we're going to talk about this in a
little different way than you normally
think about so
um I'm basing this on like like Stuart
said I've been doing this for about 25
plus years I've been in project
management for longer so it's been a a
long time that I've been working in this
space and I see a lot of similarities
across all the
organizations and that's one of the
things I want to kind of talk about so
approaching this from a kind of
different standpoint than we and pmo
normally do so I want to talk a little
bit about the state of the pmo what is
SPM from my opinion um what are the
different capabilities and what are the
different components again for my
opinion on what we're going to talk
about with
that so over the years what what we've
seen is there's a number of P's and a
number of M's and in fact I used to
actually have a primer that went around
and talked about what kind of pmo are we
going to build so I was in Management
Consultant Consulting for years I was on
a global basis I lived in in Europe for
you know a long time about 15 years uh I
worked at Vodafone I worked at the
different big companies out there I
worked at Chevron I stood up their pmo I
stood up the pmo in a number of um
Silicone Valley groups which was a very
interesting experience when I don't want
to repeat um just kidding um and then
the last few years I've moved into
retail especially around the food space
and so was at Walmart um so the size of
Walmart is amazing and you know now I'm
still in some areas around food and food
distribution and supply chain and that
type of thing um and what I see is
consistently we have the same issues
kind of
across and um so pmos what are pmos P's
are the portfolio program project
product we added that one in you know
recently um are we supportive are we
collaborative are we monitoring are we
managing
are we executing are we delivering are
we stewards it's just kind of gone
around and around with kind of confusion
about what is a pmo or even if that we
want to use that word anymore now with
strategic we have strategic um portfolio
management so we've added a different
you know initial going in
so I thoughted to throw this up this is
really speaking of geeky this is totally
geeky uh this is a timeline of pmos and
I I did this because this was really
interesting to me is uh pmos from the
standpoint of a project management
office essentially uh started in the 30s
um and it went through and it was part
of the military and it was helping them
design airplanes and different things in
the military and it went through that
way until about the 80s and then in the
1980s it moved into construction and
other big areas where we could really
leverage the management of with using CR
cross functional same budgets same
resources those types of things in large
scale projects such as construction so
all that made sense so for like decades
this is really focused on delivering and
executing on projects then we went
through a really fun experience this is
when I really got to work with Donna
Fitzgerald by the way uh got to be a
featured speaker Gardner in Prague and
that was really exciting um that was in
the like the 90s Nally aging myself
and we we started adding things that's
when we started looking at things like
prioritization right um the first PPM
tool started coming out and we kind of
expanded we started Gro and suddenly we
were like important and relevant in
organizations at the sea level at
leadership
level then we had kind of the OTS I call
them the OTS I think things kind of
Chang during that period we did not keep
up in terms of pmos we did not keep up
in terms terms of showcasing the value
of what we had to offer we did not keep
up in terms of the different types of
work everything was this you know
project management it had to follow a
certain thing 9,000 templates 9,000 you
know um plans and U different formats of
different things and we suddenly became
the big brother we were stopping things
from happening we weren't agile we
weren't adaptive and we weren't moving
fast um and so people started getting
rid of this and uh project management
kind of went into a different
direction and
so I've seen in the last few years that
that has now kind of
resurfaced and where we're moving to now
is bringing back some of the project
management capabilities as well as
enhancing some of the pmo portfolio
capabilities
because companies really started
realizing how much they they had to have
this stuff so um that's what I'm seeing
that's my personal experience what I'm
seeing at the marketplace today and so
we have to be really aware of all the
different types of projects programs
products agile lean uh you know whatever
it is that that creates the environment
for the organization is where we should
be really focused across all of them and
I think about Tupperware Tupperware just
went out of business okay they went
bankrupt um Tupperware was the number
one seller of this great new product
that came out for years and years and
years you had tub Weare parties and you
would go do that the reason they went
out of businesses they wouldn't go
digital okay they wouldn't go into
e-commerce they said they would not
change their business model and they
went out of business and you know just
kind of makes me think a lot that um you
know we kind of got into that space and
now we're pulling ourselves out of it if
you will so I'll try not to be so geeky
going
forward I I love your timeline that um I
did did one of these webinars a year or
two ago with a guy called Atif Anar Dr
Atif Anar who at the time was running
the the uh Masters and major program
management at Oxford University and he
his timeline went back to Roman times
where yeah documentation of failed
projects and you Mega projects and had
failed and all these things it's
hysterical anyway sorry carry on that's
okay that's when they were chipping them
on rocks
okay so where are we going and why do we
want to go there so as an organizations
as organizations in organizations pmos
we need to be providing value we need to
be showcasing value value is my name
number one word I'm going to use it over
and over and over uh I got a number of
people on my team here they're so sick
of me saying value you know they want to
you know kind of hang up on me all the
time so it's all about delivering it
value all right if we're not doing that
we're not moving the strategy forward
we're not moving the company forward
we're not executing on projects
appropriately we may be delivering but
we're not executing um and we're not
creating the overall Enterprise Value
that we need to do for the
organization um and so this is the types
of things that I think we need to be
really thinking about as we set up an
SPM so according to Gartner you know by
2025 75% of all value measures will be
based on strategic business value not on
Project execution and this is a real
shift from what I was showing you on the
timeline is how we start moving
ourselves away from just thinking about
delivery and execution triple
constraints I mean are we really still
talking about that you know those types
of things um are really starting to be
important um so um they also advise
Gardner does to modernize the use of
enabling Technologies so introducing new
technologies for portfolio management
and execution that promote strategic
portfolio manage management decision
making and project and work execution so
I think uh if you're interested in some
of these tools you can talk to St he's
probably pretty familiar with them but
there's mechanisms and tools that can
help us to put this all together into a
package and so we're W we're really
focused on challenged from our
stagnating pmos that have relied on our
the original premise this is a quote
from McKenzie and purpose and we must
evolve to be Pro Pro active as a
strategic organization enabling value
contributions through aligned investment
and adaptive continuous delivery and I
think that's really the key so we need
to move to a new mindset and we need to
be understanding how that enables the
organization to successfully navigate
through the all the project noise that
goes on and deliver exactly what we
should be
delivering so what is strategic
portfolio management
said strategy What is strategy so um I
actually worked at some companies where
I as a consultant that they didn't have
strategy they didn't believe in strategy
they were tech companies we don't need
strategy it's all going to change in six
months so we don't need a strategy so I
found that to be a very interesting
concept um and most of those companies
have not kept up with delivering high
value products you know going forward
some of them are still struggling now
because they depended on on ways that
they had been doing things in the past
or this new agile they were moving so
fast um but anyway strategy is a general
direction for the company and its
various components for a desired future
State the strategy results come from
detailed strategic planning so that's
kind of so Deborah let me jump in for a
second that yeah let me let me ask you
this question when you go to conferences
or you're networking with your peers
right what's the the general level of
understanding of what strategy is and
how it works amongst pmos I'm interested
because I have a view I'd be interested
in your
view my opinion is very few people
across the board understand what
strategy is um I think it's a concept
that seems to be very clear and is very
hard to understand especially how you
implement it so I think pmos are still
struggling to how you align that
strategy with their delivery but I I
really think this is an area we struggle
with a lot in terms of um companies yeah
I I think that's true and I don't think
it's just pmos by the way um there there
was some recent research that talked
about something like 92% of people in in
a typical
organization simply don't understand the
strategy of the organization so if
that's true how can you execute the
strategy you can't might as well not
have a strategy right sitting in a
drawer somewhere
usually so because of that what is the
strategy identify right goals and
prioritize priorities leveraging our
finite resources to execute and I think
it's really important that we start
understanding how resources and
capabilities really align to how to
execute on
strategy so we'll talk about that a
little bit more in another slide so what
is exactly SPM it's the bridge between
strategy and execution and it'll it
ensures that the individual initiatives
are online to deliver those goals I have
this I found this old picture so I used
it because I liked it so on the on the
left is all of our our strategic
business stuff you know what's who's
what's our mission and vision I wager
you know stir to your point most people
wouldn't even be able to tell us their
company mission and vision you know let
alone the strategies um unless they're
very highly commun
communicated and then you get you know
this highlevel strategy so they're still
not clear how that translates to them
right and so here's our capabilities
what's our business capabilities and
then over on this this is an IT picture
right so over here would be how the IT
team is building out the the the
delivery and execution and this is where
strategic portfolio management sits we
sit in between the intersection of
strategy and execution and that's very
important we Do not sit on the execution
side we are not delivering projects we
are delivering strategic value and
that's a very very important distinction
can you say that again because that is
really really important just say
okay we we are not sitting on the
execution side because we're delivering
strategic value not executing our
projects so so those of you who know
Laura Barnard um so again Laur Laura's a
good friend of mine and and Laura talks
about something called that she calls
the strategy execution Gap right so this
is where you know the vast majority of
pmos spend 80% of their time on
execution issues and 20% of their time
on the S piece of
SPN and you know she talks about how you
know at the pmo at the Strategic pmo
level you should be spending 80% of your
time on the S part of SPM and maybe 20 %
of your time supporting and and
developing you know tools and
capabilities to support the PMS who are
executing stuff so you it sounds like
you're you're very much aligned with
that that kind of story I think so I
think I would be aligned with
that and then this is just you know kind
of an overall just SPM is is is the
business capabilities processes and
supporting tools that create a portfolio
of assets focused on moving the strategy
forward so we're what that's what we're
creating out of all of this so that's my
interpretation of
SPM so what are some of the capabilities
that go along with this we'll be talking
about capabilities a a lot because one
of the things that I think
we tend to O use kind of as an oversight
capabilities are the cross abilities
within an organization so it's behaviors
process is knowledge Talent whatever it
is that brings the organization together
and develops a series of capabilities to
uh work in the company so it's not just
you know we we focus a lot on say things
like resource what how many resources do
we have well you know capabilities are
looking at a bigger talent pool and a
bigger organizational structures where
are our people are they fungible are
they do we have the right skill sets do
we have soft skills that would be a
capability um versus a uh just kind of
the general thing that we focus on so
it's broadening our awareness of what's
going on in the organization so to to
develop an SPM you need to have the
ability to break down and communicate
business strategies so to your point St
this is one of the things that we really
really need to focus on because we have
to connect all the work we do to the
strategies and if people down on the
software engineer doesn't understand
that you know how I move in the strategy
and they don't have to understand how I
move in the strategy they just have to
understand that what I do is helping to
build these products that are doing this
and we eventually get there it's an
awareness all the way up and down and we
really stop looking at strategy and
rolling out our strategies at kind of a
high level so we might have our little
picture strategic pillars or things that
kind of come out like that and describe
that and we send it out to everybody and
they look at it in all hands and they go
okay that's great but we don't help them
understand how to integrate what they're
doing on a daily basis into that and and
to give give you an idea um so so
actually a shock was Playing devil's
advocate there and say no come on does
everybody really need to understand the
strategy and I would say yes right
absolutely they do and so he he kind of
threw out does the janitor need to
understand it and if you're in a
hospital absolutely because the janitor
keeps Everything clean that reduces
number of infections which improves
medical outcomes that's the Strategic
goal of the organization now it's part
of
the the the strategic planning process
and part of the management thing to be
able to Cascade down the big mission and
vision stuff into exactly what you just
said Deborah which is you know within
each team you need to understand which
bit of that do you own right how does
what you do every day contribute to
those strategic goals and so my my
advice to everyone on the call would
be go and read whatever strategy
documents your company has published go
and read them and then go talk to your
boss about them and ask your boss how
they think your team should be
contributing to those goals and if they
don't
know that that that sounds like it's
time to go and have conversations with
people right and figure it out um
because if you don't know you and we do
this internally where you know we ch
challeng we challenge our software
developers we challenge our QA guys to
think about the Strategic goals and what
they can do in their daily life to help
us achieve them right so one of ours is
to be Enterprise ready that's one of our
one of our big themes is is to be
Enterprise ready and so the QA guys went
off and came back with this little plan
that changed the way they do testing to
make sure that they're testing in the
context of an Enterprise environment
right where you have lots of different
us users they're not just testing the
functionality they're now testing it in
the context of having lots of users
across lots of different parts of the
organization because that's what an
Enterprise is yeah and so so you know if
you do not understand what your compan
what Your Role is and what the
contribution you personally can make go
figure it out because it's it's so
important and and you'll probably enjoy
you'll probably enjoy your job more if
you understand how you fit into the
delivering value as well right that's
that's more fun sorry interrupted again
that's okay um the other capabilities
include moving from annual to continuous
planning we've been talking about I've
actually been at places where we
recommended continuous planning and it
was a Flatout no under no circumstance
will we do that um so interesting that
there's resistance to that but there is
and uh again this is evolving your pmo
um not just the SPM to be thinking about
how to implement continuous planning
throughout the the annual the fiscal
year uh lean governance models okay
governance what's the we're going to
talk about systemic issues and just a
second governance governance governance
right to me it's one of the biggest
areas why we fail if it's not the
biggest area why we fail in terms of of
implementing really good pmo um so we
gota be lean though got to be lean and
adaptive and fluid and all those new
buzzwords right um job you know us use
that word um but it's about
understanding that there's different way
ways of delivering things but making it
easy for people and understanding things
um weding portfolio what if analysis
this is part of continuous planning uh I
get new work how do I know how it's
going to impact things most of the time
we look at our two or three um criteria
and we say okay this is going to cost a
lot or it's going to give us a lot or
something like that and so it's now
important um and so we move it in so we
have to be able to really understand how
that affects the portfolio work that's
going on um um road maps I hear people
talk a lot about road maps um I think
it's a skill set that organizations can
really improve on for the most part and
especially about what we do with them so
you know I've seen a lot of road maps
that you know are just long lines I've
seen Milestone ones that look like
project plans uh different things like
that so a portfolio road map of your
strategic efforts um is hard to put
together um I would recommend you do
that in a workshop
uh Financial Insight against all work
that one's pretty standard
straightforward managing outcomes this
is another mindset change okay so we're
managing outcomes um and that's part of
SPM that makes it different than just
pling pmo or delivery execution okay
we're not we're not just delivering
we're delivering outcomes and that's
part of the mindset change that I
recommend we start really thinking about
as we move through implementing
SPN so I made up my components here and
we're going to talk about each one of
these um and why did I pick these um
well I'll tell you why because in
multiple decades uh these are what they
see consistently being repeated and
causing us to fail as an organization
being an organization being pmo um so
the first one is kind of new this one I
haven't seen so much but that the Str
strategic imp narratives are not what's
driving um execution and delivery um so
we use words this is a this is a place
where we use words let's see I've had
compliance Omni uh transformation hey
remember when socks was a socks was a
criteria for what we did work on uh now
we have digital we have um you know
whatever whatever it is that's the
buzzword of the day so strategy is the
new buzzword and so we have to be very
careful we don't fall into hey this is
um everything we do is strategic no it's
not and it's shouldn't be done if it's
not but what we don't do is drive our
execution of our other projects so say
you know digital is really important
okay so everything digital gets done no
matter what cheuck check check all right
and now we have 400 projects in the
digital space um that's not how you
leverage your strategy going forward
it's to understand when that should be
done and how you can do it and we'll
talk about that in just a minute culture
I put this on here I think it's super
super super super important culture is
the perceived value of pmo up and down
the organization we have too many
delivery mechanisms we need a mindset
change so I don't want to just sell this
and have all the executives come back
and say woohoo that's so great love of
course I want to have that can't tell
you how many times I've heard that and
then they got rid of the pmo because we
were making them accountable and we were
prioritizing your work and suddenly it
was like no I don't really want that I
want to be able to do what I wanted do
so really showcasing the value to the
organization so there's buyin at all
levels lack of governance lack of
governance okay we are expecting our
leaders and our portfolio committees to
make decisions we need to provide them
with the adequate information to do it
but they must make decisions so if we
have too much work to deliver then they
need to stop work and this is really
really really hard in most of these
organizations so um I would put some
massive amount of time in culture and
governance those are two places that I
would be spending when I start setting
this up be spending time let's not worry
about all the processes and templates
we'll get there we've got a hundred
million of them it's not a problem and
this is a really right so so you've got
the old the old adage uh that you know
culture each strategy for breakfast
right drer and all those guys um and
um so so yeah we all know this is
important and you said put effort in
there but how do you do that how do you
engage in the conversation with the
leadership that says guys the culture is
broken around this stuff fix
it that's a tough conversation
right yeah it's a tough conversation and
and you know
again
what has happened and I think you most
of us know that is that we started being
Big Brothers we started throwing process
at the at the issue instead of throwing
uh communication and change management
and showcasing the Valu so we started
that and so now we've kind of got to
back up and break down those barriers
and start showing them okay if I ask you
to stop this work let me tell you what
that's going to how that's going to help
you and what that means and you know if
we have this you know we're going to put
it on hold you know because this is what
we as an organization need and and tie
it all together that's why you have to
that's why everybody needs to understand
strategy because if we're going to be
making decisions down here at execution
at the initiative level at the Strategic
initiative project level right then if
we can't do that um if they don't
understand why we're making those
changes it's because we haven't shown
them this linkage to the company what
does that mean if we don't make strategy
uh we lose jobs okay it's it's not a
small you know issue if we if we don't
deliver on some of these things and
you've seen it we just went through this
huge layoff out here in California I
mean it was it was horrible to watch and
you know a lot of it is because we
weren't these companies weren't
delivering so that's where you put your
effort you have meetings you don't go
like the speed of light I have this on a
slide we'll talk about that just a
little bit but that's what Slow Down
slow down slow down okay get the Buy in
okay so right now we're building out a
pmo okay uh an SPM pmo and we've already
recommended we're going to present this
tomorrow morning and we're not fully
launching until uh January okay so we
have everything in place we've got the
tools the processes but we know it's
going to take us that long to get the
communication out so let's not shoot
ourselves in the
foot this is another one execution of
work does uh we we assume that it
equates delivering strategic value it
does not so this is a this is a really
hard pill to swallow I had to think
about this a lot so we prioritize work
efforts but we're not really achieving
things we deliver projects but we don't
deliver business value we don't realize
our business value but we delivered
something so how does that work work
because we're equating
delivery to the outcome instead of
determining the outcome in the value so
outcome is what we need to be delivering
as opposed to our tripal constraints
so financials one of the things I really
realize is we have a huge basis on
financials from two standpoints one is
we have a a huge focus on it number two
uh we have too much focus on it I think
we everything is about the financials
are we fun are we this do we have the
financials do you have this where's the
finance where's the finance okay that
that's one piece it's one piece of the
outcome it's you know do you have your
business value stories have you have you
completed those that's a good question
as opposed to looking at kind of your
p&l you know wait a minute do we have
enough money for this you know so it's
it's kind of changing the mindset around
that as well but also uh I think this is
an area that organizations really need
to beef up is our Financial acument
across the board um so you know Finance
has a lot of secret knowledge you got
all those chartered accounts and CPAs
and all that that do all this but we
need to be able to understand and build
those out as well so if you're in the
pmo I highly recommend that you get your
financial capabilities way up so you can
really use that and then portfolio U
reporting we we report a lot on projects
we do not report a lot on portfolio so
strategic planning so how do you how do
you put all this together so translate
strategy first thing you need to do is
have a strategy okay I if I don't have a
strategy how am I planning against it so
nowadays these can look very different
because Chevron we we did a uh you know
four weeks in a in a conference room and
build a 25e strategy because we were
building you know drilling Platforms in
the ocean and things like that and they
took that long you know nowadays it's it
maybe a six month strategy if you don't
know where you're going as a company you
don't know a if you got there if you got
off the exit too soon or whatever right
so lots of different techniques and
mechanisms and some of the more current
ones you okrs an okr would work fine you
know it really translates everything
down to everybody we're doing ogsm where
I'm at now and We're translating those
into HR goals so the individual's goals
for their performance goals will be
based against their
in know the strategies um so there's
some mechanisms that we can use to do
some of that stuff that makes it better
but you have to really be able to
translate that to execution and
priorities um I did do this picture um
and so the first top parts are the
strictly strategy SPM sits in the middle
and then we execute down at the bottom
but I also added a little box up here
about culture and
capabilities so measure vertically and
horizontally we historically really
focus on horizontal boom you know here's
our pillars here's our areas and that's
what we look at if we're not doing this
we're not developing our organizational
capabilities and we're not looking
across the board at the Enterprise so
the best way to do that is to start with
an Enterprise um strategy get the stuff
from the top get the stuff from the top
guy and start driving it from there
across the board this is very important
for enabling organizations so if your h
s your legals your your Finance teams
all these that support organizations
they need to know how they sit in all of
those things across the board um
obviously have an intake of work efforts
uh you do capabilities Gap assessment so
this is really about do we have um the
financial Acumen we need across the
board you know and really understand
that and see where it goes
prioritization this is a really
interesting one um
uh we just had a conversation yesterday
about this um how do you measure or
prioritize strategic impact um and that
is a very very interesting concept so
like all the other buzzwords I'm
compliance yes I get you know five
points on my score um I'm aligned to
strategy yes that's why I titled this
this you know section here you know you
know that that everything's strategic
because what you will get is one 100%
yes it's strategic that's the answer
everyone will give you the same exact
answer um because to them whatever
they're doing is strategic so you have
to figure out ways to either showcase
the measurement how they will actually
be measured which is very hard if you're
doing scored weighted criteria for
prioritization right or look at other
components So Yesterday Mike and I were
talking about doing different things um
customer impact risk assessment
different things that could lead into
moving the strategy forward so this is
an area that would be great for us to
have as a discussion point if people
wanted to talk about that but I think
it's really going to be hard for us at
this point to use this as one of the
criteria and
prioritization and it's it was
interesting we we I had a conversation
yesterday with a UK government
department and they they very proudly
said we've got six strategic priorities
are driving this whole department right
this whole
agency and uh and that's very nice glad
to hear it right that's the big strategy
that's that's kind of the the yellow and
the green blobs up at the top somewhere
and it was really interesting because
when we got to actually talking about
prioritization right I said well you
know you've got your six big big
objectives do they help you prioritize
not at all no right because they too
vague and so so to make this happen
right to make prioritize this
prioritization happen you have to be a
more specific and you have to break down
you have to go down and ask those hard
questions about okay for the whole
organization we've got these big goals
how's that apply to the R&D team or to
the IT team or to the whichever team
you're in right how do those goals
translate into what we do and then they
become your objectives so this this
strategy process it's look this pyramid
here um one of the things that that I
often talk about is this happens right
this happens at the whole corporate
level but it also happens within each
division and within each department
right the same process needs to happen
and you know you you can't
align your work to what you're trying to
achieve if you don't get to a level of
specificity where you can
actually measure
it estimate it anyway sorry I'm going to
shut up because I I could talk about
this as you know Deborah you
could I could talk about this for hours
yeah but the other piece about that is
then we have to make sure that we're
understanding across all of those pieces
as they roll up so that's why some of
the new techniques like okrs or in our
case we did ogs IMS and so we can get
the bigger pictures in the ogss as you
will um and then the initiatives are
more business unit related um and that
seems to be a pretty pretty good
technique for that so um Road mapping
continuous planning and and St we we
kind of talked about um and then the
final one is let's measure shortterm and
long term so when people think strategy
they're thinking okay what am I doing in
the next three years okay long range
planning kind of stuff right all right
so we're measuring that okay when so you
get words like iida right you know okay
so you know Little Joe down here is like
oh yeah that relates to me you know
doesn't get that um so we want have some
short-term abilities to track that we're
trending against the strategy and the
values outcomes that we need so let's
not forget that kind of piece
so
um so a lot of these have the same
things that we've kind of kind of talked
about so organization culture uh make
sure that we understand our value and
make sure that the people in the
organization understand it change your
mindset and the final thing which we
didn't really touch on really is the
appetite for change so organization I I
love the whole thing about oh it's we'll
never change so much again oh it's just
about change it's like I don't know for
anybody who's been doing this for a
while but the change is the same it's
always been it's always things are
always changing you know we've always
tried these things if anybody remembers
tqm uh you know that that's been going
on they just kind of changed the name so
it's really about being fluid with how
to implement some of these newer
Concepts in so that we're addressing
people that are now more learned in
those areas than maybe what we were so
being flexible around some of that kind
of
thing um governance um again I hear all
the time Executives want this and then
they really don't kid you not when it's
first time every time I hear somebody
first time somebody said that to me I
was all excited then then I kind of got
after that it was kind of like no they
didn't really want it um I was told
yesterday that our CEO made a a very
large visible and succinct uh set of
information at their annual Retreat that
they just had um about prioritization
and intake and how we were going to
start doing this and we were going to
really look at work and I was jumping up
and down for Joy because that was really
clear that he understand that that
understood that we were going to have to
cut some work that we were going to be
really focused on this and he said it to
everybody at this big big meeting and
that made me very excited because when
you have people sitting around the
boardroom saying yes of course that
sounds great why would they say no you
know but when it comes to sorry but you
know you're gonna we're not going to
have your pet project we're not going to
have your Mr Big Guy project we're not
going squeaky wheel we're going to be
focused on these things and stuff that
you're already working on you're going
to stop that has to be said and it's
hard and people don't want do it so for
somebody as an executive to come out and
say that makes me very happy about how
successful we're going to be at this
particular pmo
setup um so that's that's that it's it's
very very important execution again we
need to move to a value mindset we need
to be focused on
outcomes you know that's it project
program management we already got all
that um yeah yeah benefits and value
again we've talked about some of that we
had some of this discussion a little
earlier so I'm not going to worry too
much about it okay reporting this is an
area that we can really leverage so
especially if we're using tools right
any tools you know PPM tools or powerbi
or whatever the tools are so you know
I've seen these status reports and
they're you know we're still reporting
on stuff and that's absolutely perfect
okay for projects right what I don't see
is portfolio reports much right and when
I do it's you know um different things
so maybe you want to start looking at
things like um how are we trending
against irr irr is our is is our
business value mechanism that we're
using um right um and you can Trend that
you can get one of those great Chartered
Accountants and they can show you how to
do that for your project they can build
that for you so that you know you're on
track for your outcomes on that but we
tend to look at where how how much did
we spend on our capital or what's our
p&l look like right instead of looking
at where are we going against our our
our values in our strategies and it's a
a huge difference in what we try to
report
on so um I just have a couple examples
here this is an executive scorecard and
it's it's just showing kind of the
different areas to think about so of
course something like percent of
portfolio line to strategic initiatives
all right if everybody's a yes that
doesn't mean much right but if you
really break it down you're going to
know that some portfolio pmo kinds of
things how many projects got put on hold
so I remember many many years ago when
we were we were told if your projects
didn't get put on hold you were not
doing effective um pmo work so it always
stuck with me you know so if we're not
putting things on hold or canceling or
or turning them down you know then we're
not effectively maturing our pmo
capabilities so you know how many
business cases that's fine uh
initiatives with this is this is around
the the capabilities what percent of
initiatives have skill gaps shortages
you know looking across the board where
are we having skill gaps you know not
you know my resource demand so much how
many initiatives do we have in portfolio
look backs you hav even talked about
look backs right so did we go back and
really check on some of that so this is
a nice little way of doing this and then
I have I have pages of this examples but
these are actual uh kinds of things to
think about when you start getting ready
to do your dashboards I know some of
them will come out of the tools right
but some of them are really portfolio
and you know are we
executing in our portfolio against the
strategy and delivering the outcomes
that we said we would so if you can keep
your mind there you're going to have a
whole different set of metrics and and
Reporting than you traditionally are are
probably doing right
now and that's pretty much what I had so
you know basically slow it down don't
try to do 900 processes at the same time
be fluid understand and communicate the
strategy expand your organizational
capabilities and change your
mindset that's
it de I've been really struggling for
the last 40
minutes um to not interrupt you on every
point on every slide and have a whole
discussion about it um so to give you a
little bit of feedback straight away
right the um my team are watching this
and teams has gone insane they're
already copying and pasting content and
writing posts and getting really excited
about how we can share this with our
engineers and all this kind of good
stuff so uh my guys are quite
experienced in this area they hear me
talk about this all the time so if
they're excited by what they've just
heard then everyone in this call should
be absolutely uh jumping up and down in
your seats uh that was fantastic thank
you very much um so so I I think some of
the some of the comments were things
around some of the hows right so we
talked a little bit about how do you how
do you um start to change the culture um
and then I think there's something about
how do you again there was a little
discussion going on about how do you
find that sweet spot with the leadership
team because you know it's not the
leadership's team to be experts in
project management or portfolio
management they're they're there to be
the senior leadership
team and it's not project manager job to
be part of the senior leadership team
right and this is that bridge I think
that you were talking about at the
beginning that's what the SPM is all
about is being that bridge so what do
you think of the what do you think of
the The Sweet Spot is where you can be
that bridge right and and pull each of
those communities a little bit closer
together but but how would you
start you know if speak to your own self
25 years ago and what advice would you
give yourself to get started on that
journey to get better at doing that
engaging both ends because a bridge has
to connect at both ends right so both
ends of the bridge and and start pulling
them together what's what are the key
skills you've developed you think to get
that well one you have to understand the
business I think that's really important
and then you also have to understand
delivery so you you need to have some
background in project management but not
everybody in pmo needs to have a project
management background so how do we
manage what's being delivered so that
you can talk to people and really
understand what it is that they're
presenting or providing you in terms of
status so you can have that conversation
um and then how do you translate that
over to the business
needs so I think that's really how you
kind of work on both sides if that
helped yeah was very unclear yeah great
I tell you what I I've just noticed that
um that aliser is on here today Alistair
just give me a little wave let me know
that you're happy for me to unmute you
to allow you to talk um uh I think
that's a yes I see a
hand um all right I'm I'm going to I'm
going to allow aliser to talk so alist
so aliser is one of my team a little bit
on alistar's background so aliser was uh
you know reasonably senior in the
British army uh he had you know 800
people in green pajamas running around
underneath him or something like that at
some point and he's actually sat in the
seat of that senior leader in that
senior leadership role being the guy
saying I want governance and I want this
and I want
that and so so Alisa I'd be interested
in your take on that that question right
what do you what when you were in that
seat what did you want the pmo to say
and do to help you make that to help
build that
bridge so this is oh c this this is one
of those big questions and if there was
an easy answer then none of us would be
sitting here talking about it because
somebody would have provided the answer
and everybody would just be doing it and
life would be
lovely the challenge is about
communication it's about talking to
right the right language what I wanted
when I had when I was on the the other
side of the bridge um was for the pmo to
tell me in terms that I
understood what was going
on what value was being
delivered
what was going well and what I needed to
worry
about so that was the comfort blanket of
what was going well and we were were on
track for this and what did I need to
worry about because I could do something
to contribute to solving the problem for
putting extra resources in place or
providing better direction or something
like that what I didn't want was a
massive spreadsheet with lots and lots
of colorcoded bits and pieces of exactly
what the status was of every small piece
of activity because I'm afraid you know
my brain is just not big enough to pick
that lot up in 5 minutes what I really
wanted them to do was talk in terms that
I understood about what I needed to know
about quickly and effectively so I could
give good direction and they could crack
on and this is where we're talking about
that bridge that the pmo needs to
understand enough about the executive
world so that they can say the right
things at the right time in the right
way so that the executives understand
and they can make the decisions that
they're paid to make and then the peer
maker say thank you very much I've got
um your direction I'm on it leave it
with me I now know what you want me to
do and I'm off way doing
it and Deborah you your your reports
that you had there at the end right that
that's really what they were trying to
do
right to have that that that level of
communication yes yeah so the thing that
struck me with with Deborah's example
there at the end was was that it wasn't
really
detailed right the execs don't care
right I'm I'm the CEO a small company
and even I don't care about the details
right because it's just I don't have the
expertise to to process and understand
the detailed information in all the
different parts of the organization so
so you know Deborah what I really liked
about your your reports and I'd love you
if you can just to dig a little deeper
into that is how do you decide what
information is the right information to
put into those governance
reports because it's not going to be the
same for every organization you've done
this for right it's been different for
everyone I would bet
well I I I think it's actually just I
mean I've carried these rep I gotta say
honestly I've carried these reports with
me for 15 years and different and just
enhance them as I go along so the when I
first started them yes it was all about
you know all the project management
reports um and then I started looking at
it from different levels um so different
people need different information so
kind of what alistair's talking about
some people do want all that detailed
level right um and so but then as you go
up into different levels so you might
have a project manager you might have a
business owner you might have an
executive and they all have a different
level of information um and then I'd
like to go through the whole So What
scenario um this is another way to look
at it so um I want to show um I don't
know uh the the amount of of resources
planned to actuals okay that that we're
using on projects um so at a project
level that's really about do I have
people staffed appropriately and then
keep going through that and then as I go
up higher I'm going to be showing them
that we have skill gaps we have we need
fungible resources and those are more
that's why I go back to the systemic
piece that's different ways of handling
that is not necessarily by just saying I
have enough software Engineers or
something it actually comes right out
and says we have a big skill Gap in this
technology ology I don't have any full
stack Engineers I don't have any machine
learning I need five of them you know
and that's one way to kind of look at it
so it's capabilities I also don't have
anybody who's good at negotiation I
don't have somebody who's good at at
conflict you know so it's it's making it
bigger than just what the skills look
like but but that level that that report
is going to be very crisp you know and
say yes we have four skill set gaps blah
blah blah and then the leadership has
decisions to make around that right and
that's the key I think to to a good
governance report is that you're giving
them the information they need to
understand what's going on but then you
you're being very clear about what
decisions you're asking them to make to
support you right that that's what what
jumped out at me when I looked at that
was I could see exactly where you needed
help on that on that thing and I could
get there in about 10 seconds right
which was really cool yeah yeah I like
that anything that's fast it's way like
dashboards you know lots of visuals um
yeah some some some crazy powerbi
reports come out and I what did this
this I did this in my last company and
they give these powerbi reports and be
go what is this telling me
you I never could figure it out
everything in that report right I I
would yeah indeed yeah everything in
your report right if it's going to to
the leadership the higher up in the
organization it's going the more
important this becomes ask ask
yourself what is the person receiving
this what decision are they going to
make based on this information and if
the answer is they're
not then you could probably I'm not
going to say it's a golden rule that you
could take it out but you could
certainly consider taking it out because
the more information you give people I I
used to have a sa MDM call remember Sab
I used to so I had a Sab my favorite
thing on that whole car was um you're
driving along the highway at night there
was a button you can press the button
and all of the lights went out on the
dashboard except for the speedo right
which was the only thing you needed when
you're driving on the highway at night
so you weren't distracted by radio by
how many revs you doing the temperature
of the the engine but if the engine got
hot that would light up right and that's
what your dashboard I think should
probably do it should give you the
speedometer because you always need that
yeah but then it should be highlighted
the things that need
attention and the other thing if I may
just dive in for a second the other
thing that you need to remember about
the senior Executives there a comment I
put in the chat I think about stepping
into their world and understanding them
so you can you can talk to them
effectively
don't fall into the Trap of thinking
because you've been thinking about this
issue for ages and you understand it
inside and out that they know as much
about it as you do if you're calling
them to a meeting they're probably
reading the notes on it as they walk
down the Corridor to the meeting room
metaphorically even if it's an online
meeting you've got to get them up to
speed quickly which means don't give
them exrain this information give them
the the important stuff in a way that
they can understand and tell them what
you want them to do with it they're
bright people but they can't just absorb
masses of data in 30 seconds give them
the good stuff and help them to help you
brilliant I I have one final question
then we're we're really out of time uh
which is what does what does a newly
formed pmo need to have in place as a
minimum to get started Beyond kind of
traditional pmo stuff what do you think
is the minimum the MVP for a
pmo for an SPM pmo yeah yeah for one
that that wants to wants to have a stab
at
it
strategy that's kind of basic but if if
you're not if you don't have any
strategy with measurements everything
has to have a measurement otherwise you
don't know if you're you know sounds
good um you know but I think that's
really
important Harvey's throwing in a a
comment on that one which is executive
buying and support yeah good going
there excellent all right listen uh
Deborah I I've I've really enjoyed this
I've learned a bunch of stuff which is
great so thank you for that
um I really love doing these sessions
because you know we we learn stuff we do
this stuff all day every day and we we
still learn things when we bring really
smart people on onto sessions and really
experienced people like Deborah onto
sessions like this so a thousand on
behalf of everybody on the call thank
you very much for for putting the effort
into pulling these slides together and
then sharing your thoughts with us today
it's been absolutely super um and um if
anybody would like to you know if what
is it they say on the radio if you've
been affected by the issues on today's
show um uh certainly reach out to me uh
Stuart Easton on LinkedIn Deborah do you
want people to reach out to you or sure
I'm out there brilliant excellent all
right you heard it here folks um so uh
so do reach out and connect uh ask
questions um there's a whole bunch of
information on a lot of the things that
Deborah talked about today uh around
prioritization and Alignment uh
increasingly around your know resource
planning and you we didn't talk a lot
about that today but that's that's part
of it and then the benefit tracking
throughout the life cycle and all that
kind of good stuff um so there there's
lots of information on our website and
there's more and more and more to
come and I think some of the future
content will be based on today's talk so
really good super super stuff thank you
Deborah