Programme Office Support
In today’s Digital World, we find that companies often have many cross-functional projects to manage, especially as they engage on Digital transformation activities. Most find that they need a Project Management Office (PMO) function which is ultimately in place to keep everybody working in the same direction towards the overarching goals of the business. Our Programme Office Support offering will help reduce the time taken to set up a Project Management Office (PMO) or transform a PMO into a value delivering function.
A PMO is a group — internal or external to a company — that sets, maintains and ensures standards for programme and project management across that organisation. It ensures a consistent approach to project management throughout the organisation and is typically where standards, methodologies, processes, templates, tools and records are created and maintained Traditionally, a PMO underpins the project delivery mechanisms by ensuring that all business change in an organisation is managed in a controlled way. PMOs have a range of functions, and the services they offer often depend on the maturity of the department and the skills of the people working in the PMO. At a minimum, the PMO supports the various projects, and gives direction about funding, prioritisation and resourcing. The more mature PMOs provide the necessary governance, transparency, Knowledge Management and key processes to the rest of the programme, including:
- Change and Scope Management
- Release Program Management
- Planning and Scheduling Management
- Demand Management
- Cost Management
- Quality Management
- Resource Management
- Integration Management
- Risk/Issue/Dependency/Assumption Management
- Innovation and Continuous Service Improvement Management
- Programme Reporting
- On-boarding
- Operational Readiness Management
- Quality Assurance
A PMO plays many roles within an organisation, but this of course varies greatly from company to company depending on its size and the scope of projects being managed. A successful PMO is a combination of good people, processes and tools.
For many clients, the task of setting up a PMO or improving a PMO’s functionality can be a daunting challenge. Common signs that an existing PMO may not be delivering the expected Return on Investment (ROI) include:
- Being surprised by projects that seem to be suddenly in trouble
- Project management practices are not spreading throughout the organisation as expected
- The PMO has not proven to be the training ground it was expected to be for up-and-coming project managers and leaders
- Projects are not tied to the strategic planning process
- Investment benefits are not being realised
- Lack of believable metrics that show how well projects are supporting the business
- Lack of the project information needed to make investment/de-investment decisions
To meet these challenges, companies have turned to our Programme Office Support offering to provide an external perspective that can help to quickly assess process and programme issues, kick start projects or get floundering projects back on track. We help to shift the PMO from being seen merely as an administration function within IT towards a more progressive, customer oriented, adaptive and responsive approach. For guidance, there are several PMO models to consider:
The Supportive PMO: The supportive PMO generally provides support in the form of on-demand expertise, access to information and expertise on other projects. This can work in an organisation where projects are delivered successfully in a loosely controlled manner and where additional control is deemed unnecessary. The PMO is primarily a support service that collects, compiles and reports on information. Outsourcing the coordinator role in your organisation is both low cost and quick to implement.
The Governance PMO: This model assumes that the PMO is responsible for defining and controlling use of methodologies, standards, templates and policies related to project delivery. This is where many companies struggle when trying to implement an effective PMO with internal staff. It makes sense to leverage the proven methods and best practices that a provider can bring.
The Directive PMO: With this model, the PMO is accountable for the project management function within the company and responsible for providing programme and project management resources to run projects. This provides consistent project management guidance, methods, systems, tools and metrics for consistent project outcomes throughout the organisation and maintaining consistency between project managers working on different projects, across different departments.
NWT recognises that every customer is different in their approach, the types and scale of projects being delivered and their view on how they want the PMO to run as part of their overall organisational governance. Therefore, we are also flexible on how we can help you as we know that the role of the PMO will be different across the lifecycle of the project(s). To that end, our service can be tailored around the specific needs of your organisation. We can provide consultancy to advise on how best to create and run a PMO, provide high-calibre, on-demand expertise or deliver a fully managed PMO if that is what is right for your business.
For NWT this is about identification of the right PMO solution to support the programmes and projects that are delivering the solutions to meet your business challenges, and to use an approach to avoid reinventing the wheel each time for you. NWT is also about having an approach that gets the outcomes completed quickly.
Equipping you with the instrumentation to navigate the new world.