Project management methodology is a framework that allows individual project managers to successfully manage projects of varying sizes. Most organizations today, however, do not follow a formal, consistent methodology of any kind. How do you proceed with an initiative to introduce project management skills within an organization?
Although there are many services that a PMO can provide, there is no question that most companies want the PMO to be responsible for building project management skills and competencies within the organization. There is no perfect PMO solution that is right for every company, but you can make some assumptions as to the services the PMO will provide to the organization. These services include creating (or buying) the project management methodology, delivering project management training and coaching, conducting project audits and organization assessments, and providing consolidated project reporting and metrics. It is worth noting that many companies will choose to deploy and support project management methodology on their own, while others will utilize consultants in one or more capacities.
Culture Change
The key to a project like this is to recognize that getting people to be better project managers requires them to do things differently. It requires them to manage projects more proactively, more consistently and more rigorously. It also requires different behaviors of the people who work on projects and the people who are the clients of the project. Because we are trying to change the way people do their jobs, this type of effort is known as an organizational change management initiative. It is all about trying to change the culture. (Culture refers to 'how we do things around here.')
Driving culture change requires a lot more than simply teaching new skills, although training certainly plays a part. The PMO must evaluate various aspects of the organization that drive behaviors. Processes that drive good project management behaviors need to be reinforced. Processes that are barriers to good project management behaviors need to be changed or eliminated. Resistance to the change must be accounted for and expected. It must also be overcome.
Define the Gap Between the Current Environment and the Future Vision
Many change initiatives start off by trying to define what the future vision looks like. However, describing the future state of project management in your organization is not the major deliverable at this point. The ultimate deliverable from this initial assessment is a Gap Analysis that shows what you need to focus on to move the organization from where it is today to where you want it to be in the future. This is important because you do not want to spend your time implementing in areas where your organization already does well. At the same time, you don't want to implement a number of changes and still see your effort fail because you did not address other important areas as well.
The first deliverable is a Current State Assessment that looks at organization culture, enablers, barriers, current project success rates, project roles, client attitudes, compensation systems, skill levels, standards, working environment, etc. You get most of the information you need from a cross section of managers, staff and clients, through interviews, surveys, focus groups, etc.
While you are looking at the current environment, you also need to ask these people what their future vision would look like. When you have a good picture of the current state of the organization, and what the future state should look like, you can create a Gap Analysis that shows how far the current organization is from where it needs to be. This information in turn is used to create your deployment strategy and approach. Once you have agreement on what the future looks like and how to get there, you will be at a point where you can move forward with the deployment project.
Deploy in Waves
At this point, your strategy and your approach will be the guides you need to create and execute a plan. Since you are probably introducing a number of changes in how people do their work, it is important to deploy different products and services at different times. Like waves rolling toward the beach, the PMO deploys certain aspects of the new project management culture, and then pauses before rolling out the next wave. In many cases, one wave builds on a prior wave. After a period of time, you will have introduced many new skills and new processes, but the staff will not have viewed it as traumatically as if everything came crashing down on them at once.
The deployment waves touch upon all of the aspects of the organization that need to be dealt with to effectively change the culture. A sample scenario of waves is as follows:
1. Conduct general awareness sessions to explain what is coming and why.
2. Provide basic project management training focused on up-front definition and planning skills.
3. Introduce basic standard project management processes and templates.
4. Roll out project management coaching services to help project managers utilize the training and templates effectively.
5. Align the rewards and recognition systems by tying a portion of the staff’s performance review and bonus criteria to the successful implementation and use of the project management methodology.
6. Implement a document repository to hold the common processes, templates, best practices, standards, etc.
7. Reinforce management governance processes to ensure that senior and middle management are implementing the new initiative within their organizations.
8. Introduce ongoing and random project audits and periodic organization assessments.
9. Teach advanced project management classes focused on more sophisticated processes such as quality management, metrics management, risk management, etc. Support the new training concepts with more sophisticated processes and templates.
10. Build a PMO support organization to handle the project management methodology in the long-term.
This work can be combined into three or four waves implemented over a period of time.
Summary
Deploying project management processes and building project management capability in the organization requires much more than simply training the staff and then walking away. There is a process that must be followed to understand the work required to move the organization to your future vision. Once the work is understood, it should be divided into manageable projects to have a better chance of success. The smaller projects are then implemented in successive waves on an ongoing basis throughout the organization.
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