Pmi kenya starting a pmo

a member of Loita Group

STARTING A PMO

Eric Mukiri

February, 2014

www.fintech-group.com


Agenda

• Identify the need

• Learning phase

• Develop/adopt a methodology

• Improve the methodology

• Automation

• Common problems & best practices


Defin:PMO is group or department within a business, agency or enterprise that defines and maintains standards for project management within the organization.Using established project management approaches and operating an established PMO increases chances of project success

Some signs of the need• A lack of project transparency• Significant discrepancies in project results• Poor customer-satisfaction rates• An inability to cost projects accurately• A high percentage of delayed or canceled projects• High failure rates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management


Why need PMO?• Consistent pjm across organization including processes, templates and

best practices.

• Efficiency to deliver faster, cheaper by way of focus and problem-solving techniques

• Builds the methodology and updates it as needed to account for improvements and best practices. Improve the methodology

• improved project team communications by having common processes, deliverables, and terminology

• Provides training (internal or outsourced) to build core project management competencies and a common set of experiences

• Delivers project management coaching services to keep projects from getting into trouble

• Tracks basic information on the current status of all projects in the organization, and provides project visibility to management in a common and consistent manner.

• Measuring projects performance metrics as source information for continuous improvement


Learning experience• This is major change: buy-in must come from the top and appoint the

responsible change agent.• Have a mix of functional and project management knowledge• What are we doing right? Don’t discard it (organization process assets)• Whom do we want to benchmark: ie. Competition, partners, customers,

respectable organisations• Learn from the benchmarked organisations ie. Seek the training, seminars,

etc.• Decide which methodology to use by way of one of:

-build afresh?-Buy an existing one-buy and customize to your need


Implementing the methodology

• Have dedicated owner• Control the staff cost, e.g. part-time projects staff from functional units**• Customise or adopt few but core templates and processes to use• Decide which methodology to use by way of one of:

a)build afresh?b)Buy an existing one ie. outsource the implementationc)buy and customize to your need

** we chose c. by borrowing ideas from various partners)• Have few but adequate templates for each of the process groups ie.

Initiation, planning, executing, monitoring-controlling and closinge.g. initiating: project initiation docPlanning: schedule, test plan, training planExecuting: issues log, change requests, impact analysisM&C: Minutes, weekly status report, meetings (physical/conference call)Closing: sign-offs, hand-over report, post-live tracking, financial closure (very key)


Implementing the methodology


• Training and individuals certifications e.g. PMP• Specialised staff e.g. project managers, project admin• Organisational certification e.g. ISO 9001:2008• Review what doesn’t work and change it• Empowering the PMO to make decisions e.g. resources selection,

staff motivation costs• Set and measure against performance targets e.g.

monthly/quarterly • Automation of PMO e.g MS Projects Central as single repository of

projects records

Improving the methodology


Key features• Quick snapshot dashboard of all projects• Status Reporting : Possible to design status reports templates• Task creation: Allows project resources to add new tasks, hence bottom-up

scheduling possible.• Task progress updates: Users update the task hours/% work done, e-mail is

sent to the project manager.• Task delegation: When feature enabled, resource can assign another a task,

with auto e-mail notification to project manager. • Presentation features : Quick one-stop-shop view of the projects including

upcoming tasks.• Integration with Microsoft Outlook- combining projects tasks with Outlook for

single calendar view• Can see the staff assigned/available hours in a period.

Automation with MS Projects Central


Projects view


Resource tasks view


Resource assignment view


•Setting up processes and expecting everyone to follow them

•Expecting everyone in the PMO to be an expert

•Not creating a support organization

•Poor communication

•Weak sponsorship

•Trying to do too much with too little

•Focusing on PMO activities and not value

Common Problems


• Treat as a culture change initiative

• Resistance to change is normal

• Be aware of logical and emotional resistance

• Show some results as quickly as possible

• Treat implementation as a process and a project(s)

• Sponsor at highest level

• Be open to new ideas from the organization

Best practices


Fyi – Fintech ICT & bus. solutions


Solutions, elaborated

Documents

Pmi kenya starting a pmo