Being an experienced project professional today is like being a seasoned ship captain in unchartered waters. You’ve plotted hundreds, even thousands of routes. You’ve learned how to prepare for the impact of different weather, climate, and coastline. You’re wise to the unexpected and know how to course correct when facing an unexpected weather front.
But suddenly, a maelstrom opens up in front of you, and a Kraken emerges, thrashing towards your ship. This isn’t just change — it’s chaos. For today’s project, program or portfolio management offices (PMOs), this level of threat and uncertainty poses a significant challenge.
In a research report, the Association for Project Management (APM) found that 66% of project managers feel inflation has a negative impact on their projects. Over half of project managers worry about the impact of global supply chain issues. Finally, 52% of project managers are concerned about the effects of political instability.
This is a perfect storm of unprecedented external forces and persistent internal pressures. What’s more, it shows no signs of easing soon. So, what does this mean for PMOs? We will answer this question over a series of blog posts based on our Planisware Exchange panel discussion, “The evolving role of the PMO.”
First, let’s review the state of play for PMOs. We’ll also touch on the approaches that can help PMOs build resilience for their organizations.
The Current Climate Demands Agility
Today’s projects face sudden budget, resource, and requirement changes due to economic and political uncertainty. This requires fast reactions to mitigate waste or project failure.
The Agile approach to project, program, or portfolio management (PM) will be familiar to project professionals. But its benefits are even more evident in times of unexpected change.
Research by McKinsey shows that Agile business units outperformed non-Agile business units in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The regular cadence of review in Agile lends itself to rapid course correction on projects. Even larger enterprises can apply the Agile methodology using adapted frameworks like SAFe.
Data Is More Important Than Ever
Destabilizing events like the COVID-19 pandemic also make businesses more risk-averse. But too much risk aversion can still lead to loss of potential earnings and market share. This is where data quality and transparency can transform decision-making for PMOs and their organizations.
Innovation can be a risky investment stream. But businesses like PepsiCo have successfully leveraged project data to identify and fast-track their most valuable innovation projects.
Data quality will be central to the effective use of data for PMOs. This means data quality improvement has to be a priority for PMO governance. This objective can’t rely on the efforts of the PMO alone. But they can lead by example, including training project managers to be better data “creators.”
PMO Maturity Is Reached By Evolution, Not Revolution
Neither Rome nor mature PMOs were built in a day. Team members might already be dealing with high levels of volatility from within and outside their organization. Forcing a new system of governance on them is unlikely to be successful. Start by investing in and connecting the existing PM capabilities across the business.
At a leading tobacco company interviewed by Planisware, it started with a smaller team dedicated to enhancing skills and supporting current project managers. A team leader describes their role as focusing on, “listening to the needs of project managers, understanding their requirements across various global regions, and identifying current gaps in capabilities.”
Changes won’t happen overnight. Becoming a responsive, data-driven PMO means embarking on a maturity journey. This journey involves a shift in mindset and the right initiatives. But the impact of PMO maturity on revenue and customer satisfaction in times of uncertainty proves the value of persistence.
