Fast and Agile PMO: Is it Doable?

Today you can launch a Project Management Office (PMO) initiative within one month. Yes, you heard us right; one month.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, at Case in Point Co., we believe this is how PMOs should be launched in the new age of COVID-19—to prevail in a post-pandemic world, the first thing you should do is reimagine your company’s operating model and develop one that is based on resiliency and quick decision-making. In other words, forming “an agile business culture.”

Where do you start?

When you want to start a PMO in a short amount of time, you need to come up with a “SMART” concept for one. SMART is short for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. The great thing about this method is that your SMART idea doesn’t have to be grand. Think of it as a quick fix that will offer your company great value within a short period. Come up with a single goal or need you’d like to achieve or fulfill within your organization and start from there.

If you’re still trying to understand what this approach entails, here are three examples of PMO setups of this nature.

1. The Charter Process PMO Setup. 

For the sake of example, let’s say the company that decides to take on this agile PMO initiative is called Company A.

Executives at Company A had started many initiatives from the start, however, they didn’t have enough resources to take action towards these initiatives. The result was that nothing was being done to turn these initiatives into reality and an overwhelmed staff that didn’t know how to manage other projects going on.

Trying to navigate the disorganization that is their business, Company A decides enough is enough; it’s time to launch a PMO, and quick.

Now, Company A’s problem here is simple: they lack focus. The PMO they need to start has to be based on what is needed for Company A to eliminate this problem poisoning their business, and the need their PMO is therefore based on, is to focus on strategy rather than tactics.

Their newly-started PMO simply launched the Project Charter Process, which comes with a basic rule to help them solve their problem. The rule is as follows: No work is allowed on any project without a signed charter from specific people within the organization. If someone within the organization wants to start a new project but hasn’t had it sanctioned as per the rule, the staff would have decline the project, and work on the chartered projects instead. 

The Charter Process PMO setup allowed the company’s PMO to set strict measures in place not only for the sake of catching violations made against the Charter Process rule, but also for the sake of reorienting the team to focus on what matters, rather than jumping from one initiative or project to another.

Therefore, this type of PMO setup worked wonderfully for Company A and gave them the focus they needed to prioritize projects and follow through on initiatives. Also, this little “quick fix” helped Company A build a foundation for a more solid PMO in the near future.

2. The Executive Reporting PMO Setup. 

While Company A decided to go with the Charter Process setup, Company B took a different route to launching their PMO.

Executives at Company B were having a hard time collecting, gathering, and finding useful data regarding the progress of their ongoing projects. The existing PM tool in use at Company B was too technical, difficult to understand, and too complicated for the executives to use on heir own. Therefore, information wasn’t being accurately transferred to executives, leaving them in the dark as to whether projects are being run as planned with their teams.

It’s clear what needs to be done in oder to get Company B back on track, they need to simplify the reporting process. If the information being delivered to executives is too technical and difficult for them to understand, then there’s no one running projects. Saving time and increasing efficiency is what this PMO setup will be based on.

The Executive Reporting PMO starts with a single, SMART idea: creating a simple user interface for executives to quickly and efficiently view data. They then gather the right tools and people to insert data into the newly-built system where executives view the data in a simplified manner. Efficiency and timeliness are the driving forces behind this PMO. They made sure that only the most relevant data was added to the system they setup without sacrificing data availability for executives.

The result? A reporting system that executives actually saw value in, and executives can now accurately track project progress and view data relevant to them. Company B now has a more sophisticated PMO setup then they originally started with, and will proceed to expand their PMO with a clearer goal in mind.

3. The Supportive PMO.

For Company C, they already had a PMO in place, but they were lacking the right support to build up their project managers, stakeholders, and other executive-level employees to handle projects the right way. They felt like their executives and stakeholders could use a little more training to refine their skills, increase awareness of their roles within a project, and building their maturity towards project management overall.

With that said, they went for the simplest of PMO setups, the Supportive PMO.

This PMO decided to build the capacity of Company C’s project managers and stakeholders by developing a training program tailored to each of their roles within the realm of project management. The program gave relevant training for stakeholders and executives, which highly depended on their role within a project.

The project management training programs first starts with awareness training; homing in on the value of project management for the business and why it matters to them in particular. Then it delves into more role-specific training for different stakeholder types and executives.

The training was successful in significantly raising the organization’s maturity level when it comes to project management. It instilled enough awareness in their teams to take project management more seriously and to give it its due diligence.

All of the examples mentioned above are setups we have used with clients in the past with outstanding, effective, and most importantly, fast results.

At CIPC we believe in fast, quick improvement—we’ll operate your projects on steroids, so to speak. We can deliver an operational, fully functional PMO within a month that will meet your expectations.

To do that we utilize Digital Transformation drivers, AI, and neuroscience in an innovative and agile manner. We use methodologies and solutions that make delivering PMOs and strategy execution much simpler, much faster, and in a much more effective fashion.