Project Management Best Practices

My experience at PMI’s 2009 North America Congress was excellent and, as always, well worth the trip. I met and exchanged ideas with some of the top practitioners, researchers, consultants and authors in the project management industry.

There is no doubt about it. The benefits realized from a sound and well-organized project management methodology based on globally recognized project management standards have been well established. These benefits cannot be overstated. Organizations that make full use of the power of a project-focused environment gain a competitive advantage over those organizations that do not leverage this power. They also gain a competitive advantage over those organizations that publish an “official” project management standard but make little or no attempt to implement it or to make it a part of organizational policy. *

One of the hot project management topics at the Congress was the P3MO (project, program, portfolio management office). Another was that of “value driven project management”, the topic of Harold Kerzner’s closing session speech and the topic of his new book, co-authored with Frank P. Saladis.  An integrated project portfolio management environment (i.e., a P3MO) with a focus on driving business value represents the state-of-the-profession thinking right now. I can personally confirm that this approach is beginning to emerge out in the field. At my most recent client, a global life insurance company doing business on three continents, my colleagues and I recommended exactly this approach and delivered guidelines for achieving this. **

So what, exactly is a “P3MO.”  At first, my colleagues and I were hesitant about using this acronym. It sounds too much like “CP30″ from Star Wars and could be a candidate for a lot of jokes around the water cooler.

As it turns out, just as C3PO represented state-of-the-art “droid” technology, the P3MO, very much, represents  state-of-the-art project portfolio management (PPM).

P3MO is an acronym for “Project, Program, and Portfolio Management Office.” It’s based on the concept of a PMO (project management office), however it is elevated to cover project portfolio management as well as project and program management.

PMO’s are designed to support project managers, including, but not limited to:
• Establishing and maintaining project management guidelines, standards, policies and methodologies
• Monitoring compliance with project management standards and policies
• Managing shared resources across projects
• Guiding and coaching project managers and project team members
• Coordinating communications across projects, including communications with stakeholders and with the business

All PMO’s maintain the following objectives:
• Reduce Delivery Time
• Reduce Project Cost
• Reduce Delivery Risk
• Improve System Quality
• Improve Customer Satisfaction
• Manage Customer Expectations
• Define Standards and Methodologies

The P3MO takes the PMO function to the program and portfolio management level. It shares the objectives of a PMO with the following additional objectives:
• Integrating related projects into programs
• Identifying and delivering the stakeholder and business benefits of programs
• Working with executive management to identify and approve programs and align these programs with the goals and objectives of the business
• Integrating approved programs into one or more business project portfolios
• Providing guidance to the Steering Committee (or other governance body) and assisting them with optimizing portfolios to ensure continued alignment of initiatives and other work with business objectives; modifying the program/project “mix” as business objectives change
• Providing guidance, direction, training and coaching to project managers and program managers
• Maintaining communications with executive management

PMO’s can be categorized into three types:
1) Supporting PMO. Focuses on supporting projects through training, mentoring, administration and reporting. This type of PMO acts in a consultative capacity.
2) Controlling PMO. In addition to providing supportive functions, this type of PMO has a stronger influence on project delivery by offering controlling services, including implementation of standards and policy, and ensuring compliance with those standards and policies. They also conduct project reviews, audits, assessments and project governance.
3) Directive PMO. This type of PMO actually manages projects directly. In a Directive PMO, there is a pool of project managers who report to the PMO Director as their supervisor. This collects all of the project work within an organization to one department.

Part 2 -The relationship between the three components of enterprise project portfolio management.

Part 3 – Realizing value from the P3MO

Part 4 – Implementing P3MO best practices

Part 5 – The three “pillars” of project success

** My thanks to Mario Arlt, Vice President of Client Engagements at ESI International and to Oscar de Lucio of UMT Consulting for their captivating and enlightening presentations at the 2009 PMI Congress in Orlando.

Tags: best practices, Controlling PMO, directive PMO, EP3MO, Kerzner, P3MO, PMI Global Congress 2009, PMO, PPM, program management, Supporting PMO, value, value of project management

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Main Discussion . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.