PMI Virtual Library© 2010 Francine Gignac

The Strategic Project Office: The Organizational Central Nervous System

Let’s start by investigating your situation. (1) Are you overworked? (2) Are your efforts diverted on many projects? (3) Do you feel you are losing focus on

the corporate vision and goals? (4) Are you managing risks adequately? (5) Are there too many projects in the pipeline? (6) Are you putting your efforts in the right place and at the right time? (7) Are your projects running over budget? (8) Are your projects generating the expected benefits? (9) Do you find yourself putting out fires and cutting costs that prevent proactive planning? (10) Do you have the team with the skills and competencies to deliver? (11) Are you supported by methods and tools that improve your capability to deliver? (12) Are you delivering quality? (13) Are there other people working on similar initiatives elsewhere in your organization or have there been similar initiatives in the past that can help you now?

These are some of the questions that may be posed to identify the symptoms of organizations that have weakened the control and lost the pulse of their vital functions (i.e., people, effort, time, and money). Setting up a strategic project

By Francine Gignac, MBA, MAOM, PMP

office is one way to avoid further degradation and provide a cure for the disconnect between reality and the capability to deliver.

The Strategic Project Office—The Central Nervous System of the Organization The strategic project office, also associated with an enterprise project center or a center of excellence, represents the next step toward organizational maturity; it is an extension of the former project management office and entails more than the management of the project portfolio and the methods and tools for delivering them.

The strategic project office provides the following key objectives for the organization:

Aligns projects with corporate goals and objectives;•Offers a coherent upward reporting to the executive team, •which enables effective decision making;Ensures that the projects are prioritized and delivered •successfully;

The strategic project office,

also associated with an enterprise

project center or a center of

excellence, represents the next

step toward organizational

maturity. ”

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Optimizes the utilization of human and financial •resources;Improves the capabilities, skills, and proficiencies of •human resources;Supports quality assurance and continuous improvement;•Provides and improves best practices, methodologies, •processes, and tools;Drives knowledge and intellectual capital management •initiatives and encourages collaboration; and,Manages risks and reports on performance.•

In many ways, the strategic project office acts as the central nervous system of the organization, governing all its movements and reflexes. The strategic project office provides the ability to react, act, and even predict situations and it links the corporate strategy to projects so that the whole system is balanced and the organizational health is protected. In today’s changing world, there is more and more pressure on organizations to be alert and agile so they can ensure their survival and, ultimately, their evolution. In this context, it is imperative that organizations take special care of their central nervous system (i.e., the strategic project office).

There are four states for an organizational central nervous system.

The Reactive StateIn this state, the organization takes action on a stimulus but its poor structure and level of coordination prevent it from responding efficiently and effectively. This is similar to someone receiving a punch in the stomach without seeing it coming; he or she might simply be unable to fight back or only be capable of responding with a kick that does not necessarily hit the target. This state often leaves the organization shaken and destabilized.

The Trained StateThe trained state implies that the organization has received some basic training so that its central nervous system is more aware of its external environment. The training may involve best practices, methods, processes, and tools, which make it more capable of reacting. In other words, the organization can see the punch coming and be ready to fight back; yet, hitting the target is not necessarily guaranteed. This state provides some confidence that the organization is more coordinated and capable of responding, yet it does not provide speed and agility.

The Proactive StateThe central nervous system in this state is well developed and experienced in anticipating and responding to external triggers. The proactive organization with this higher level of autonomy and agility is rarely caught off guard because it not only sees the punch coming, it can block it and fight back aggressively.

The Adaptive StateThe adaptive state of the central nervous system implies a phenomenal ability to anticipate and respond to events. The organization has all the mechanisms in place and the power to sense and deal with its environment. In this state, the adaptive organization can predict the punch and, instead of deploying the effort to fight back, it uses it agility to move away and ahead of its assailant, leaving him or her disoriented and stunned.

Improving Organizational Reflexes and PerformanceBy improving the organizational reflexes, the strategic project office acts directly on performance. Before this new framework can be established, the organization must have a clear definition of its goals, indicators of performance, processes linkages, skills, and common tools and technology.

In turn, the organization can deploy various initiatives and derive many benefits from the establishment of a strategic project office:

Project Portfolio Management•Prioritizes projects;•Analyzes and reduces overall risks;•Ensures alignment with the corporate plan;•Eliminates redundant work;•Consolidates project information; and•Improves performance reporting and decision •making.

Human Resource Management•Maps resources profile, location, roles, skills, •competencies, and proficiencies;Allocates resources more efficiently and with respect •to capacity;Plans workforce requirements;•Manages effective training programs based on •workforce planning; andIncreases retention rate through improved employee •satisfaction.

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Quality Management•Aligns quality practices and business goals;•Offers best practices, metrics, processes, and tools, •thereby contributing to the reduction of costs and lead time to market;Encourages a culture of quality and provides •leadership for quality processes, consulting, and support services;Coordinates the continuous improvement program; •andImproves the image of the organization.•

Knowledge and Intellectual Capital Management•Collects and organizes explicit and tacit knowledge •(also referred to as structured and unstructured information) on the core areas of the business;Deploys and integrates knowledge repositories and •collaborative environments (discussion forums, chats, electronic libraries, etc.), thereby contributing to the reduction of costs and lead time to market; Provides leadership for knowledge sharing and •collaboration; andSupports continuous improvements initiatives and •enhancement of the organization’s image.

Monitoring the Pulses and Taking Care of Organizational ImpactsMany organizations have deployed or are currently in the process of deploying a strategic project office. This is not a passing trend, but a corporate initiative to improve overall performance. In this context, it is imperative that the transition to a strategic project office be carefully managed throughout the organization. It is also important to acknowledge that all organizational units may not have the same levels of maturity to endorse a centralization of the processes, methodologies, and tools. In this context, the organizational readiness must be assessed in all objectivity; indeed, the establishment of a strategic project office should not be built on wishful impulse, but sustained through a strategic approach and rigorous planning.

On the executive side, the commitment to a project approach to every corporate initiative must be confirmed. Moreover, this commitment must be reflected in a high degree of understanding, an agreement on the office’s mission, position, and role within the organization, and a willingness to delegate governance roles and responsibilities. From an organizational standpoint, the adherence to a

project-based philosophy and to the centralization of the responsibilities relative to project portfolio and risk management, human resource management, quality management, and knowledge management must be accessible. On the operational side, the level of maturity of each unit must be detailed, and the impacts on the processes clearly defined to allow for the development of a change management strategy and plan. Finally, adequate funding must be budgeted to support the deployment effort, to staff the strategic project office and to carry on the strategic initiatives and projects.

Once the readiness and action plans have been completed, the implementation can start. The transition involves managing the deployment of the strategic project office like a project in itself. This includes getting executive participation and proper sponsorship and communicating the changes on a continuous basis through many activities, such as progress reports to the executive team, formal training, lunch-and-learn events, and information about the website dedicated to the strategic project office.

Remember: not everything needs to happen at once! Avoid growing too quickly so that you can respond to feedback and be able to realign, if necessary, the change management activities accordingly. Plan for continuous improvement! Target quick wins and allow for the evolution of the strategic project office’s organizational structure over time. This approach will help to manage the resistance to change and will contribute to building a positive image and increasing the buy-in steadily.

Most importantly: Communicate, communicate, and communicate! There is no such thing as over-selling. Selling and re-selling the strategic project office are necessary to gaining and keeping the buy-in across all organizational levels. Managing the changes also involves communicating the measurable objectives and reporting the successes, not only to the executive and steering committee members and the stakeholders, but also to the internal and external communities. As a matter of fact, promoting the strategic project office and its positive contribution through public conferences and industry events can only increase the organizational buy-in and develop pride in the initiative and the results.

ConclusionIn conclusion, a strategic project office, like a central nervous system, helps organizations move quickly and stay alive despite markets growing globally, competition getting more aggressive, and challenges becoming more complex.

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To better illustrate this, Rodolfo Llinas, a neuroscientist from New York University School of Medicine once said “Basically, there are two types of animals: animals, and animals that have no brains; they are called plants. They don’t need a nervous system because they don’t move actively; they don’t pull up their roots and run in a forest fire! Anything that moves actively requires a nervous system; otherwise it would come to a quick death.” 1

1 Llinas, Rodolfo. The Electric Brain. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mind/electric.html. Retrieval date, 1 November 2005.

About the AuthorFrancine Gignac, MBA, MAOM, PMP, has 25 years of experience working in the field of information technology. Ms. Gignac is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and has worked in medium and large enterprises in several industries, including manufacturing, aerospace, telecommunications, energy, media, distribution, retail, public services, and education. Her roles have varied, from manager, project manager, change management specialist, business, and system architect, to advisor and coach. She is the author of a book on eCollaboration, titled Building Successful Virtual Teams.