Project Management Practices

PMO Strategy - The Importance of the PMO Leader’s First 100 Days

The root cause of most early PMO failures is directly attributed to a missed opportunity, during the first three months, to create a strategic vision by defining a long-term mandate rooted in stakeholder needs and expectations. Consider the following facts:

• Since 2008, the PMO implementation failure rate remains above 50% (Gartner Project Manager).

• Half of new PMOs fail within the first three years. (Association for Project Management). 

• 68% of stakeholders perceive their PMOs to be unnecessarily bureaucratic (Gartner PPM Summit)

• 60% of projects miss schedule, budget, and quality goals (IBM Change Management Survey of 1500 executives)

In this post, I discuss how the new leader can take advantage of the initial “grace period” to define a PMO strategy that addresses these issues by considering organizational culture, aligning with enterprise strategy, and engendering the buy-in and support needed for long-term success.

In order to define a PMO strategy, let’s consider the purpose of the project management office in the first place.  It’s true that the PMO defines the organization’s standards for project management, and it controls how business change is implemented, but it’s also the mechanism through which the enterprise realizes its strategic objectives.  The PMO not only ensures projects are implemented right, the PMO also ensures the right projects are implemented. 

The key to delivering on this mandate is to successfully navigate the maze of stakeholder expectations.  Successful PMOs serve the needs of the business relative to IT’s capacity to deliver, without flying in the face of the organization’s culture.  Done effectively, the PMO bridges the gap between strategy definition and benefits realization. 

So how do you get there? I mentioned earlier that a unique opportunity exists, during a new PMO leader’s first 100 days, to exploit a window of influence, to the benefit of the PMO, as well as the organization, at large. It’s during that time that stakeholder leadership is most receptive to sharing advice.  The new PMO leader should take advantage, and leverage those insights to quickly acclimate themselves to what’s right and wrong with the organization’s current project environment.  The facilitating approach is comprised of the following “1st 100 day roadmap” model:

Let’s add some context to each of the roadmap components.

1. Survey the Project Landscape: Days 1 - 15

• Conduct a PMO mission identification survey to define expected outcomes, accountabilities and overall PMO mandate across three discipline areas:

  • Portfolio Management

  • Project Management

  • Organizational Change Management

• Connect with the PMO’s sphere of influence: Days 16 - 45

  • Develop a high-level stakeholder network map to identify who’s who in the PMO’s sphere of influence.

  • Compile a stakeholder list to document key PMO stakeholders, especially those who will need to be engaged when gathering PMO requirements

2. Gather PMO Requirements: Days 16 - 45

• Rate stakeholders in terms of influence and interest in the PMO

  • Systematically assess each stakeholder's influence within the organization and their interest in the PMO in order to help plan your requirements gathering activities.

• Elicit Requirements from PMO Stakeholders

  • Record and prioritize stakeholder expectations for the PMO.

  • Document stakeholder management considerations in the wake of your stakeholder interviews.

3.  Solidify your PPM Goals: Days 46 - 70

• Triage the current state of PPM capabilities

  • Assess your current process maturity across the three areas of discipline:

    • Portfolio management

    • Project management

    • Organizational change management

• Define a preliminary course of action for the PMO to review with leadership

  • Combine and review your sources of insight

  • Narrow your list of PMO process and service requirements (recommend 5-to-10, to include in a future-state roadmap)

  • Assess current capabilities to support the documented process/service requirements

  • Translate raw process/service requirements into strategic statements of PMO purpose with an accompanying tactical plan

4.  Formalize the PMO’s Mandate: Days 71-100

• Finalize the PMO’s course of action

  • Document the organizational context that you’ve structured your course of action around

  • Finalize your strategic expectations and tactical plan

  • Prepare an implementation roadmap

• Garner stakeholder buy-in throughout the organization

  • Introduce your PMO course of action to the organization

  • Revise your stakeholder management plan

  • Prepare Objections-Handling template to organize responses

  • Summarize and present your mandate to gain approval from management and staff

  • Secure stakeholder buy-in for your PMO’s mandate

  • Prepare a strategy to get a staff and peer assessments of your first 100 days

  • Start planning for day 101 and beyond

Remember, as a new PMO leader, you have a limited time to define a strategic mandate that will be accepted and supported by executives and business unit leaders.  Take advantage of the first three months of your tenure to:

“Seize your window of influence. In your first months, key stakeholders will be open to sharing insights and opinions. Use these initial interactions to communicate a vision, get the right people behind you, and establish buy-in for a long-term PPM strategy.

Confirm your mandate. The most common cause of PMO failure is a misdirected mandate. If you fail to diagnose pain points and needs in your first days, you could waste your tenure as PMO leader, providing well-intentioned solutions to the wrong project problems.”

- Barry Cousins Senior Director of Research, PMO Practice Info-Tech Research Group

You, your staff and your stakeholders will be glad you did. To discuss in depth, contact me at bernard.coles@thebacolesgroup.com or Contact us to schedule a consultation.