{"id":113,"date":"2015-12-27T00:19:48","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T00:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i3works.bluetree.uk\/news\/?p=113"},"modified":"2019-12-08T21:46:18","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T21:46:18","slug":"managing-complexity-in-a-portfolio-management-office-pmo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/2015\/12\/managing-complexity-in-a-portfolio-management-office-pmo\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing complexity in a Portfolio Management Office (PMO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Setting up a PMO can range from a\n simple execution of an out of the box solution through to an enabler \nfor transformational change. The former is often a bolt on capability \nwhich is often perceived as a data hungry bureaucratic overhead that \nsignificantly underplays the business benefits that may be realised from\n a PMO. Using the PMO as an enabler for transformation change is a more \nenlightened solution, but it brings with it a range of challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Author: Martin Paver Director at i3Works<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The PMO is part of an enterprise with differing requirements, \nnumerous relationships and dependencies with other parts of the \norganisation. The success of the implementation of a PMO will be \ndependent on a number of factors ranging from Board level commitment \nthrough to organisational culture. Its rare that the implementation of a\n PMO is simple, but there is often a desire to manage it like a simple \nproject. Put in place a Gantt chart, assign responsibilities, define the\n risks and off we go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, this ignores the complexity inherent within the \nimplementation environment. An organisation that hasn\u2019t had a PMO before\n will need to familiarise itself with what it can do for them, starting \nwith the basics and expanding as the portfolio analytics begin to flesh \nout issues and strategic opportunities. The demand for these \ncapabilities will emerge as the organisation becomes more proficient in \nexploiting the PMO service lines. Conventional project management \nmethodologies don\u2019t handle emergence very well and the delivery of the \nplan to roll out the PMO can often override the delivery of business \nvalue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For these reasons, it often makes sense to implement the PMO in \nphases adjusting the plan to reflect the emergent conditions on the \nground. Prioritising effort to build goodwill, develop momentum and \nillustrate what the PMO can do. This takes us deep into the land of \ncomplexity management, but it\u2019s not a one size fits all solution. \nImplementation will need to take account of the following,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The level of uncertainty involved<\/li><li>The extent of consensus about project goals or ways to achieve them<\/li><li>The extent to which knowledge and capacities are distributed.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The success of the PMO service lines will be dependent upon each of \nthese factors, and they will vary depending on the nature of the service\n line being delivered. PMO analytics, reporting and strategic alignment \ntend to be at the complex end of this spectrum and risk management or \nscheduling centre of excellence services tend to be towards the more \nobvious end of the spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So how do we manage the complex end of the spectrum? Rolling out a \nsolution and forcing it through can be difficult, so it may help to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s not rocket science, but it continues to surprise how much there \nis a tendency to pursue the \u2018obvious\u2019 end of the complexity spectrum \nwhen the situation often requires a more tailored approach, integrating \nthe principles of complexity management alongside more traditional \napproaches. Without this, the PMO can become a self serving entity that \nfalls far short of delivering the level of measurable benefit promised \nin the original business case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Probe: design a few small-scale interventions to test out ideas before fully implementing them.<\/li><li>Sense: collect sufficient data to identify how the enterprise \nresponds to the probe and select the interventions that have the impact \nthat supports the objective<\/li><li>Respond: amplify the results that create value and dampen those \nthat lead to undesirable outcomes, where the benefit is unproven or \nwhich can give the impression of being process centric.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Setting up a PMO can range from a simple execution of an out of the box solution through to an enabler for transformational change. The former is often a bolt on capability which is often perceived as a data hungry bureaucratic overhead that significantly underplays the business benefits that may be realised from a PMO. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}