Bringing order to chaos – PMO led governance framework

Change is disruptive. Altering the status quo within your organisation can be chaotic and difficult. There will be disagreements, competing priorities and agendas all trying to pull you off course. Is a strong PMO the answer?

Think of gathering together with family or friends to play a game. Maybe a popular property trading board game notorious for bringing out the competitive spirit. The players all have their own goal, they have their own interests to focus on – and to make matters worse, they’re all playing by slightly different versions of the rules. If you land on that space, do you have to buy it? Do the fines go to the bank or under free parking? Just how complicated can you make a deal to avoid paying rent? It doesn’t take long for arguments to develop, the goodwill you started out with to evaporate and someone to lose their patience and storm off, or even worse flip the board. Chaos!

Now think about your change portfolio, do the players have a common goal, or are there competing priorities? Is everyone clear on the rules of the game? Are they working together or at cross purposes?

Keeping everyone aligned and playing by a common set of rules is key to effective change delivery and avoiding unnecessary conflict, competition and chaos. Strong PMO and a clear shared Governance Framework gives you the focus and rules of the game so you can keep your change on course, and avoid the board being flipped!

How can you deliver transformational change with precision, consistency and predictability?

Being able to deliver transformational change across your business, with precision, consistency and predictability is a major step in realising your vision, business strategy and achieving your companies’ goals. The right Governance Framework will allow you to be in control, spot and address issues early and unlock the power within your teams.

Using a Governance Framework, supported by a great PMO will ensure that your change is developed, approved, controlled, and executed in a consistent and effective way. Your teams will have at their fingertips the right methods, capabilities, tools and templates to operate consistently. The team will be able to work together easily crossing departmental boundaries, learning from experience, developing themselves and the organisations’ change capability.

There is no one-size fits all Governance Framework. Each organisation has its own nuances and idiosyncrasies, its own ways of doing things and spans of control. The right Governance Framework for your organisation will be as unique as your organisation. You can use ‘Off-The-Shelf’ methodologies as a starting point, giving you a foundation of consistency, but you’ll need to tailor your Framework to ensure your governance and controls are appropriate and proportional for the deliveries you need to implement. Taking an ‘Off-the-Shelf’ Governance Framework, removing the shrink wrap and telling your team ‘That’s how we do delivery now’ is destined to be a costly failure. Experienced PMO are specialists in helping organisations implementing the right Governance Framework. Creating the foundations, adapting, tailoring and developing a considered, focused and adaptable set of controls for your organisation, and then implementing, embedding and evolving the Framework. With great PMO both you and your teams will get the most out of your Governance Framework and will be able to deliver effective change.

Experience shows us that organisations sit on a spectrum of maturity in their Governance Frameworks. Some suffer with onerous, administration heavy structures which stifle change teams, create blockers to progress and are eventually circumvented or ignored. Others enjoy no control, leaving teams to run wild, creating their own silos of approach and a lack of consistency or ability to work effectively across the whole organisation leading to chaos in change and failed deliveries. Some organisations have maturity or consistency within some controls such as planning or risk management, while other controls like benefits management are neglected. Moving from whichever of these states you’re in to a mature, tailored Governance Framework, PMO can help.

PMO can develop a Governance Framework that really works for your organisation

By understanding and being experienced in each discipline of portfolio, programme and project governance and control, PMO can bring what you have today, together with best practice from across industry, into a Governance Framework which really works.

To do this, it’s often worth starting simple. Your Governance Framework should be a living, evolving document, not a ‘once-and-done’. Start by understanding what really matters. If it matters, we should manage it effectively to ensure we get the outcome we need. What matters in terms of Governance will change over time, and an evolving Governance Framework will mature different areas of control at different times. By focusing first of the one or two control areas which really matter we’re able to: 

• Demonstrate the value effective PMO brings 

• Build buy-in to the value of a tailored Governance Framework 

• Create early control over the change portfolio 

Experienced PMO know that to make these early Governance Framework controls work, embed and endure the user must be at their heart. Delivery leaders will need to input data to, update, own and be responsible for the controls of their deliveries – this can’t be done by a central team. All too often, Governance is created and imposed on change leaders in a way which does not help them do their job. Overly complex reporting requirements, planning or risk tools which consume too much information, or onerous reports which only satisfy the desires of a central report without helping the delivery lead get the delivery done are poor, ineffective Governance. These get lip-service inputs and create a culture of non-compliance and an acceptance of out of date or unreliable data. By implementing controls which work for the user, not just the central functions, Governance can be embedded, the quality of data maintained and buy-in built for future development of your Governance Framework. 

Creating the rules of the game – Establishing a Governance Framework 

Every change will be different, varying size, complexity and constraints mean that the Governance Framework must be focused enough to be effective, but broad enough to be applicable. The right governance framework will allow your change to move swiftly, make decisions quickly with the right authority and keep control of the complexity of the change. A key step in establishing the right Governance Framework is understanding the levels within transformation and what the responsibilities of each level include (Figure 1 below): 

Figure 1.

Ensuring your players know their part – Roles and Responsibilities 

One of the biggest factors causing change to fail is inadequate resourcing and unclear roles and responsibilities. Even if a change is being delivered by a third party, having clear roles and responsibilities for all partners and individuals involved is key. The Governance Framework will define the roles of all the players in your change, the key positions you need filled at each stage in the change and the responsibilities each player has over the change. Keeping all team members pulling in the right direction, while playing in their specialist position will maximise your chances of success. 

Along with individual roles and responsibilities, the right governance forums will allow you to bring the right decision makers together, to ensure effective governance. For most change programmes, the most significant body will be the Steering Committee. Steering Committee (or SteerCo) is an executive level group who are charged with active oversight and decision making to enable the programme to deliver business benefiting change.  

The SteerCo brings together experts, authority figures, and senior stakeholders from across the organisation who have an interest in the programme. The committee is tasked with overseeing and supporting the programme to ensure the businesses goals are reached.  

Each Steering Committee member has a significant stake in the programme’s success.  

The role of the Steering Committee includes:  

• Acting as an advocate for the programme across the business 

• Set the strategic direction of the programme  

• Provide advice or direct input to the programme leadership  

• Establish programme goals and scope as well as determine how success will be measured  

• Assess and approve or reject changes to programme baselined scope, plans and costs  

• Select the programme leadership team and experts to support delivery  

• Monitor programme processes and plans, resolving conflicts between parties  

• Provide expert input on concerns and issues across the programme and support in identifying, monitoring, and eliminating programme and business risks  

The Steering Committee meets regularly to discuss each of these aspects and help set, or reset, direction. PMO will support the programme and the SteerCo in their responsibilities include preparation of meeting materials, capturing discussion, decisions and actions. 

SteerCo can’t govern the programme alone though. SteerCo members will have expansive roles so the lower-level delivery and control of the programme should be handled outside of that forum. Other meetings and groups must be empowered by the SteerCo to make decisions on specific areas and to defined levels of impact to the change. These meetings will all need PMO support and are likely to include Programme Board, Project Boards, Risk & Issue Groups, Finance Management, Commercial Oversight and Benefit reviews. Establishing the right set of governance meetings for the organisation, while seeing that all areas of the change are effectively governed is a major part of mobilisation which PMO will support the programme in. 

Going beyond the rules of the game – getting the right tools for the job 

A great Governance Framework isn’t just the rules of the game. Your players need to be supported by the right tools, templates, how-to-guides and training. Great PMO will deliver all these things, while coaching, guiding and supporting delivery teams to use them, making Governance and Controls central to how change operates.  

We often get asked by customers interested in improving their delivery Governance and Controls ‘what’s the best PPM tool?’ – It’s always a difficult question to answer. Just like creating and embedding the right Governance Framework for your organisation, the right PPM tool will be specific for your needs. However, without a strong embedded Governance Framework, dropping in the best all-singing-all-dancing PPM tool will risk tying your change in knots, it is far better to set up the right processes and then apply tooling later – not the other way round! This gives you the flexibility to evolve your controls, embed the governance and tailor them to how your organisation operates most effectively. Then you can fit the tool to the process – and PMO can help you find the best one for you. 

With a great Governance Framework, you’ll be in control of your deliveries. All teams can play the change game by the same rules, working to the same goals. The most effective Controls and Governance for each organisation will be unique. Project One has PMO experts, each with years of real-world day after day experience of Governance and Controls. Their experience will help you identify the Governance, implement and embed the Framework and help you get the most out of your team and achieve your business goals. 

Governance and Control is key to successful delivery, and great PMOs are experts in this and far more. PMO led Governance will help you to bring order to Chaos.

Unlock the full potential of your business with our expert insights. Contact us today to discover how we can help you achieve your goals.

theteam@projectone.com