PMO zero to PMO hero – Developing PMO maturity

Wherever your PMO sits on the maturity scale, from Ad-Hoc to Optimising, there will always be more which can be done to deliver value through PMO. Developing and maturing PMOs and transforming them into real Heroes of your delivery organisation takes time, effort and expertise. 

Improving any process or capability doesn’t happen by itself. Whatever you’re doing, occasionally a happy accident will make something a little better. Maybe you misread the label on an ingredient for dinner, and you inadvertently create an amazing new flavour combination. However, more often than not creating something better, improving upon the status quo, takes thought, skill and not a little effort. Improving the capabilities within your PMO is no different. If you’re not seeing the value you need from your PMO it’s unlikely the team will arrive on Monday morning and spontaneously become the change ally you’re looking for.  

To develop the maturity of your PMO you need the right team, and the right approach to quickly deliver value and for the PMO to become the change heroes you need. 

The right team to grow PMO maturity 

Your PMO team will consist of individuals with a range of skills, experiences and diverse backgrounds. A mature PMO requires diligent process operators who understand their processes, support the delivery teams and maintain high standards throughout the PMO. The individuals which you will call on to run your PMO day to day are PMO specialists, many of whom will have built their careers on operating PMO processes. When embarking on your journey to grow PMO maturity, you will need to call on another type of PMO specialist. Individuals who have decades of experience of establishing and maturing PMOs. PMO transformation experts.  

PMO transformers are well versed in supporting organisations to establish the right tools, techniques and processes to deliver change and will allow you to rapidly climb the maturity curve. They can help you build an efficient, impactful and optimised PMO in the right areas for your organisation, then critically, they leave. You don’t need these more costly resources around forever, but you will need to call upon their experience to quickly transform your PMO. Don’t get caught in the traps of either relying on PMO transformation experts forever or thinking expert support isn’t needed and the PMO will transform itself without help. 

Developing Maturity  

When you have understood and targeted the right areas of PMO capability and delivery controls for your organisation, using a maturity assessment and assembling the right team, you will be able to begin building a mature, highly capable PMO. It can be tempting to reach back into the toolbox for a ‘cookie cutter’ PMO capability which promises wonderful capabilities. However, we know that there is no ‘one size fits all’ PMO.  

PMO creates maximum value by helping delivery managers to be successful, as well as enabling senior managers to run the organisation effectively and take key decisions. The development of your mature PMO will be unique to your organisation, and with the right expert support will build a function which enables transformation.  

When maturing your PMO it’s important to balance both the ‘hard’ process and tool elements of control with the ‘softer’ human aspects. PMO works well when it’s embedded, supportive and respected. A good way to build buy-in to the maturing PMO is to quickly demonstrate value, and control. A process like this might work for your organisation: 

Prioritise Capabilities and Controls:

Establish a backlog of capabilities and controls to be established and matured in the PMO. This backlog should be concerned with both establishing new capabilities to plug gaps, enhancing and amplifying existing strengths.  

The controls to be matured should be prioritised based on several factors: 

• Quick Value – Small, rapid to implement or mature controls will help demonstrate the value of improved PMO capability. You may have a great process in place, but the training is missing so it’s not in use – small changes may quickly enable greater value. Tackling the biggest, most complex control first might not be the best place to start. 

• Big Impact – ‘Must-have’ controls which are lacking will be key to unlocking your PMOs value, for example, if delivery teams are progressing and you lack any planning controls, getting these in place quickly will be critical.  

• Supporting The Team – Changes to PMO will need the support and engagement with delivery teams and senior stakeholders. Prioritising change which positively impact them will start to create a collaborative maturity transformation and build the buy-in you will need when tackling some of the harder changes you may need to make. 

Capability Creation:

With the prioritised backlog your PMO transformation experts will be able to define and develop individual capabilities. Creating or maturing each capability will need to consider: 

• Initial standards and expectations – By establishing and documenting the ‘rules of the game’ for both Programme Managers (PMs) and PMO will set the framework of your PMO capability. Being clear on processes and the support which teams can expect from the PMO is key. The PMO experts need to balance the level of control required with the overhead of operating the controls.  

• Tools and templates – The PMO experts will need to implement easy to use tools and templates to assist PMs in adopting the new, and get value from them. Capabilities and processes shouldn’t be set without the right tools to help PMs follow them. Without the right templates PMs will waste time building their own and your PMO will have difficulties dealing with the inconsistencies created. Tools and templates will also need to consider how PMO will aggregate information, distil it for leadership (dashboards may be needed) and how PMO will assure compliance with the new standards (and target support for anyone struggling). 

• Guidance and Training – Without the right support materials and preparing to roll out the new PMO capabilities, the maturing PMO won’t deliver value. Stakeholders need to be able to get to grips with the improved controls, tools, templates and know who to call on if they face challenges. Guidance and Training will bring the new mature PMO to life for delivery teams and establish them as a trusted ally they can call upon to help them deliver for the business. 

It’s important to remember when creating new PMO capabilities that all components will need to combine into a single integrated control environment. Planning must interact with scope management. Risks will have a schedule but also a financial impact. Establishing each capability with an eye on the whole will let you deliver the greatest impact with the maturing PMO. 

Implement and Refine:

When creating any new capability within the PMO it’s a good idea to start at a small scale. Test each capability in real delivery projects which need them.  

During implementation and refinement, where things don’t work as well as intended, you will need to adjust. Even with the most well considered processes and templates, once out in real delivery scenarios things may not work. Alterations should be small (like tweaking a label on a template to make it clearer) or larger (like changing the timeline of a process due to a missed external deadline). When implemented at a small scale you’ll be able to quickly correct these problems without disrupting the entire portfolio. 

As delivery teams get to grips with the new mature PMO controls you will be able to show that PMO is delivering support to change teams, build advocates for PMO in delivery, and allow you to showcase the value of the newly maturing PMO. You will also need your PMO experts to upskill the existing PMO team in the new capabilities to build understanding and ownership of the new PMO. 

Broaden and Embed:

Once you’re happy with the new capability the PMO will deliver, it is time to take it wider, to all teams across the change portfolio. By establishing consistency across all deliveries, the PMO will be able to quickly roll-up information for leadership, spot trends and support all teams equally effectively.  

When broadening the use of new capabilities and embedding new processes into the delivery organisation, it’s critical that the PMO is providing hands on support to the PMs and delivery team, enabling them to; quickly adopt the new processes, tools and standards while also getting value for themselves from the newly maturing PMO. 

It’s a good idea at this point to keep capturing ‘good news stories’ about the mature PMO. Issues solved, deliveries enabled, and insights given all help to build recognition that your PMO is adding value to the organisation. 

It’s likely that you will have multiple PMO capabilities being developed through this maturity process at the same time. Some will be quick and easy to adopt, others will be slower, possibly limited by wider business processes (e.g. financial controls may take months to mature if the business only reports financially once per month). By iterating through the prioritised backlog the PMO will continue to develop and mature capability. Care must also be taken not to throw too many new or transformed processes at delivery teams in rapid succession otherwise deliveries may be disrupted or slowed purely by the PM trying to get to grips with the new controls.  

With the right PMO transformation expertise supporting you to grow the maturity of your PMO, you will be able to deliver efficient and effective  change governance and control. A PMO delivering zero value can be transformed into PMO heroes.  

Read part one of our PMO zero to heroes series.

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