2011 Spring Conference - Raising the bar

Posted by Lain Burgos-Lovece on 8 March, 2011 - 01:00

John Zachar (APM) Committee Member

John welcomed everyone to the 2011 Spring Conference. The Agenda for the event was unveiled, and it can be downloaded here.

The PMOSIG Committee were introduced and John stressed that we are always looking for volunteers.

Setting the Scene

Eileen Roden (Aikona) PMOSIG Committee

Eileen facilitated the opening session to get everyone thinking, as well as meeting each other. The feedback we get most often form these events is that networking with peers is one of the most valuable and unique benefits of PMOSIG.

The task was for each table to come up with a definition, agreed by all at the table, of what Portfolios are and what Portfolio Management is. The examples below are highlights from the flipchart presentations back to the plenary session.

Examples of Portfolio definitions:

The set of all change activities in a business
Projects and programmes that should/do align to strategic goals
Some included business as usual insofar as it delivers business strategy, stressing the need to consider the whole operational effort.
Examples of Portfolio Management definitions:

Enabling delivery of the Portfolio through appropriate frameworks, priority setting, guidance, tools, etc.
Process by which the choice of projects and their alignment takes place, supported by specialist processes
Some highlighted the key components such as Risk & Issue management, Dependency Management, Analysis and Reporting
Some added value added activities, such as training the project managers and enabling decision-making
Eileen stressed that there is no single definition, which makes it all the more important for organizations to agree and understand what is and what is not part of the definition, with their own stakeholders.

The OGC definitions are a good starting point, since they are the accepted definitions:

Portfolio – the totality of an organisation’s investment (or segment thereof) in the changes required to change its strategic objectives
Portfolio Management – the coordinated collection of strategic processes and decisions that together enable the most effective balance of organizational change and business as usual

How to Eat an Elephant – Setting up a Portfolio Office

Ralf Finchett Jnr PMO Planet

Ralf stressed the size of the job of setting up a Portfolio Office. His objective for the session was to give a good overview of the components and ways of meeting the challenges they present. In essence, what does it take to answer the related questions “…are we doing the right things, and are we doing these things right…”

Ralf looked at the key elements of setting up a Portfolio Office:

People – try pull, not push

Process – the value of a Change Forum for continuous improvement

Performance – avoid PMO focused KPIs and praise the positive

Parameters – stress breadth, not depth or reporting

Within each of the above, Ralf gave examples of useful approaches that help in running a Portfolio view of initiatives.

The question and answer session revealed a great interest from the audience in the practicalities of setting up a Portfolio Office.

You can download Ralf’s presentation here: How to eat an Elephant – The Mammoth Task of setting up a Portfolio Office. (PDF version available too)

Portfolio Management: Influencing the Weather?
Stephen Jenner (Civil Service)

Steve recapped some of the evidence for Portfolio Management as a worldwide trend, and the potential benefits. He expanded on the slides with examples from organizations around the world.

He then mentioned about the challenge: the track record is not good in terms of adding value. For instance, even among organizations who believe that Portfolio Management only 17% appeared to be realising the potential value in practice.

To quote Brian Quinn – there is an urgent need in PMO to go beyond the illusion of control to the reality of control (see slides – download), and went on to explore what it takes to build effective Portfolio Management despite the challenges highlighted.

1. Don’t wait for senior management commitment: it’s essential to start showing some benefits first

2. Have a business strategy that is well articulated and has some ‘bite’, i.e.: are projects actually cancelled

3. Modular/phased/agile projects staged release of funding

Steve then outlined four themes that “make it real”:

An active process
A value-led process
With a clear line of sight
An evidence-based process
Examples of useful points to keep in mind when considering what to do to get the most out of a Portfolio Office:

most organizations are driven by capacity to do projects, not by likely benefits
the value of staff time saved lies in what else the people are going to do with the saved time – how will that work generate benefits
the value of the dashboard for a whole portfolio is in the cover note written by the Portfolio Office

Video: Steve Jenner 1

The key to a successful Portfolio Office is the accurate and serious management of benefits, since that is the reason for setting up programmes and projects is to get the benefits. Start doing post-implementation reviews immediately to record benefits and then proceed to the analysis of what actually works.

Video: Steve Jenner 2

Steve’s final point was about the role of the PMO in telling the truth to those in charge, to quote Shakespeare: “are you wise enough to play the fool”.

Video: Steve Jenner 3

The Q&A session was extremely lively and involving for all. You can download Steve’s presentation here: Jenner PMOSIG 110308

Steve mixed with the delegates after the session.

Announcements and Lunch

Before breaking for lunch, John Zachar and Eileen Roden announced a London Local Event in April and the ‘sneak preview’ of the next PMOSIG event on the 14th and the 15th of September.

The greatest value of the PMOSIG Events is usually found during the various networking opportunities during the day.

Raising the Bar: Increasing your Skills
Stuart Dixon (Axa) Committee Member

Stuart set the scene, by saying that in moving from Programme to Portfolio Management Office the point of departure must be the people who run it. Throughout the session he focused on what progression people would need to follow indifferent context in order for the “Office” to progress to another level.

==> Download the presentation: Raising the Bar Moving from Programme to Portfolio v2

Before tackling the exercises, Stuart covered the nature of PMO skill types (technical, behavioural and contextual), and also the different learning styles, i.e., what is the best way to learn in each case.

The first exercise asked the delegates to think about what they would want if you could have the perfect person doing a Portfolio Office role.

The answers given by each table are available for download:

Exercise 1 – 110308

The second exercise, asked the delegates to review what they had done and then, for the new portfolio skills, to think about what training would need to be offered, and how would that training be delivered.

The answers given by each table are available for download:

Exercise 2 – 110308

The Agile PMO
Adrian Quinney (Magic Milestones)

Adrian mentioned his initial worry that coming to a gathering such as this to talk about Agile was a bit risky, given the perception of PMO people as “by the book”.

The origins of the session were in an article by Chris Walters (PMOSIG Chairman) who highlighted the need to talk about Agile PMO, given the benefits that Agile had given whole new segments of the PM community (such as IT) and the need for Portfolio management that it had highlighted as a consequence.

Misalignment of governance with Agile
Misalignment of tools, techniques and reporting
Initially most staff in the PMO resist the transition to Scrum
Scrum scatters traditional project management responsibilities
Adrian then asked the delegates to take the time to write down their opinion as to what would be the effect of Agile on Portfolio Management

The values of Agile are:

individuals and interaction over processes and tools
working software over comprehensive documentation
customer collaboration over contract negotiation
responding to change over following a plan
While there is value in the terms on the right, we value the items on the left more. The rest of the session concentrated on Agile and the Scrum technique, where there are no named roles for PMs or PMOs. Next Adrian reviewed some of the challenges for PMO in the adoption of Agile ways of working.

Examples were:

how do we embed Agile as well as Portfolio Management
how do we prioritise projects against each other if you can’t tell in advance what the benefits are
it would make it easier to cull projects
how do you cope with he fact that resources are actually shared and not exclusive to a scrum
how to recognise and report that an Agile project is going wrong to align this with time-based governance
how to use in highly regulated industries
how to cope with less precise business cases
After a quick discussion, the session moved into what the PMO could do to become more Agile:

Run the Agile PMO as a Scrum Team
Support & empower Scrum teams
Debunk corporate governance
Active Portfolio Management
Appropriate PMO reporting
Appropriate PMO tools
Adrian finished by reviewing some useful tools that could help in managing Agile PMO and Portfolio work.

===> Download the presentation: mm_pmosig_presentation_v2.5_(2)

(also available in pdf format)

Management of Portfolios
Eileen Roden (Aikona) PMOSIG Committee

Eileen gave an overview of the new OGC Guide and certification.

==> Download the PMOSIG Mar11 Conf – MoP Certification presentation

Ask the Panel – Audience Q&A

John Zachar assembled the speakers of the day to form a panel to answer questions that the delegates logged during the course of the event.

Here’s a sample of the discussion:

what techniques can be used to find out how PMO adds value? Stuart used examples of the Voice of the Customer, meaning simply to ask users what examples of value they have received from PMO. From these ‘success stories’ a case for the value of the PMO can be structured
how would you convince a PM that their role has not disappeared with Scrum and scrum masters? Adrian answered that the PM is more of a product manager in this case, someone who needs to address and manage the needs of stakeholder, while the scrum master concentrates on removing obstacles in the way of the team delivering
how can a PMO add value during the roll-out phase of a project? PMO needs to be positioned as the ‘trusted advisor’ of the project, and in this role the most value add comes from the management of risks and issues; this applies more to programmes rather than projects
John asked the delegates in turn whether the APM Competence Framework was being used to evaluate roles in the various PMOs. Only a few were assessing PMs in this way, although some major organisations are already using. It also forms the basis of the new Certified PM Professional qualification by the APM
is the PMO another name for a Strategy Team (aka Planning & Performance)? Ralf replied that it depended on the level at which the PMO or Portfolio Office operate. Chris Walters added that he hadn’t seen any PMOs that could operate all the way from strategy to the project level, because it requires different people and different ways of managing them
how do you align Agile with the old SPLC process? Adrian replied that the business case at the start and the benefits process at the end could complement Agile
John and Lindsay Scott asked about the usage of social media in projects. The delegates didn’t show many hands. Lindsay added that the recent book by Elizabeth Harrin on Social Media for Project Management suggested that the PMO would be the natural home for this type of social media. Delegates commented that Facebook or Twitter were not really accessible, or even forbidden, in most corporate environments. However, collaboration tools such as Basecamp, Sharepoint, Projectplace, etc.
There were detailed and involved exchanges arising out of these questions. Once again, the networking sessions and coffee breaks, like the Q&A session at the end provide some of the greatest value from PMOSIG events.

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