So, my name's Stuart, uh, Stuart East,
and I'm one of the, the founders here at Transparent Choice.
And, um, uh, this session sort of grew out
of conversations that David, you
and I have been having forever around, um,
governance and things like that, right?
And, and governance. I dunno about you guys,
but I, I just know, it just doesn't sound sexy,
it doesn't sound exciting.
But when you start talking about are you a value center,
a cost center that, you know, that gets your attention,
and, um, uh,
and actually the, the difference between the two
very often is actually how you do governance, right?
You can call it governance.
You can talk about portfolio management, you can talk,
you can call it all sorts of different things.
You could call it benefits realization.
Fundamentally, they're all kind of the same thing.
And the, the difference between a value center
and a cost center is really
how much you focus on delivering, uh,
delivering the values, right?
They're in the, in the word.
So that's what we're gonna talk about today.
We're gonna, we're gonna throw some ideas around.
Um, uh, David has a really interesting framework
that he's been building with a, a community of,
of real experts over the last year
or two that he's gonna share with us a little bit.
Just a little bit, not too much, a little bit.
Yeah, we, we, we're, we, we, we've got a little,
little time timer ready for you, David.
Um, uh, uh, so David, uh, we, we,
you can introduce yourself in a minute.
So David's gonna kick off with a little bit of, sort
of a formal presentation, if you like.
We're then gonna move on to Alexander, David,
and again, Alexander, you can,
you can introduce yourself when we get to that point.
Uh, he's gonna share with us a case study where they,
they really went from that kind of cost center, you know,
kind of a PMO, that,
that was not necessarily doing very much other than just
kind of administering lots of money being spent, um,
and turned it into something that really delivered value.
And then Dan is, is going to show us, um, a couple
of little bits and bits of software, um, that support
what the guys are gonna tell you about that sort
of illustrate how that might look, right?
So it's not really a demo, it's not,
that's, uh, we, we do those.
We'll have another webinar on that.
So if you want to demo, there'll be another
webinar where we do a demo.
But really just to kind of highlight
and just to give you a little insight into
what it might actually look like
and feel like when you're able to do some of these things.
So, without any further ado, um, no, not quite,
without any further ado, one more ground rule, which is, um,
the more interactive this is,
the more interesting it's gonna be for you and for us.
So I really, really want you guys to jump in If you agree
with something that one of the speakers says,
let us know if you disagree, let us know.
If you recognize a problem
that somebody's talking about, let us know.
Ask questions, challenge the ideas. All right?
There's no monopoly on, on wisdom on this call.
So, with that, and I promise, with no further ado,
I'm gonna hand over to David to, uh,
uh, to, to get us started.
Here we go. Fabulous.
Right? Um, uh,
I hope everyone's sitting comfortably as I'll begin.
Hello, my name's David. Um, I'm, oh, what am I?
Um, I'm the, uh, founder of a little, little, uh,
community interest company called, uh,
the Business Integrated Governance, uh, CIC.
We've developed this framework, um, for, uh,
connecting from purpose to, to vision,
to strategy, to delivery, and back again.
You can look that up and,
and have a poke around what all that stuff is in,
in your own, uh, in your own time.
Um, I'm today here, uh, looking to offer you some,
some thoughts and ideas.
I'm gonna paint the scenario just to, to enable me
to make a few points and then, uh, hopefully offer you
a future and bigger vision for what A PMO might be, uh,
which, uh, enable, um, folks to offer, uh, value, uh,
uh, like you've never seen.
If I can be so bold, um, right.
I'm trying to move the screen on.
I'm not succeeding. Uh, do I have control,
Sir? There you go. I'll do that. There
you go. Oh, yeah.
Okay. I'll do it for you. Um,
Okay. So, uh, stereotype
alert folks, I'm,
I'm gonna offer you a scenario.
This, this, I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence
or be condescending, uh,
but, um, uh, many of us who work in PMOs or, or,
or, uh, use PMOs or connect the PMOs, uh, we love PMOs.
We respect them. They're absolutely fundamental
necessities of business.
Um, they're all different shapes and side sizes.
Uh, if, if they were birds, they'd be chickens and,
and ducks and all kinds of different animals, uh, there's,
there's no way easily to, to describe a PMO.
It would just insult somebody.
So I'm not, not gonna try and, um, go there.
Um, but in a nutshell, um, our, our, our PMOs, uh, define
what project management is to us.
And, uh, the owners of, of all, all of that good practice.
Uh, they provide support and expertise to organizations
so they can do these things called projects
effectively and efficiently.
Um, they'll help us be compliant
'cause we're not always good boys
and girls for how we should, uh, behave on projects.
And they'll, uh, provide some analysis and reporting.
They're often a, a really good, a really good function, um,
that, that, uh, adds, uh, a lot of value in itself.
Um, um, next, next builds chair.
Um, an interesting quote somebody said to me once,
and I love this one, is, is that, um, a lot
of PMOs patch the gaps between how you should work
and how you do work and, uh, are, are very, very valuable,
um, uh, to us, to, to behave ourselves and,
and to, to, to, uh, en enable the machinery
to connect and, and behave.
So, uh, that's not a trivial thing
that's, that's really important.
Um, but I, I think, um, a lot
of our PMOs are really focused on being,
on supporting effectiveness
and efficiency, on helping the operation.
And that's the next little bill shirt,
um, which, which is there.
So that, that's, that's a really, I think for, for a lot
of PMOs, that that's their, their, their true mission,
that they help the business to be effective and efficient.
I think I can control now. Yay.
Um, so how do, how do these, um, PMOs come about?
Uh, again, an another stereotype alert,
just to be able to make a point.
Um, well, many of us are in organizations
that perhaps get a really big project,
a really important project, and we needed, we needed a team
to, to help that to happen.
And we'll, we'll set up a PMO, uh, to help us organize and,
and run and be the wrap around that project.
And we do such a good job, um, that, um, we,
we perhaps get the chance to do that for more projects
and maybe our, our role formalizes to, um,
and in to include program management where we need to, uh,
add further value with, uh, managing dependencies
between projects and the business, uh, managing benefits to,
to help us achieve outcomes.
And we grow and, and we, we offer more value as, as our,
as our, uh, time goes by, we may further grow
and, uh, not just do, uh, a number of projects for a,
for a collection or a,
or a program may take a take on a function for a,
for a department and start to do things li uh,
like manage resources, plan
and schedule resources for projects and,
and negotiate, uh, availability
and allocations between, uh, projects and,
and, uh, other businesses, usual commitments.
And, uh, laterally, if we do a fantastic job,
we may be pulled into doing this role to being, being the,
the overall project function for our, for organization.
And, um, that's, that's a very, uh, simplistic and,
and, uh, uh, basic, uh, lifecycle there.
But this, this is, uh, happens a lot.
Um, if, if you've seen this, please, please chat.
Uh, put something in the comments to, to back this up.
But I've, I've seen this many times,
but the, the focus here seems to be on efficiency
and effectiveness, getting, getting the PMO to grow
to be more efficient and effective.
But I guess the challenge is that, um,
as our PMOs get bigger, they become more expensive as,
as we, um, um, but, and,
and do we always, are we always able through efficiency
and effectiveness to persuade the business that we're as,
as useful as our, as our expense, uh, warrants?
And hence, um, I think one of the quotes in the, uh,
preamble was that too often PMOs are viewed,
have used as a cost center.
Is is that because, um, they're, they're really aiming at,
uh, helping the business be efficient
and effective as opposed to offering, uh, bigger
and better, uh, value statements.
Um, just hold that thought for the moment.
Um, so the question then is, um, my proposition to you is
that there'll come a point, um, when efficiency
and effectiveness that, that, um, that benefit case for a,
for a PMO or whatever we, we call it, um,
the benefit case kind of starts to run outta puff
because we can only make, we can only make the business
so much more efficient and effective.
Um, and, um, perhaps we should start looking for other forms
of value than efficiency and effectiveness.
Uh, and let's, let's explore that a little bit further.
So, um, the answer then is how about, uh,
we develop our E-E-P-M-O, uh,
or whatever we call it to be a more broad
and deep, um, business support function, which doesn't just,
um, help us run the projects effectively,
but starts to connect up strategy to delivery.
It becomes a true strategic integration body
and offers, um, services
and assistance to, uh, more senior level sponsors that,
that, um, enable us to truly connect, connect the business
to what we do as project and programs.
And we, we all probably are aware of, of one incarnation of
that project portfolio management, the ability to look at a,
a selection of projects, look at their value and,
and look at their cost,
and to help our organization make
good decisions about what we do.
Um, that's, that's the first incarnation of,
of this kind of this kind of function.
It's where we can start to add true value
beyond the efficiency and effectiveness message.
But we can go a lot further than that. We can go further.
We're doing, um, the benefits and value
and resource management within project world if we're
talking project portfolio management.
But can we go past that?
Can we go past the hierarchy of project
and can we start to reach out into the business
and do some of these things that we, we deliver as a service
for projects to other business functions?
Can we, can we provide assistance, um, with, with, uh,
realization resource management,
dependency management across business as usual, activity
around product development activity as well as change?
And can we further help us, uh,
connect from the very senior level goals
that the business has to the,
the objectives those break down into,
and start to connect, um, projects, programs,
and the business to enable us to balance between
what we do in change, what we do in product creation as
what we do day to day?
Is that, is that a function that we can grow,
a capability we can grow our PMOs in?
I I I think it is?
Um, can we do it
and does the business want us to, that's, that's,
uh, a, a key question.
So what might that look like?
Drawing it as a picture, um, this is a little picture here
of our, uh, project portfolio.
We've got a number of projects, uh, uh, EPMO, our,
our program function is happily supporting these projects.
We're operating them, they're efficient,
they're effective, they're all good.
Um, but can we start to focus on the, the value
that these projects give, this?
Here's value add number one, uh, the,
the project portfolio management function.
Can we get our projects to focus on not just the milestones
and tasks that they're operating on,
but the value statements and the value measures
and value forecasts that those projects and programs have?
Um, we may do that partially right now,
but can we make that a, a more formalized function?
And can we further then maybe offer that more widely
to the business and start to look at all of the objectives
and, uh, key results that, that our business has,
and not just apply that benefit
and value management to project objectives,
but help the other business areas do it on their, uh,
product creation or business as usual value objectives.
Seems like a natural extension of, of the kind
of things A PMO can do to me, that does to me.
And if we've extended to ha have, have a PMO
or whatever we now call it to, uh, look at these objectives
and, and help us, uh,
deliver value against those objectives, can we start to make
that connection more formal and more visible and,
and stronger between very high level objectives
and what our projects and programs
and all our business units need to do?
Is this some, is this, is this now adding
true business value?
I'll pause there for a second.
So, um, how might this happen?
So we've talked about, um, our EPMO,
maybe we were on our journey towards our EPMO,
and we are moving towards that overall,
overall E-P-M-E-P-M-O function.
But perhaps now, if we're gonna start looking at, uh, uh,
objectives, uh, across wider business areas, we need perhaps
to look at a slightly more senior business sponsor.
And, and clearly sponsors are, are important for our,
our change portfolio.
So we need a senior sponsor for, uh,
for our portfolio management
to add value across our programs.
And perhaps we even would like to,
if we're gonna now step up further
and offer that service to the wider business
and connect up to the senior level goals that we have,
there's an even more senior level sponsor.
And with a more senior level sponsor
comes more senior level value to realize
and senior, more senior level funding for us
to benefit from, is, is there then, uh, an approach
where we can, we can change from, um,
suffering from difficulty in achieving ROI
to continue our services, to actually starting
to really show big value through big sponsors
that we really add big value, um, through what we do.
Um, and does this, this PMO, whatever it's now called,
become that valuable generator of impact
for their organization.
So in conclusion of these sorts, then, um, we can only say,
I, I would suggest we can only add so much value,
a traditional PMO, whatever that is, with efficiency
and effectiveness, project portfolio management, is
that great first step where we can start
to show a business value
through value realization around projects.
Uh, but can we, can we step a bit more wide wider than that
and, and offer value, uh, around objectives
and targets around business functions, not just projects.
And can we use our integrated governance based approach to,
to connect that for the business?
Is that, is that a a, an inspiring picture that, that a,
that A-A-A-A-A, a frustrated, uh, PMO lead can, can, uh,
think about to, to how they might, uh, add,
add greater and wider value?
I think, David, just to add to what you just said,
I think is the, the word integrated,
that's the key point over here.
You know, we have lots of governance
and what most companies I've seen doing is they put
bandage over each governance.
You know, they see band uh, governance as meeting
to have conversation with people,
but actually the governance need to be more integrated
decision focused and driving value for the business.
So that word integrated is really key in most
of the organizations I've been in,
because people see just business governance not integrated,
so they don't really speak to each other.
And then you just have multiple
meetings running across the business.
So, so for me, this, this is a, a great way to add value
for A PMO to, to, to operate that integrated governance
and to broaden out into supporting business functions
as well as connecting with, with leadership groups.
Some of the chat going on is about, um, you know,
how do we, how do we get stakeholders
to pay attention, right?
How do we, how do we shift the perception of
what A PMO is, right?
You know, senior leaders don't really know what the PMO is.
They don't know what it could be. They don't, you know,
they don't understand that it's actually a,
a real business function, right?
It's a, it's a strategy execution function.
It's not a project execution function.
It's a, it's a strategy execution function, if you like.
So, so Alexander th this might be a good time
to jump across into the, into the, uh, case study,
and maybe we can pull some of those, those issues, you know,
tease some of those issues out.
How did you, as you go through it, how did you engage the,
the senior stakeholders?
What, what was in it for them?
What, you know, what, what was the thing
that really got them motivated to join you on the journey?
Thank you, Stuart. I think just a quick one about me.
So, um, I'm again c
and founder of a small company called Value Matrix.
It's in the name as you could imagine, value.
Um, I've been in PM industry
for the last 12 plus years in either enterprise, PMO
or setting up portfolio functions and lots of industries.
You can name it from automotive to pharmacy,
pharmaceuticals, or, um, to infrastructure and banking.
Uh, I think there's a typo there.
Value max, I think I quite like the name of
that company, actually, I should.
Um, but I, I think, to be honest, I think the, the most
of the questions are coming in is,
which I'm seeing right now, is, you know,
how do we make PMO to stand out?
How do we make stakeholders understand why you need A PMO?
They see this as a new concept. They don't really get it.
They see project managers are PMO,
or, um, to be honest,
I think this is the same problem we keep
seeing in most of the organization.
A loss of organization, the one I'm currently in, in ge,
they have the same problem.
And so I'm here to give you an example, but I think the,
and I keep saying this to Stuart quite a few times,
I think he hates me, keep repeating the same
thing, the case for change.
You know, this is this, that's the step one
of getting the organization to understand the value of PMO,
because organization focuses increasing the margin,
growing the business, and making more money
and making the business profitable, which is rightly so.
But they need to, what the role of the case for change is
to translate what's the value pm o
will bring in that journey.
And thus, the example over here we did
with the outline is the focus of the organization is
to increase the share prices,
be more profitable and grow the business.
And that's what exactly what we did,
but we worked backwards on all those triggers
and had a starting point is, do we have a case for change?
Does the organization understand the value
a high value PMO can bring?
So we created a case for change, get the sponsor round
and created that vim what's in it
for each functions, all the MDs.
What they've given them is
that understanding if they do the PMO, right, you know,
these are the benefits they'd
be accruing in those functions.
And that, and then for the business as well,
what the cross function benefits having a PMO will deliver.
And one of the thing I normally say to most organizations
that go in is,
it's not a PMO change, it's a business change.
Because PMO is there to serve the business.
It's not cost center. Going back
to our topic earlier, it's not cost center.
It's a value driver to the business or value advisor.
Um, so step one, as I said, we start with the case
with change, with diet line, getting all the leadership
behind this chain was in it for them.
But rather than creating this 12 month big plan of saying,
let's make this big bank change the way we did it, we said,
we are gonna do three month sprints,
a 90 day sprint to deliver the value.
And the reason behind doing this is
because the trust comes from change
and change come from trust.
So picking up two
or three things, which are high value pain points
for the organization, it's delivering them in the first
three months, get that trust so they understand, okay,
by investing in PMO,
we are getting the values, I think we should do more of this.
So they invest more time
and money on going in the journey rather than having a big
plan and you suddenly appears out
of nowhere in 12 months time.
Here we go, there's a PMO there, but nobody's involved.
Nobody has any input into this.
They don't get the value or they need.
So doing in those three months sprints, get organization
behind it, they see the same change, they see the values
and they understand, often they see more time into it.
So that's exactly what we did.
But with direct line, we focus purely on getting the
portfolio management right, the strategic portfolio
management management in the first three months,
which is your front end of the business,
how we make sure requirements are right.
How do you make sure how the sales coming through,
what's the margin we are having, the portfolio reporting,
the governance, uh, demand
and capacity management, you know,
all those capabilities we
addressed in the first three months.
So we have a clear visibility
of what's happening in the, in the business.
And what that did was that bring all the leaders together
because now they have more visibility what's happening,
and they need more of this
and that, what helped is we started doing,
the next three months, we started
looking at projects and programs.
Okay, what do we need to improve to improve our controls
and gov governance in our projects
and programs to optimize our delivery?
Then at the three months after we start looking at
what have you got the right tool in place, you know,
to optimize and provide the right injections
and the information to our leaders and the stakeholders.
So by doing those three months, what that did in the end,
where we start seeing the share prices going up are, are,
and we start seeing the performance
and the productivity gone up by 2%.
So those were the key things, and we realized,
and we played it back to the
business and they saw the value.
So a couple of, couple of quick points there.
So what I've, what I've noticed here is
that you're not talking about projects
and project deliverables.
You're talking about the business outcomes
that the business wants, right?
So that's, that's the first, the first thing.
So I, I think the, uh,
and Annette, if you're listening, I,
I sent you a little private message.
If you take a look for that, that would be brilliant.
But, um, uh, so, so, you know, the first,
the first step I think is actually a little bit
of a mind mindset shift for a lot of the industry.
Um, and I, and I had this conversation last week with, um,
a couple of board members of the pmi.
Uh, they were kind of saying, what do you think
the PMI should do differently?
And, and my, my first answer is, we need
to shift the culture from being about project deliverables
to being about business value
and the KPIs that are driving the business.
And, and do you know what, I think
that one statement is probably the biggest summary
of the quickest summary of your, your big framework
that there is David, right?
Which, that's what it's all about.
That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about.
It's about shifting that mindset from being about project
delivery to being about, to being an organization that,
whatever you call it, whether you call it PMO
or VMO, I don't care, right?
Call it whatever you like. Um, the, the, the key thing is
to focus it on
and have that mindset shift onto that business value.
So it, it is interesting some, you know, some
of the comments, um, uh, in the background, um,
uh, some of the comments in the background were, uh, about,
you know, having the right metrics in place
to measure performance.
And I'd be really interested, I, I forget who it was that
that said that somebody made that comment.
I'd be interested to ask the audience,
do you think those metrics should be
PMO project delivery metrics,
or should the performance be measured by the performance
of the business, right?
Should, should the PMO be measured by the performance,
the impact that you have on the business?
Think about that. See what we think, get a quick poll.
Those, so, so just pop it in, uh,
pop into the chat project if you think the metrics should be
project centric and business.
If you think the PMO should be judged on the impact on the
business, the actual business KPIs, not the PMO KPIs.
So anyone value driven KPIs,
not project deliverables well done.
Rah. I'm, I'm with you on that one.
Anyone, anyone brave enough to say the opposite?
Because you know, you're gonna get flamed, right? If you do.
Well, Stuart, I, I think it's really important that,
that any, any operational function, it needs to be measured
as to how it functions.
So it's managed effectively.
So I would say, uh, the, the normal metrics of any, however,
however, any function is working, but you need the output.
So I, I'll then quickly correct myself and
and suggest it's, it's to do
with business business value measures.
Yeah. I, I, and I think actually Ricard made the point
that it's a little bit of both, right?
Yeah, you, you're quite right. Ricard, right?
You, so the, the, the reason that we do all this stuff
is to deliver the business value.
So that, that in my book is the primary metric, but,
but project metrics may be leading indicators
to help you see whether
or not you're likely to deliver that business value.
So I'm not saying that those project metrics are worthless,
but the measure, but the measure of success isn't
that you managed to deliver on the triple constraint.
It's that you managed to shift the share price in, in,
in your case, Alexander, right? Uh, uh, directly.
I think, to be honest, I think it's, um, they,
most organizations have too many KPIs.
You can name me. I, I can, I mean, I've seen 30,
40 KPIs in the list.
It is part of the case.
And I'm keep saying that word is understanding
what the three and four KPIs where you can actually measure.
'cause some KPIs, you can't measure them.
You know, if it just give you,
are you heading in the right direction,
it shows you the trend.
But they are some core values you can measure.
And most of the three sprints, so I was,
I was talking about earlier, the running those
change in three sprints.
You start with a baseline, you know, where we are
with the problems we are facing, and each three months you
check in balance, have we deliver the value?
Are we seeing the changes? So the KPIs around the case
for change is really important as well.
So the business can see the value of having a PMO
and what change they're delivering.
And obviously the KPIs
for the bill are really important as well.
Alexander, can I, can I ask you a question?
Um, 'cause the, the one thing that always Yeah, sure.
Intrigues, intrigues me,
and I won't dwell honestly, is, is, um, w why PMOs asked
to justify themselves.
Um, and w were, were you try, were you as a PMO proposing
to the business what you did?
Or was the business going, we need this
of a support function, which way round does this work?
I think it's a bit of both, basically is there is always
people have pain points across the organization
and it's understanding
and creating that group around chain champions or all them.
So when I'm in the organization permanently,
normally go from the outside coming in,
helping the organizations.
And I've worked with the exec
to create that case for change.
So why we need it, why we need to invest,
but I've done both sides when I was actually in the company
doing this job and I said, I actually we need
a PMO, we need to do something.
We created a change network on that basis.
We created a case for change together.
The scene presented to a sponsor who was willing to talk.
So, and then creating that sponsor will help
to actually voice to the other exec to say, actually guys,
if we do it this way, this will help.
But internally, I think it's looking out for people,
because I'm sure there's not just
yourself having the same problem.
There'll be other departments, engineering, procurement,
sales, name it,
they all will be having problems while not having a right PO
Super. So,
so I'll tell you what, uh, I, I, I spotted Annette, um,
join this, uh, this webinar and, and jumped onto chat
and asked if she would kindly give us, uh,
a few minutes on her experience.
So Annette's been on this journey over the last two,
three years, something like that, Annette.
Um, and, um,
so Annette is un unlike David
and Alexander, Annette is not polished, you know,
a polished thought, you know,
out there doing the conference
circuit and all that kind of stuff.
This is a real story from a real PMO, just like you.
So, Annette, off you go.
Tell us, tell us a little bit about where you started,
where you've got to and, and how you got there.
What were some of the challenges you faced and,
and this thing about sponsorship, I think seems
to be the question that everybody's really interested in.
So, Annette Smith and, um, didn't prepare any slides
because I just got pulled in there.
But, um, about five years ago, 2019, we started, uh,
I started the PMO creating the PMO office, uh,
with the, uh, CTO.
And he has been, he was my, my sponsor
and supporter through this whole journey.
At that time, we had this, we created little portfolios.
We had, uh, about 40 IT people
and each divided into, um, separate teams.
And we would pick and choose the projects that we worked on
and not really have any visibility to the, the business.
I mean, we didn't provide any visibility to business,
what we were working on
or why we were working on the projects that we worked on.
So then about three years ago, um, we, um,
found transparent choice and also found PMO strategies.
So we did a, um, very hard, hard work
for six months where we actually worked on getting, um,
project prioritization set up.
We learned what questions do you have to ask
when people take the assessments?
And we started, um, educating the business.
So it was weekly slides, it was weekly meetings,
just presenting what it is we were doing,
why we were doing it.
So we really set up like three buckets of projects,
and it was improvements, strategic
and essential projects that we created.
And we had the business involved in, um, coming up with
what is important for business.
So we shifted from this is what it wants to work on, to
this is what we're gonna support our business with.
And getting them involved really help
and them seeing, so we have assessments
where they actually assess what are the,
what are the projects that we really should be working on?
And now we have this report, we can show, um,
to them, to the business, to the executives,
and they see, okay, this is how we voted
or assess these projects.
And it is actually working on those projects
and not cherry picking anymore.
So we, we limit the whole cherry picking
and the squeaky wheels.
We still have the squeaky wheels in business,
but we have now proof that, you know,
you were involved in this process,
you had your voice in there.
However, this project on the, on the list to be done,
and this provides a lot more value to the business.
So we have, by doing this
and by showing the business that we are now working on
what supports you, uh, has been tremendous.
It could not have been done had I not had the
executive sponsor that I had.
So it is super important to get that buy-in, um,
and get that help promoting it,
because usually you are just a PMO of one with a couple
of PMs.
Um, and business did see us
as why do we need this department?
I mean, this is just overhead in the beginning
until they actually saw the value.
So now they're actually seeking out our help
and they're still trying to get around, you know, the,
the prioritization.
But that is really like, um,
us saying, that's not what we're gonna be working on.
And they understand that now. So, mm-Hmm.
And the, the, the, the quote that you, I I,
I remember when we interviewed you
before Annette, the, the quote you,
you said it was something like, um, we now, you know,
it used to be the squeaky
wheel and what you said a minute ago.
And, and then you said,
and now it's, it's the PMO working
for the business with the business.
And that really stuck with me
because that's, in fact, I've got
goosebumps again, just saying it.
'cause that is such a profound shift, right?
From, from being about us just delivering projects
to us really focusing on delivering business value to the,
to the, to the organization, and to key stakeholders.
So, so that's fantastic. Um, so thank you for that.
Thank you for agreeing to do that with no notice whatsoever,
Annette, I didn't, didn't realize you were gonna join today.
So that's, that's fantastic.
And, and hopefully that helps people kind
of put it into context, you know, this, this, um, you know,
DA David, David is a, a, you know, an, uh, uh,
an author and he is founded several companies
doing this kind of stuff.
And, you know, you don't need to be that kind of superhero.
You can, you can take, you can start wherever you are today
and go on that journey,
but at the heart of that journey is,
is a focus on delivering business value.
Um, and of course you gotta deliver projects
to deliver the business value,
but it is shifting that focus
to being about the business value that seems
to really be the trigger, both to, to help you win the ex,
the executive sponsorship and, um,
and be able to deliver the value.
So, um, so let's, let's move on. Thank you again, Annette.
Um, everybody please virtual round of applause.
Thank you, Annette, you did not, um, uh, you, you did,
you had no warning for doing that.
So that was, I'm very, very grateful.
Um, Dan, why don't you take over for a minute and,
and just sort of show us how, what some of
that might look like, what some of these little steps
of governance that we were talking about might look like.
There's always through, I guess, three steps of evolution
that we see in the context of, of, of our software.
Um, not 'cause we're trying to do a demo step,
but just so we want kind of anchor that kind
of progressive value journey.
Um, and in terms of what it means in terms of doing stuff.
So we start here in, in the Kanban, this is
where we organize our projects.
Um, and, and,
and really the value here is around visibility,
because you're creating visibility for stakeholders.
So the, the initial value A PMO can, can have,
and this might be right at the start of the journey.
If you think back, for those of you
that have been doing this for a while, it's just helping
give your leadership group visibility of what's going on,
what's the progression, what's the, um, the, the,
the rationale behind it.
So it's, it's, it's a, it's a basic organization step.
Um, it can be organizing on a Kanban,
it can be also thinking about what's the value
of the project in terms of what's the cost
and, and what's it gonna deliver.
So you're starting to organize the projects.
You're starting to, if, if you are, you can say,
get your ducks in a row.
For those of you that have met us at a conference, you know,
we have a strange fascination with, with, um, rubber ducks.
Um, and so this is about the basic organization, uh,
of your project backlog.
That's just the first step, right?
The second step is around how we start
to pivot towards value.
So we've hopefully given people visibility,
we've got some basic structure in place there, there,
and there is huge value in that.
But the next step is around defining value.
Everyone likes to talk about value,
value, add value for money.
What we believe in is actually quantifying value to a point
that you can then model it, use it, you know,
challenge yourself to deliver it.
And, you know, the way we do that in,
in our software is a system called a HP.
It's effectively multi-criteria modeling system.
And it's pretty simple. You're basically saying there is
more to value than the things in the
finance director's spreadsheet.
There's more to value than just margin
because there are some strategic components,
there are some stakeholder components, there are, uh,
deliverability and risk components.
So you're trying to kind of bring together all those factors
that matter when you pick projects
and turn them into a quantifiable, uh, output
that you can then use throughout your kind
of portfolio planning cycle.
So this is just an example of
how we would do it in the software.
I won't go into the, the wise and where force,
but this is also the point at which you absolutely do
what Annette just talked about, which is try and go
after that senior level engagement.
The, you, you, you get the real kind
of c-suite engagement with what they're doing.
'cause ultimately you're asking them to say,
what do you want to achieve?
Okay, how can we put that into a policy, into a framework
that can give you the right projects?
So this is an enabler for first the, you know,
the leadership team to get what they want
to get their strategy executed.
Um, and, and it's, yeah, we put it into the software
and it then sort of plugs into the organization.
Um, but again, sometimes clients are a bit reticent to ask,
um, the leadership group to participate is like,
no, this is for them.
They should be pushing you to do it.
Um, so sometimes you need that little bit of kind of bravery
to kind of make that, that, that leap upwards and,
and ask for that, that engagement with,
with the selection process, that's the first sort of step.
So we, we've, we've got our basic visualization,
we've got our definition of value.
And and you obviously play that, that process out
through a scoring, um, system where you,
you score projects against that value framework,
you then start to get into the space
around optimization selection.
'cause what you're able to do, you think we've,
we've got all that data together, we've quantified value,
we've then effectively built this value matrix, right?
We, we've said, what's the cost and what's the value?
And, you know, what's the relationship
between those two data points, um, in the context
of our portfolio or our potential portfolio.
And what we're looking to do here at, you know,
the simplest, quickest win to, to Alexander's point
is picking the duff projects, the pet projects, the,
the dead weight in our, um, portfolio
that isn't adding value.
So it's the projects that everyone knows should be killed,
can be killed, or the projects
that have found their way into the backlog,
but they really shouldn't be there, can just be stocked
before they start sort of soaking up lots of resources.
Um, you're also creating this,
this nice view of your portfolio.
This is a ranking. So it's just saying, you know, best value
for money, worst value for money.
So you're starting to really put some structure
and order into, um, into your portfolio.
And again, it's all about then delivering value.
Because down here you deliver value up here,
you don't deliver value or don't deliver as much.
So you're able to have that good rational conversation, um,
that, that, that drives your,
your portfolio into a much better place.
And Again, and this is
Really where Alexander, you started with the,
the discussion around what are the
KPIs of the business, right?
And this is using those KPIs to really drive the portfolio
Exactly. I think,
and that removes that silos within the business
because now everyone's focusing on the business KPIs
rather than functional KPIs.
Yeah. And, and absolutely.
And and to that point, you know, going back
to these criteria, this criteria will be bare pretty close
relations to, to the, the, the KPIs or the,
or that, that you want your, your portfolio to deliver.
So you are, you are almost baking the measurement
into the selection process
because actually what you don't want is a selection process
that's disassociated from the measurement process.
'cause it, one, it's doubling the work,
and two, it's just creating this disjoint, um, that
that's gonna cause you as the, the guy in the middle, um,
grief, um, as we sort of evolve this, this,
this push towards, you know, value creation as opposed
to kind of purely cost, um, center.
The next step is around optimization.
So this kind of, from a feature point of view is
where we're using AI to solve the backpack problem
of a nsac problems.
It's sometimes called, I've going, I've got a bunch
of resource, I've got a bunch of projects, what can I do?
And, and this is the, the magic group button where we go,
do you know what, with these constraints in place
and these projects backlogged,
we think this is the best combination of stuff that you can
credibly put on your backlog.
And there's a bunch of research out there that says,
you know, if you try and do everything, you'll do nothing.
It's also kind of common sense, right?
So you can start to have this, again,
this step change in terms
of return on your portfolio performance
by saying no a lot more.
Um, but no, in a kind of progressive way.
And again, if you say no as a PMO, there's this danger,
you're seen as the, the baddie, um, who's,
who's somehow kind of throttling, um,
everyone's kind of best endeavors.
No, this is actually to release the potential
of your organization and do more.
And, and, and as, as Annette says,
what this is doing is it's allowing,
it gets you outta the business of saying no.
And it lets the business make that decision. Right?
Exactly. And there's huge value.
It sounds silly, but it's almost like computer says no
or data says no, it's not.
PMO says no. So it's, it's just as the PMA,
you are organizing the data and you are, you are,
you are the mirror, you're not the policeman.
Um, so you're just reflecting, you know,
this is the leadership's criteria,
this is the expert scoring, um,
and this is the best way we can deliver given the
capacity we've got to work with.
So it's kinda making the whole process
rational but optimized. Yeah.
And Dan, just as, um, that that's
what makes the data-driven decision making, isn't it?
Yeah. And, and, and you know, the part of the,
the reason you have data, and obviously, you know, we,
we do, we we promote our software, but,
but this is true of any kind of good data system.
If people trust the data, it's that shared currency
that enables you to collaborate much more effectively.
If people don't trust the data, you are in so much trouble
because you're just gonna spend all the time unpicking the
data and challenging each other
if you don't like the outcomes.
Um,
Yeah, keep going, Dan. Keep
Going. Yeah. Crack up.
Fabulous.
Um, so the, the last step is just
around this next level of optimization.
So, you know, we, we've, we've solved the backpack problem,
and then we go into this next level of kind of nuance,
which might be, or 2, 2, 2 components really.
You go, well, one, have I got
my resource in the right place?
So most folks we talk to have this kind
of balance of portfolios.
You've got the kind of the must do portfolio that, that sort
of BAU, you've got the, the, the, the growth portfolio.
And part of good optimization is actually the ability
to think about what's the best combination
of resource allocation between those pots.
And again, what, what we reckon, um, is, is the best way
to solve it is to use AI to support that.
Because actually the question executives want to answer is,
what if, what if how?
The, the executives want more growth. Of course they do.
Okay, what would I need
to give up in my BAU portfolio in order to get, you know,
20% more projects done in my growth portfolio?
Okay, let's go away and do that in, let's say an hour and,
and actually build that portfolio out very quickly
with the data so we can then give that rational choice
to the business that says, what would you like this growth
or this risk you, you choose between them?
And that's, that's what leadership are there to do.
It's to make those choices.
Um, and the PMO frankly is there to give those choices, um,
in order to enable better decision making.
And so part of it,
and you can see it's there very simple, kind of like
how you share allocation out between the portfolios
and then you feed it into the optimization,
fireworks go off, magic happens and good things come.
Um, and the final, uh, sort of bit, um, we, we,
we think about it is Gant is, is road mapping so fantastic?
We've got a plan, but actually if we just then, you know,
think of the London marathon.
If everyone tries to start at the
same time, it's bloody chaos.
What you've gotta do to Alex's point,
is let the elite runners go first.
You know, you've gotta let the best projects go first.
Uh, so you're getting the, the, the,
the highest value quickly.
You've gotta then stagger when people start,
they're not all kind of bumping into each other
and causing chaos.
Um, so again, you're, you're taking the data
that you've been studiously collecting,
but you're not collecting it because you like collecting
data, you're collecting it
because you wanna be able to do this
because you wanna be able to say, ah, do you know what,
we should start these projects?
'cause we, this, this sort of maps against our, our capacity
and there's a bit of operational research sort of theory
of constraints, um,
and all that that, that sits behind this.
Um, but the, the idea is it's common sense, right?
If you try and do everything all at the same time,
you're gonna make an absolute holics of it.
Um, so you, you, you stagger.
And then final point, what do executives want?
Executives want results.
So, you know, this is results in the context of p and l,
but that we know there are other
components of value as well.
And this is the portfolio we've just modeled.
So this isn't sort of like crazy hockey stick stuff
that says that I'm gonna spend a bunch of money next year,
but then don't worry, in three years time,
everything's gonna be amazing.
This is the project portfolio we've just built from the
bottom up with, you know, good optimized logic,
sensible scoring, um, in place
mushed together in the context of
therefore this is what it will deliver you.
So you can then start to position your portfolio not as,
hey, we're charging you, you know, 50 million quid.
It is, do you want this set of outcomes from
that investment you're making?
Uh, and by the way, because we're doing it properly,
we have much greater confidence in the actual outcome
than you would have if you just kind
of like crammed all the projects in
and kept your fingers crossed.
So there you go. That was a very quick
Run. That's
brilliant. Thanks Dan.
Um, so, so just before I open it up to questions and,
and do jump in with, with more questions,
there've been a few questions on the way,
but, uh, do jump in with more.
Um, just before we do that, you know, the, the, the,
the key thing here is that, you know, governance is one
of those words, like I said at the beginning, that, that
for a lot of people, it's a bit of a turnoff, right?
It's not a very exciting word,
but really it, it, all it means is decision making.
It means it means benefit realization,
it means portfolio management, it means a whole bunch
of these, these kinds of things.
And, um, so, so don't worry about the labels.
The key thing, uh, there are a couple
of really big key things to take away, I think from
what, what we've heard today.
Um, so Alexander, from, from your piece to me,
I took away two things.
One was, was, um, you know, case for change.
So to, to get that buy-in from leadership
and then sprints, right?
So small value oriented sprints that are
around delivering value.
Uh, David, I, I I, from yours, I, I got a big takeaway
around, um, you know, know this isn't just about
traditional project management, right?
You can take this discipline
and apply it to the whole corporation, right?
Because strategy doesn't just apply to our change projects,
it applies everywhere in the organization.
Um, and, and so if you have a nice little framework
that lets you lets you make that happen,
and again, I put a link in the, in the chat to the,
the big B, we had another B as well.
What did we have? We had, we had a really brilliant
Literative phrase that we were using the other week.
Dan, can you remember what it was? It was absolutely not.
Anyway. No, well, nevermind, nevermind.
If it pops into my head, I'll put it in the chat.
But the big B is, um, is great.
It's a collaborative piece
and there are lots of other frameworks out there, right?
These, you know, other frameworks are available,
but the, the big box was created by a community of really,
really, really smart people.
Um, uh, you know, Martin Samphire was on there
and a whole bunch of others, right?
So a whole, a whole community of people
that contributed to that.
Dan and I even had some very small
contributions in there somewhere.
Um, which, and if that doesn't put you off, nothing will.
Um, so, so what I would love to do next is move into some q
and a, uh, give, give people a chance to, um, to, uh, to,
to get the q and a.
But David, but just while people are thinking about
what questions I'm gonna put the, the one that
that came up a couple of times, which is,
which is about sort of how do I sell this
to the executives, right?
So we've heard Alexander's take on it.
What's, what's your take on that?
There's, there's two ways you can upsell your PMO,
you can explain what you do and,
and persuade everyone that, that, that, um, you can do more
of that and it'll be really valuable and,
and that you should get more funding based on you doing a
fantastic job and you doing all these metrics
and these lovely reports, or you, you can, you can explain,
well, I've got, we've got some capability here
that we can help you connect that objectives hierarchy
that Dan showed you through, through to what needs
to happen, uh, for, for those objectives to, to be realized.
And some of those will be done through change,
and some of those are done through project, which, so let,
let's get that connection from business objective to,
to projects nailed,
but then some, many
of those business objectives are not projects,
but to hit the strategy, we need
to get all those under control.
So, so, so Mr.
COO, um, yes, please fund my PMO so I can carry,
carry on the service level I'm giving you,
but I can offer you so much more, connect your strategy
to delivery and,
and help you, uh, with the outcomes that you need.
That this is what I can do for you Mr, Mr COO.
Perfect. Thank you.
Alright, Abdul Rahman's got a a an absolute zinger here,
so I dunno who wants to pick this one up,
but how to design, how should you design A PMO?
Now, I, I'm gonna, I'll take a very quick stab, which is, I,
I'm gonna answer that question not by telling you
what the design should be,
but by suggesting that designing your PMO is a process that,
that's an evolution, right?
That is driven by what value the business wants.
So if in the early days, right, if you've got nothing
and you don't even know how many projects you've got, then
yeah, what does the business need?
Then, then I would start by just giving them,
giving them visibility, right?
If, if they don't have visibility, give visibility.
If, if you've already got visibility
and the thing that's killing them is
that projects are always failing,
then your PMO should be about finding the root causes
of failure and eliminating them, right?
So, uh, so Alex, have you got, you got David
through it as one lighter.
What's, what's your, your, I think for
Me it, not for me is I think three things which
I've normally focus on.
Uh, so you've seen this before,
which is providing the visibility, greater execution
and clear and lean governance,
not the governance for the sake of it.
And I think going by David's point is the right governance.
What's the right governance we need
to drive decision making.
We've got the great visibility across the business.
Who's doing what, not functionally, cross-functionally.
And then have you got a good execution?
Is our PM engineering any other community,
have they got the right tools, the standards, the process,
so we have a consistent way of working.
Those are three things the PMO must provide.
I mean, there multiple things PMO can do,
but those three things are ba basically the pillars
where the PO stands on without them, the PMO can't stand.
Basically. Those are three things PMO should provide.
Yeah, the way, the way I've heard it's told, I mean,
whether it's actually a PMO
or sort of sub sort of linking function
that calls itself something different is basic.
Simply it's got, joining the dots, it's about being able
to join the dots, the bits, getting the delivery functions
to work with the, you know, the executive to be able to work
with the, the frontline function.
So you're actually creating connectivity,
um, in how things get done.
Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant. Okay. Um, that's fantastic.
So we're, we're more or less at the top of the hour, uh,
is are there any more questions?
Oh, here we go. We've got one more question. A shock.
You've been so quiet today, my friend. Um, uh, so great.
We've gotta get at least one a shock question in.
So how do we get the directors to open the doors, right?
So, so, so that's, that's, um, this,
so this is the most common question.
So over the last month
or two, I've been doing a whole bunch of events
with Laura Barnard, who's a little bit of a, you know,
she's kind of the, the queen of this kind of stuff.
And in those sessions, this is the number one question
that everybody has.
So it's a, it's a slightly different flavor,
the one we answered earlier,
but But how do you get the directors
to open the doors to let you in?
So David, why don't, why don't you kick us off?
Uh, it, it is, it isn't by telling them
that you've got real problems getting compliance on your
projects and that your reporting's difficult
and you need an expensive tool, it's, it's so, so directors,
um, tell, tell, let's, can, can, can we help you, um,
achieve greatest strategic realization?
Do you have line of sight from the strategic objectives
that you've told the shareholders you're gonna deliver on
to all the activity that needs to make that happen?
And do you, do you have clarity on the metrics
that will show you that you're progressing?
So grab their interest.
'cause I would bet money that 99 out
of a hundred companies can't show that line of sight, get
that interest in that line of sight.
And, and you as the PMO from, from your set,
a key position within the business are, are perfectly placed
to start assisting with that connection of line
of sight, in my opinion.
Then they'll be interested.
Don't tell them that you can improve the reports or, or,
or get compliance on time sheets better.
That's not gonna cut it with them.
Alex, anything to add? No,
I think that that's exactly, to be honest, I think, uh,
the, what's the caveat for them?
Basically what drives them
and that exactly the, the visibility,
but most the execs are craving, they will bin your fingers,
you know, just to get the visibility in the,
in the business if you get the visibility.
And then the big thing, which is, uh, from my experience,
I think is, is the insight.
There's one thing is getting the visibility
is actually telling them what they're looking at,
because that's the big question.
Like, he puts lots of stuff on the, on the, on,
on the screen, and so it all looks
beautiful, but what is he telling me?
So making sure the insight is clear, uh, so
that you can actually translate so they can see
what's the value added.
And, and, and just, just to emphasize that, so, you know,
I'm, I'm the CEO of a small company.
Um, and I have to tell you, my head is full
of 101 different things across the business that I'm trying
to juggle all at the same time.
So when somebody comes to me looking for a decision,
if they just gimme a load of data, I, I,
I just can't process it.
What I need is, I need the insight.
I need to understand what the issues are,
what the options are,
and what you need for what decision you need me
to make, right?
That's what I need as an executive.
And so as a PMO, if you're doing that for them
straight away, you're adding value, right?
Uh, abso Dan, you've you,
because you've, you've spent years in the
strategy function in big corporate,
So yeah. So, so,
so yeah. Look, you know, most CEOs are human, um,
obviously, obviously some exceptions with, with Stuart.
But, um, the, um, the, the reality is that, you know,
you need to understand what it is that the pain points are
and, and not necessarily with the kind of long sort
of swallow the business school words that we like to use.
And I, I mean, I've, I've noticed, seen it
before, he'll, he sort of looks across the tech department
and he just sort of rubs his head.
It's like, there's a hundred people here
and I just don't know what they do.
I can't get anything done. What do they do?
You know, you can, you do it.
And it's that sort of, you want, you know, he wanted
to understand what was going on.
He wanted to have some influence on it in a way that didn't,
that, that felt much more specific than, than,
than existed at the time.
So it's, it's, if you can offer that mechanism,
then you know, a bit like Alex's quick wins,
that'll buy you some time,
and then you can worry about your process
and your long words and your documentation
and all those good things that, that,
that people like us tell you you should do.
Yeah. But actually you want that momentum.
You want some, you want some scores on the door.
And again, back to the what does, what does, what does,
what does the top guy wants?
He probably just wants to be able to stand up at every
quarterly annual meeting with the troops
and tell 'em, look, here's a new toy.
Here's a project that's landed.
Here's a jazz hands thing I can get excited about.
He doesn't wanna say, this big project progressed by 10%.
This one, you know, it's like, no, you want land things
that land shiny things.
I think that's a key point over here is there's
so many things the business is delivering engineering
products, sales, you know,
there's multiple things that are happening.
It's translating it for them, you know, what does it mean?
And that applies the same in the PMO
because PMO does, you know, portfolio management,
project execution, process standards, you know,
all these good stuff, but what does it mean to the business?
So it's translating in a way they can understand, you know,
like greater ROI,
and we talked about this too, a double, the ROI basically,
you know, that's, it's translating it for them
so they can understand what we are actually getting from
money and investment.
Fantastic. So thank you for that.
That's a great place to, to end it Alexander.
Uh, really appreciate it.
I just have two very quick things before we,
before we all disappear.
The first one is an apology to Dan.
I was meant to show this, this slide
before he went into the demo.
He spent hours on this.
I'm trying to work out which one is Dan though,
right in the background there.
Can't quite tell. Um,
and then the second thing is, just a quick heads up, uh, Dan
and I will be,
and Alexander actually, we're gonna be appearing at the PMO,
uh, has PMO event next year, um, this year.
So I'll next week. What did I say next week?
That's what I meant next week. Thank you.
Uh, so Alexandra, and I'll be running, uh, uh,
running a workshop on the PMO Learn on the first day,
and then Dan, and I'll be there on the second day
giving away rubber duck.
So if you wanna rubber duck head there.
And then David, you
and I are gonna be up in Manchester on the 11th of July.
Do you wanna, do you wanna just
say what you're doing up there?
Uh, we're presenting a, uh, connecting with the business,
um, uh, presentation to, to talk about more about
how we can get the PMO connected with the businesses,
essentially developing some of the themes.
And a key key component of that has to be prioritize,
visualization of strategic objectives
and the prioritization stuff that, that Dan,
Dan's, Dan's explained.
Fantastic. And, and then, so thank you to the speakers.
A huge thank you to Annette
for allowing me to put her on the spot.
Um, uh, anybody else, feel free to reach out
to any of the speakers here.
We're all on LinkedIn, we're all available to help
and to answer questions.