Focused – Flexible - Functional

THE AGILE PMO

PMO

Product Project

gile A As the world moves towards the demand

to release their products in a shorter

timeframe into an agile world the focus

will be less on incremental enhancements

and more on new innovation.

Improving both the product and project

life cycles is going to require a huge

paradigm shift by Project Management

Office, Business and Project Teams as the

transition into an agile focused team

transpires and becomes reality.

Overview

Overview

Traditionally the PMO has been the backbone of project management within an organisation ensuring the there is a common factor tying in the assurance for successful project implementation.

Standards

Skills

Governance

Training

Resources

Best Practice

PMO

Over the years the role of the PMO has remained constant but with a faster move towards agile the PMO will have to adapt and change in order to provide a value added service

There is no doubt that for a traditional

PMO to become agile the key factors to

achieve this would include a blend of:

As PMO’s adjust and adapt their

overall practice and become a more

flexible and simpler business unit this

will lead to projects rolling out within

shorter time cycles while maintaining

the quality requirements.

Overview

Customer Focus

Simplicity

Reduction of

complexity

Overview

The reality is that a paradigm shift is needed to enable the Agile PMO to deliver the correct support and provide an acceptable level of guidance for project managers in a collaborative and co-operative approach.

This will result in the ability to work with the project and business teams to fast track projects through to delivery while ensuring that the components of the triple constraints evolves into a managed agile enterprise project and programme environment.

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Setting up the

Agile PMO The Agile Scorecard

Establishing the vision and mission

Defining the strategic targets

Documenting the strategic approach

Framework

The purpose of the Agile PMO scorecard is to identify the business sectors that will measure and track agile project management across the company.

It is important to take into account that there is clear understanding on the targets that have been determined by the organisational balanced scorecard. This will allow for both scorecards to be in sync to deliver the agreed performance targets across financial, customer and training that support agile project delivery.

This will lead to the PMO team and the overall business setting up the methodologies and processes that will lead to successful project delivery and provide a path for ensuring economic delivery for the organisation

Project Delivery

Best Practice

Budget Control

Resource Management

Balanced Score Card

Agile PMO Score Card

Framework

Framework

Establishing the PMO Agile vision and mission statement will provide a way forward to allow you and your team to begin to zone in on the direction that will influence and lead the PMO team. A key benefit of creating a mission statement is that it will establish the PMO purpose on what you will achieve and very importantly what connects you as a team to transition into an Agile focused business unit.

Ultimately the vison and mission will provide a shared language and common purpose for targeted action and collaboration within the agile project management environment.

State your vision statement

Target Group Needs Product Value

What segment does the Agile PMO address? Who are the target users and customers?

What needs does the Agile PMO fulfil? How will the Agile PMO create value for the company?

What are the 3 – 5 top features of the Agile PMO? What is your unique selling point?

How is the Agile PMO going to benefit the company?

Using the inputs from the discussions and meetings held during your strategy session will provide the basis that will classify the key strategic targets that need to be achieved. Defining your strategic targets will allow you to design your own unique approach that will integrate the vision, mission, values and strategy that will outline the Agile PMO blueprint to rollout the new and improved Agile PMO.

This will allow for an new and revised strategy model that can be maintained throughout the planning, launching and day to day management of the Agile PMO.

Strategic Target Transition Matrix

Current Strategy Revised Strategy Strategic Model

Framework

Identify

Propose

Confirm

Documenting the strategic approach will ensure that there is complete consensus and agreement throughout the organisation on how to succeed within an agile environment.

The strategic approach which will outline the roadmap that will identify the Agile PMO success drivers required to deliver economic value throughout all sectors of the business environment.

The strategic document can be used as a checkpoint throughout the transition phase adjusting the content if and when required.

Vision and mission

Best Practice

Governance Support

Continuous Improvement

How can we improve? Where do we want to go?

How do we get there?

How do we measure success?

What are the success targets?

Framework

Setting up the

Agile PMO

Identifying the stakeholders

Documenting the business case

The Project Approach

The Project Schedule

Setting up the Team

Tracking the Progress

Continuous Improvement

Wrapping up

Implementation

Identifying your stakeholders and building good relationships will allow for a partnership that will work together to make the right decisions at the right time which will be a critical success factor for the Agile PMO.

The Stakeholder Management Plan will give you the right tools to ensure that the Agile PMO has a practical way forward to manage and communicate with all of the stakeholders at the right time and in the right way. A key success factor for the introduction of the Agile PMO is to ensure that there is 100% buy-in and commitment from the stakeholders.

Meet their Needs Key Player

Least Important

Show consideration

Stakeholder Matrix

I

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f

l

u

e

n

c

e

Interest

Internal

External

Shareholders

Professional Bodies

Implementation

The business case will allow you as the PMO team to present your concept for an Agile PMO and provide the overall benefits to move into an agile environment. The challenge that you will face with obtaining approval is to ensure that all of the identified stakeholders are on board with your business proposal.

Having a vibrant communication strategy in place during the business case phase will help to get to the end point and ensure overall approval. The key points to a successful approval of a business case are:

• Ensure that only the key points are addressed

• It is no longer that 5 pages

• Daily meetings are held with the forum to ensure updates are agreed

• Do the changes in the meeting on-line

• Conduct the approvals in a meeting and use email signatures for approvals

Developing a successful

business case

Identify priorities

Identify stakeholders

Agree to the table of contents

Setup timeframe

to complete business

case

Review and update

Final approval

• Executive summary • Reasons • Business options • Expected benefits • Timescales • Costs • Assumptions and constraints • Major risks

Implementation

The project approach should be setup to ensure that there is an agreed standard allowing for the setup of the Agile PMO to be rolled out in a functional and seamless manner. The project approach should incorporate the correct phases ensuring every element of the Agile PMO practice is covered including both the business aspect as well as how the actual software projects will be rolled out.

This will ensure that there is an agreed standard across the project management environment as well as business requirements, the development and implementation processes. Included into the approach should be a defined standard for how the project iterations will be managed allowing for the introduction of a software delivery methodology.

Implementation

Planning Approach Framework

Technical approach

Planning

Components

Project Constraints

Quality

Risks

Time

Cost Scope

Project Management

Software Delivery

Implementation

To effectively roll out the Agile PMO a well-planned and realistic schedule will ensure that the timeframe to deliver the new and improved PMO will meet the stakeholder expectations and manage both the cost element and how and when the resources will be utilised within the project life cycle.

The schedule will allow you to keep an eye on how to manage any changes that have been requested and whether they are feasible or not as well as keeping a close track on any slippage that is taking place.

Using the information from the schedule will allow you to provide effective and up to date communication as well as provide and data based dashboards. This is one of the project areas where using cloud based solutions really allows for a great way to have real time reporting and information available 24 hours a day.

Having the right project team in place is a sure fire

way to ensure that the project will have a greater

chance of being successful.

The best way to do this is to clearly define what the

roles are for the project and source the correct skills

to fill those roles. At the same time it is also

important to ensure that the resources being

assigned to the project fit in with the culture of the

organisation so it does become a balancing act.

Providing the correct level of management support

will also play an important part and if this is done

correctly this will ensure a successful project and a

happy team.

Implementation

PMO Team

Agile Team

Tracking the progress for the setting up of the Agile Project Office should be separated into two categories: • The process of setting up the actual Agile PMO • The rollout of agile projects within the current

portfolio (even if this is being performed as a pilot project)

As with the standard functionality of control and execution the tracking and reporting back whether in a meeting or as a dashboard using cloud based solutions must show the end to end progress of the project as confirmed and approved in the business case.

This would also be the forum to discuss any issues being experienced and to ensure that the teams are able to cope with the new processes and methodologies introduced and if training may be required. Recommended changes to the overall project would also be discussed and agreed at the status meetings.

Implementation

PMO Core Team Agile Team

Implementation

A Framework for capturing, documenting and

sharing project lessons learned can serve as the

input to a Continuous Process Improvement Loop.

There is no doubt that as you begin the process of

transitioning to an Agile PMO there will be lessons

learnt along the way.

This is a great opportunity for ensuring that as the

Agile PMO you will be able to constantly improve

and provide a future that is sustainable within the

project environment.

The end result of applying a continuous

improvement practice will add to the Agile PMO

becoming a focused centre of excellence.

Identify non-performing

components of the Agile PMO

Realign and change process and

implement the change

Monitor the change and track back into

the overall Agile PMO Project

The Agile PMO is the orchestrator for making all of this happen and will drive the Agile success within the organisation. With this in place the Project Team and Business Owner can focus on delivering business value ensuring there is a definite return on investment within the shortest possible time. The organisation now can be an effective part of the completive technical and software landscape keeping in pace and delivering the right product at the right time.

Implementation

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