PMO – are your transformation programmes under control?

Transformation programmes are complex by their very nature and need to be fully controlled to ensure they are always delivering. Whether you are starting a new transformation or have an existing programme are you confident you are in control? Have you established the right governance and controls for your transformation to maximise the chances of successful delivery? Is your PMO delivering?

In a previous insight, we discussed why a Project Management Office is more than just project admin, describing the services that your PMO should be providing.

In this insight we give some real-life examples of how Project One, as part of our wider leadership of complex transformation programmes, have set up, assured and run PMO teams to ensure a safe and successful transformation delivery.

How to set up a PMO from scratch – where do I start?

We have supported one of the world’s largest FMCG companies in gaining control of a strategically key global IT transformation. Our Project Management Office was able to:

• Design, set-up and run a tailored PMO function with the right tools and controls to give control to senior stakeholders in the organisation.
• Put our customer in control by ensuring the right information was flowing from delivery teams, through the Project Management Office to decision makers at the right time.
• Quickly put in place best practice governance bringing structure to a delivery which needed to focus on its business goals.
• Align programme controls with portfolio and organisational governance and ways of working, sharing best practice and building lasting capability.
• Implemented key processes around risks, scope changes, planning and reporting to make sure the programme was under control

How do I use data to understand the programme status and make informed investment decisions?

For another customer, in the aerospace sector, there were challenges in the information available and process used to prioritise, approve and monitor multi-millions of investments. There were difficulties that led to investment being mis-directed and evidence that delivery was not on track. We mobilised an enterprise wide PMO in 35 days. We also

• Created new PMO organisation, designing the service model and processes.
• Delivered a new enterprise-PMO (ePMO) tool and enabled the reporting of accurate data across the organisation and delivery teams.
• Improved the data quality which underpinned informed investment decision making.
• Improved delivery performance as better quality data and processes led to timely leadership interventions.

How do I optimise my PMO to make sure I have control?

Our customer, in the pharmaceutical sector, needed to build capability within the Finance Transformation Project Management Office as it was struggling to provide effective control and reporting on this complex, multi-year, programme. Working with the PMO Director and VP Finance, Project One:

• Carried out a comprehensive review of existing PMO processes, toolsets and team capabilities
• Used industry best practice and experience to shape the right PMO solution
• Uplifted existing PMO frameworks and pragmatically aligned them with the agile delivery framework
• Created a central programme plan in parallel with the implementation of a semi-automated reporting dashboard integrated with SharePoint
• Implemented improved processes and work instructions to support programme audit reviews
• A key outcome was that the previously over-run PMO team had more capacity for decision-making, strategic planning and quality assurance.

How can my PMO help manage multiple delivery partners?

Our telco customer (sector) had multiple brands and a key aim of delivering the future digital and core systems platform through embedding the transformation, via strong Business Change. The programme had multiple delivery partners and we needed to ensure there was one way of working and a single version of the truth. We created a robust governance and control framework which was developed and managed by our dedicated PMO team. Additionally, we:

• Set-up a service for a complex, four-year digital transformation.
• Worked with the delivery partners to understand what was important to them and built this into the standard controls.
• Enhanced the existing tooling and processes to improve governance and controls, including standardised reporting.
• Orchestrated reporting, financial and risk management.
• Established an onboarding pack outlining ‘ways of working’ to quickly bring people onto the programme.

The Project One PMO service is delivered by experts bringing best practice, techniques and tools in a pragmatic way to ensure that you are in control of your change. We have significant experience of ‘how’ to go about executing change in a co-ordinated way and build a capability to underpin successful programme delivery.  We understand the complexities and how hard programmes can be.

Your transformation programmes represent significant investment in both time and money. By ensuring you have control through an optimised PMO service using specialist PMO experts you can ensure that your transformation will be a real success.

To discuss further, please contact Nick Houlton 

Mobile: 07716 075616  | email: [email protected]