PMO team members cannot wait around; they need to move forward.” This process worked during the first six months; acquisition of the three ini- tial members enabled Bucero to demonstrate performance improvements to the management team in the process of generating project documentation. “That fact proved PMO people were adding value to the organization and enabled me to ask for more resources.” Sharing the PMO project vision among team members was another key to project success. Every team member knew project goals before starting their tasks. Bucero delivered presentations to the whole team that shared theproject mission, the objectives, the stakeholders, and the environment. In that way people took project ownership and felt more identified with the main objectives. Since most people staffing the PMO were outsourced, he provided them with internal training to get them more involved and prepared in terms of tools and 176 CreatingtheProject Office internal organizational procedures. These circumstances required him to put a lot of care into the team-building process. People came from different organiza- tions with different skills and patterns of behavior. “I had to establish clear and simple rules from the beginning to work quickly among team members to define ‘how to understand and serve our customers.’” He employed these tips during the PMO implementation project: • I always assumed that people working in theproject know more about how to do their job than I do. I listened to their ideas and suggestions. • While team members planned for execution, I as program manager planned for contingencies. • When my team did good work, I told them. • I never delayed dealing with bad news; tomorrow might be too late to address critical issues. • I never delegated tough decisions. • I communicated, communicated, and communicated, having lunch with my team, meeting them weekly. • When people came with a problem, I asked them for a solution. I empowered people because they usually know better what needs to be done than I do. • When I observed bad performance I spoke directly with the person who was not performing well. At the end of this stage the group published a PMO Services Bulletin that was distributed to the whole organization. The elapsed time for this stage was two months. Stage 2. Operational. This stage started as soon the team started to work to- gether and all the initial PMO services were defined, published, and distributed. The elapsed time for Stage 2 was four months. As a team the group delineated the structure of the PMO and used the PM software defined at corporate level for assigning communication, methodology, training, and tracking processes. One key activity during this period was defining PMO success metrics. Bucero attended most management meetings and dealt with the critical stakeholders. In those meetings he requested feedback from all attendees in order to address problems and fine-tune the affected processes. The establishment of priorities was another important activity. Bucero used a stakeholder analysis tool to find out where and for whom priorities existed, ap- plying his best efforts. The final objective for this phase was to have a database with historical data, which helped show results to upper management. Implementing theProject Office 177 . for the office at the beginning of the project and hung up a poster with the words Project Office” above the phys- ical space designated for the office. The. more effective. The PMO team would be there to help project managers and project teams, not thwart their efforts to do the right thing. The first key suc-