PMO Leaders: Plan, Manage And Measure Resources Expertly .
WhitepaperPMO Leaders: Plan, Manage andMeasure Resources ExpertlyThat’s Our JamYour most critical assets are yourresources—get them in tune withstrategy
Resource Management - Whitepaperwww.keyedin.comIntroduction: Music to Stakeholders’EarsTAKEAWAYS:1. Resource managementexpertise is crucial, perhaps thekey enabler in most industries,to both project success andstakeholder satisfaction.2. Planning, managing andmeasuring resources requiresa specific skillset from yourPMO. These resource executionfundamentals help you build astrategy to withstand change.3. Adopt the skills for planning,managing and measuringresources to ensure a greatereffectiveness and alignment tostrategy.Nearly every industry is dealing with unprecedented digital disruption and the allencompassing hunt for customer experience mastery. The project managementoffice (PMO) is becoming a crucial communicator and enabler of business goalsfor stakeholders up and down the customer value chain. Low PMO processmaturity contributes to resource utilization failures as does low adoption ratesand poor utilization of resource management tools. Utilizing best practices forplanning, managing and measuring resources, however, can help you engageand retain the best resources, improve profitability and prove your PMO’s value tothe organization.As a portfolio manager who masters resource management, you can bringa much-needed harmony to your business partners and become a trusted,strategic member of your leadership team. Looking at three key capabilities:planning, managing and measuring, will help you get in tune with the businessgoals your company must reach to remain relevant in rapidly changing industries.You will create the music and lead the company through many standing ovations.Planning that Prioritizes YourPeople: Five RM Best Practices“You can bringharmony to yourbusiness partnersand become a trusted,strategic member ofyour leadership team.Looking at three keycapabilities: planning,managing andmeasuring.”2A cohesive set of metrics that guide resource and project managers, along withshared tools and best practices, deliver project excellence in terms of executionand stakeholder value. As the music maestro assembles the talent to performthe tune, the PMO leaders and resource managers staff the organization to meetdemand. Prioritizing the right people to work across the enterprise is easier whenyour can utilize a strong skills database that provides critical information aboutthe supply of resources. We suggest aligning by “planning backwards”—fromresource data you’ve gained through a fully featured PPM solution, and beingflexible every step of the way.A common business problem is when the resource teams and project teams arerunning along in their own lanes with no visibility into why or how each makesallocation and utilization decisions.
Resource Management - Whitepaperwww.keyedin.comHere’s how to combat that resource/project specific myopia:1Focus at the Portfolio Level: Get the BeatIf you create a portfolio-level strategy, you’ll be able to continuallyoptimize resource planning. This works because it doesn’t inhibit youfrom effecting change quickly in response to business innovation needs.2Flag Issues Early: Look AheadJust as a band requires a lot of practice to identify issues before a bigshow, the PMO must plan using excellent forecasting and scenariomodeling processes to practice what options should play out and “tellthe fortunes” of projects accurately to avoid costly emergencies. Yoursystem should identify red flags earlier and create contingency plansthat meet everyone’s needs.3Seek to Understand: Earn a Gold Record with SponsorsYou will gain trust if you can capture best practices that consistentlycreate a planning process- from idea to intake to execution - thatincludes a deep collaboration with cross-functional teams. Projectmanagers and resource managers can work together and plan for aresource management process that works and replicates projects asthey are completed and enter the system.4Get a Comprehensive View of Resource Supply - Know Your BandMembersYou’ve gained a comprehensive view of the supply of resourcesby knowing the difference between their capacity and capability.Continually measure against these two things to understand: What kinds of skills you now possess? How to accurately manage the gap between these skills and thework you need to complete on the portfolio level. How to move your organization to plan against portfolio andenterprise impact and not just project-by-project. How to give RMs and PMs a single, enterprise impact view to gaincontrol of supply gaps.3
Resource Management - Whitepaperwww.keyedin.com5“A cohesive set ofmetrics that guideresource and projectmanagers, along withshared tools and bestpractices, deliverproject excellence interms of executionand stakeholdervalue. As the musicmaestro assemblesthe talent to performthe tune, the PMOleaders and resourcemanagers staff theorganization to meetdemand.”COMMON RM RED FLAGS:1. Changes in people’s behavior—quiet folks get more vocal, vocalfolks clam up.2. Frustrated body language—ifyou notice more commonlystressed resources, you can’talways say “it must be thedeadline.”Beyond Hard Skills: The Multi-InstrumentalistsMost of our projects need specialists, not generalists. As an example,even if developers have a few languages they’ve mastered, they mustalso possess soft skills to excel as project team members. In themusic industry, artists like Prince who can write songs, play nearly anyinstrument and perform as an awesome entertainer are far and fewbetween. Ensuring you plan to allow for both peer development andsoft-skills development ensures your clients aren’t trying to manageyour resources’ lack in these areas and thus not receiving the servicethey deserve.Gaining a mastery of soft-booking resources with provisional planning,will allow you to balance workloads across the portfolio’s resourcesprior to assigning them. If you’ve done so, you can pivot quickly withthe best possible resources to meet the increasing speed of changein your industry as well as confidently show all stakeholders what yourallocation plan looks like now—and in the future.Resource ManagementMasters: The Producers of ExcellenceIf you’ve ever been in a music production studio, or watched a documentaryof the world’s best producers—Phil Spector, Mutt Lange, and Jay-Z come tomind—you know they’re the masters of the process. No matter how the songis morphing, or how many elements they must keep track of, they keep the endresult in mind, a vision that will benefit both the artist and the record company’ssales (or streams).Likewise, in this changing PM environment, portfolio managers must always keepthe strategic benefit of every decision top-of-mind. Project teams are expectedto execute against benefit. At the same time, they’ve been given more autonomyand shorter timelines. Managing to this environment requires working on theright projects at the right time in the right order—and, more often than not, doingit with less. If you want to play to crowds that are cheering instead of booing,follow these steps:3. Changes in performance orquality across the board, notjust individual changes, point tosystemic issues.14Access Your Execution Strategy – Talented or Tone Deaf?Accessing your execution of resource plans requires a clear-eyed viewof how well you can allocate resources and analyze changes at theportfolio level. You may not always be able to identify red flags and keyindicators early and often or be as proactive as you need to be because
Resource Management - Whitepaperwww.keyedin.comyou don’t have a way to create contingency plans and analyze theimpact of change to the entire portfolio.SOLUTIONS:Gaining an idea of how to centralize your resource management andmoving toward that goal will create a PMO that executes to strategymore often.1. Look for anomalies.2. Identify root cause, NOTsymptoms.3. Identify next steps—don’t worryif you determine the next stepis “do nothing” and the problemwill solve itself, or you could getdramatic—if you need to, actquickly.PROJECT REQUIREMENT2Remain Agile—Without Losing Strategic DirectionWe’re not talking about agile projects, or even managing an agile team,but ensuring your ability to adapt to changing demands with resources.If you’ve got outdated information; too much data associated with aproject; if you’ve over-allocated utility players; or don’t have bandwidthfor exploratory projects; if you have project tunnel-vision by not lookingacross the portfolio but project-by-project; and if you don’t have softskills represented in your database, you may be suffering from a lack ofagility.RISKYPROJECT-ORIENTEDPORTFOLIO FOCUSEDResource Pool1:1 skills to peopleSome overlap of skillsAmple coverageSkills databaseNonexistentNot reliableAccurate, up to dateMinimal, writtenConsistent, richOpen, availableResource UtilizationAlways operating at 100%High, with some benchOptimalResource TrackingNot updated, true up at theendMostly right, some additionsneededReal time, reliable dataBureaucratic, multipleapprovals neededFill ins are easy, not long termBuilt-in coverage, alwaysknow who is fallbackAbility to Change DirectionRuins things, avoid at allcostsChanges happen but causedelaysEasily pivot and keep movingManagement InvolvementNeeded for all resourcedeploymentsUpdates without approvalsOnly when problems arisePlanning ApproachRigid, stick to the planMore of a guide than directiveContinuousProcess PhilosophyThere’s a process foreverythingOverkill, but we work around itMinimal, created as neededTeam CommunicationTeam Structure5
Resource Management - Whitepaperwww.keyedin.com“The metrics thatmatter will make thedifference betweendisharmony anda PMO in concertwith business goals.Aligning resources tochanging demandsrequires portfoliolevel oversight, so youcan identify red flagson the portfolio level.”The chart below illustrates what to manage to reduce risk and remainportfolio focused in your resource management response.3Allocate and then Iterate: Change Happens, so Change Your TuneBeing able to respond effectively to change will mean the differencebetween success and failure for most portfolios—success measuredby strategic impact and meaningful benefit—whatever that looks likefor your industry. Soft book and create contingency plans for your mostvaluable resources. Create draft resource plans and gather everyone inthe room who needs to know, to discuss and optimize.4Navigate Resource Management by Hitting These NotesKeep the lines of communication open during every stage of the projectamong stakeholders and back up decisions with solid data. These bestpractices include:a. Keep resources properly informed with great dashboards andeasily-configured reports.b. Ensure communications can be real-time and interactive, soconversations about resources remain clear and collaborative.c. Be able to show utilization for the entire portfolio, not just snapshotsof projects in different silos.d. Acquire the technology necessary to enable synergies betweenproject management and resource teams; resources and theirexecutive leadership; and for all stakeholders on a configurable,need-to-know basis.Measuring Against FourMetrics: The Best Chords for EverySongThe metrics that matter will make the difference between disharmony and a PMOin concert with business goals. Aligning resources to changing demands requiresportfolio-level oversight, so you can identify red flags on the portfolio level. What’smore, you make sure to create contingency plans based on impact analyses runin a single, centralized resource allocation platform. It takes discipline. But like theold joke goes--How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice!The first step is to measure how your teams and individual members aredelivering work. Do you produce a result, even in the face of acceleratingchange? RM and PM leadership must examine utilization rates as well, to identifyif they’ve created an environment that protects margin.6
Resource Management - Whitepaperwww.keyedin.comFinally, project success rates that continually improve are the goal—even if you’renot where you need to be, you can get there with a focus on four questions:How do you identify problems? Tuning in and turning it upThe first thing we need to consider is that traditional performancemeasurement processes no longer apply. Task execution and evendelivering on-time are not the end-all and be-all of performance.People are no longer simply assigned to execute tasks—expectationsand standards for soft skills and adding value are paramount tocreating strategic alignment in the markets and for customers. In thisenvironment, performance may be less consistent because work ismore diverse. High customer expectations may be an opportunity toadd value to a contract or use the event to address an underlying issue.How can you create the right environment? Improvising to melodyFirst, it’s key to keep a single end goal in mind: Environments mustoutlast people and individual projects. You’ve seen the negativeconverse of this, when you inherit poor practices and processes from aformer PM leadership team. To create the right environment, you’ll needto invest time and effort and then ensure your project and resourceteams can work together to garner consistency among all roles and inall levels of the organization. Cross-functional teams must commit to theprocess and work hard to gain buy-in from everyone if your environmentwill yield the kind of strategic impact your sponsors require.How do your teams drive improvement? Raising the barHow can you drive sustainable change, year over year, project overproject? Here are three things you can do to enhance this ability:a. Understand current performance levels first –this will take somehard truths examined in an environment that’s collaborative, notpunitive.b. Establish future standards—once you’ve seen gaps in performance,it’s crucial to form a vision of excellence you can all live with, andthen, plan to get even closer to the ideal by revisiting your progressregularly.c. Execute plans to bridge the gap between current performanceand target performance—the plans must be actualized across alllevels of the organization to ensure sustainable change takes place.The following chart provides an outline for you to use to identifythe topics you should have in a PMO performance improvementprogram.7
www.keyedin.com4Resource Management - WhitepaperWhat is everyone’s role? “All together now ”Consistently optimized performance requires everyone’s engagement, from leadership to PMO teams to projectmanagers and resource managers on-the-ground. Visible commitment to change will look different to all of thesestakeholder groups, but creating a process that allows for collaborative and aligned action will be key to success.Take the time to clearly delineate expectations for everyone and ensure that communication and clarity rule the day.Accountability must be baked-into the project, as well, to ensure that everyone is aware that each person’s contributionwill be crucial to achieving change.8
Resource Management - Whitepaperwww.keyedin.comPlan, Manage, MeasureResources to Create MelodiousChange“Ensuring that yourPMO plans resourcesto pivot and respondto innovation; createsan environment ofhigh-quality andhigh-performanceresponsiveness whilemanaging to plan.”We’ve given you a lot to work on with this white paper—however, by first takinga step-by-step approach that starts with reviewing your planning—then lookingat allocation habits, and finally, by measuring your success and replicating itconsistently, meaningful change will be in the grasp of your PMO.If these stages of resource management have one thing in common, it’s this:They must be centralized, and enterprise-wide to make sense. You will need away to automate day-to-day administrative tasks to be able to uncover earthshattering, strategically impactful tasks (cue drum kit) that allow you to excel.Ensuring that your PMO plans resources to pivot and respond to innovation;creates an environment of high-quality and high-performance responsivenesswhile managing to plan; and measures how to deliver on this quality, year-overyear in an environment of powerful and productive action may seem difficult, ifnot impossible. Yet these strategies are within your reach—challenging, but worthit to ensure you’ve become the strategic engine for both building stakeholdertrust and business growth. Getting it right with resources every time? That’s ourjam.9
Resource Management - Whitepaperwww.keyedin.comAbout KeyedInTM ProjectsKeyedIn Projects is a supremely flexible solution for managing projects, programs and entire portfolios – from a single platform that provides acomprehensive view of the status of every project. Used by project managers, boardroom decision-makers, and frontline users, KeyedIn Projectsincreases success rates and profit margins, enables better decisions about project selection, planning, and prioritization and optimizes resourceusage across the entire business. Headquartered in Minneapolis, KeyedIn has hundreds of customers worldwide, including Walgreens BootsAlliance, LexisNexis and OfficeDepot.For more information, visit www.keyedin.comCopyright 2019 KeyedIn Solutions. All rights reserved.Corporate HeadquartersEMEA Headquarters8500 Normandale Lake BlvdSuite 400Bloomington, MN 55437, USAp 1 866 662 6820Maple HouseWoodland ParkWest Yorkshire, BD19 6BW, UKp 44 (0)1274 863300www.keyedin.com10
measuring resources requires a specific skillset from your PMO. These resource execution fundamentals help you build a strategy to withstand change. 3. Adopt the skills for planning, managing and measuring resources to ensure a greater effectiveness and alignment to strategy. Introduction: Music to Stakeholders’ Ears
A PMO has the potential to provide significant benefits. Critical components of establishing and maintaining a successful PMO include understanding the role of the PMO, knowing how to effectively "sell" a PMO to management, how to effectively implement a PMO in an organization, and how to establish and grow the value of a PMO overtime.
Figure (2.10) Component required for building PMO (Jane 2007) Figure (2.11) The PMO Organization Model Figure (2.12) The PMO Structure Spectrum (Cynthia 2007) Figure (2.13) Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing PMO Services (Vagelatos et al 2010) Figure (2.14) Steps to implement a PMO (Lendry 2006)
The Ten PMO Trends for 2023 from the House of PMO Project Data Analytics Update . the largest gathering of PMO professionals since 2015. Lindsay is also the co-founder of PMO Learning, a training organisation specialised in delivering . has a previous career in project management recruitment & employment and previously worked as a PMO .
role of the PMO should become more visible and that the PMO should focus more on project support, guidance and alignment with the strategic plan of the organization. In [7], the authors point to the problem of determining the value of the PMO despite the variation in the mandate and functions of a PMO from one organization to another. They
The objective of this project is to provide a road map template to any state agency considering the implementation of a project management office (PMO). This guide will serve as a road map to creating a PMO. A model for state agencies to follow when establishing a PMO or PMO pilot which includes but is . Roadmap to a Project Management Office .
order to develop, define and implement the overall PMO Charter in the form of the PMO mission, vision, goals, operating model and approval; facilitate a consensus, between PMO stakeholders and organizational leadership, around the mission and vision of the PMO organization to foster a project-management oriented culture and mindset.
FedRAMP PMO 06/06/2017 2.0 Cover Updated logo. FedRAMP PMO 1/31/2018 3.0 All General changes to grammar and use of terminology to add clarity, as well as consistency with other FedRAMP documents. FedRAMP PMO 1/31/2018 3.0 Appendix A, B, and C Updated ConMon Report Template and other outdated information. FedRAMP PMO 1/31/2018 3.0 19
innovations affecting the PMO function. These updates are tailored to provide quick insight into some of the critical strategic management challenges facing PMO executives today. Our research in 2007 outlined three leading objectives that provide a roadmap for redefi ning the PMO organization's role within the enterprise. Rightsizing Project .
