How the PMO Can Understand, Measure and Report the ... · PDF fileHow the PMO Can Understand,...
Transcript of How the PMO Can Understand, Measure and Report the ... · PDF fileHow the PMO Can Understand,...
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How the PMO Can Understand, Measure and Report the Business Impact of Projects
Introduction
Measuring the business impact of projects, initiatives
and launches is complicated. Since project management
offices (PMOs) offer a broad spectrum of services to
various parts of an organisation, calculating return on
investment (ROI) is often a challenge.
That said, it doesn’t matter if an initiative was on time
and under budget if it was doomed for failure from the
start. The best project leads don’t limit measurement to
on-time and on-budget metrics for that very reason. If
you are unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
your efforts generate more value than they cost, you risk
losing your programme.
Exploring the Complexities of ROI Calculation
Most project leads measure time, cost and scope as
part of tracking the success of their initiatives.
The project “whats” are measurements taken after the
fact and answer these questions:
� Was the work completed?
� Was it on time?
� What resources were spent to complete it?
� Was the customer satisfied?
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The project “hows” are tied to the risk, resources and quality associated with
the initiative. While these factors are a bit harder to measure and
communicate, it’s important for project leads to do so as initiatives grow in
complexity.
Organisations are increasingly competing on a global scale and dealing
with projects involving dispersed team members from different cultures and
backgrounds. As a result, how initiatives are managed is critical to success.
The complexity theory helps guide what to measure in this type of
environment, focusing not on what gets done but how it gets done. Two
organisations that have done this well are Google and The LEGO Group.
Google famously allowed employees to spend 20% of their time on any
project of their choosing. And this “20% time” led to some of the company’s
biggest product successes, including Gmail, AdSense, and Google Talk.1 To
ensure its workplace is highly motivating and engaging, The LEGO Group
measures employee motivation and satisfaction and sees higher levels than
industry benchmarks.2
To adopt a similar mindset, the PMO must consider and understand the
project hows as well as the whys.
Why is the organisation doing this?
How are we going to implement this initiative?
How does it fit into the company’s overall strategy and help deliver on the strategy?
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This multi-dimensional approach encourages the PMO and project lead to
think about the vision and mission for the initiative. It also paves the way
for measuring, not only the project what, but also the project how.
By incorporating this added dimension into the initiative, PMOs can ensure
they are building and cultivating environments in which it is acceptable to
ask for help—and that is critical to completing projects efficiently and
effectively. Consider the example of creative firm IDEO’s designers, who are
coached to expect that they will need help—and they should ask for it. The
company’s leaders model this behaviour by asking for and giving help. This
cultural mentality helps IDEO design and deliver products that its clients
love.3
Here’s the formula for this multi-dimensional approach:
How did we go about the project?
How does it fit into the company’s overall strategy and help deliver on the strategy?
How does employee satisfaction rate when it comes to that collaboration?
Once told what the project is, ask meaningful questions, including “why this project?”
Determine why the project is being pursued (and
why the organisation is dedicating resources to it).
Leverage the project team as a resource for scoping and planning how the initiative will be delivered.
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Equipping Project Teams to Deliver Measurable Impact
To ensure the project team delivers measurable impact, PMOs can embrace the
concept of PAM, which helps tie the team’s everyday work back to the
organisational strategy. PAM stands for Purpose-Autonomy-Mastery and
provides a framework for empowering project members to succeed. Let’s
explore.
Purpose. The project lead needs to understand how each team member’s role contributes to the overall success of the initiative. The LEGO Group grasps the importance of giving employees a sense of purpose, saying: “We see a need to continuously communicate and involve all employees in the unique LEGO culture and LEGO strategy to understand the reasoning behind it and their specific role in it.”4
To that end, the PMO must be able to answer these questions:
The goal is to equip project managers to adopt a business mindset and
understand what it takes to run an initiative as a strategic business
endeavor with appropriate measures.
Autonomy. The second part of the framework is about giving team members the space to do their jobs. While each person needs something different in this regard, the key is to stop focusing on what people do or deliver, and shift to how people do their jobs. Yet, it’s the “what” that the PMO and project leads most often track and measure.
Because the PMO and project-based workers want to avoid surprises, they
tend to dictate how work should get done. As General Patton said, “Never
tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you
with their ingenuity.”5
Why are we creating or did create the PMO?
How does our organisation make money or generate value?
Why does our business or organisation exist? What is its purpose?
In most implementations, a PMO is created to help project managers perform their roles better. If the primary audience for whom the PMO was created fails to see the value in its work, it’s highly likely that others in the organisation will fail to see it as well.
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Focus on Meaningful Metrics
Questions to ask before project:
� Does it align with our
strategic goals?
� Does everyone involved
understand the goals of the
project and how it aligns with
our strategic goals?
Questions to ask after project:
� Was there good
communication and
collaboration throughout the
project?
� Were issues and red flags
identified early enough to
handle them?
� Did the project output
meet the executive team’s
expectations?
A better and more meaningful measurement focuses on how team members
interact with others in the course of the initiative. Are they competing or
collaborating? When relationships have an impact on productivity,
cooperation and collaboration are far better than competition in projects and
generate greater value and vital partnerships in the long term.
Mastery. When the PMO is focused on the what of a project, it’s difficult to justify budget for training. But if the focus shifts to how the project will get done, it’s easier to make the case for training.
In the end, the ROI for training is not about the money spent, but about
identifying and defining success. When team members are trained to be
valuable project contributors, the PMO can better assess and select the right
projects and ensure more repeatable and predictable project processes.
Adopting this multi-dimensional approach is a proven way to take initiatives
to a new level, and it provides organisations with further insight into the
attributes, skills and behaviors that contribute to the highest levels of success.
By defining these differentiators at an individual and team level, organisations
can also take steps to reward employees accordingly, and upskill when
necessary.
References
1 HRZone, Why did Google abandon 20% time for innovation?, June 3, 2015
2 The Lego Group, About Us – Our Mission: To Inspire and Develop the Builders of Tomorrow,
http://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/responsibility/employees
3 Harvard Business Review, 5 Ways to Get Better at Asking for Help, December 18, 2014
https://hbr.org/2014/12/5-ways-to-get-better-at-asking-for-help
4 The LEGO Group, We want all employees to be inspired by our purpose and engaged in the
LEGO® Strategy., http://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/responsibility/responsibilityreport2014/
responsiblebusiness/employees
5 The Official Website of General George S. Patton Jr.,
http://www.generalpatton.com/quotes/index3.html
PMO: People + Motivation = Opportunity
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