The Programme Management Office is there to help the Programme deliver its outcomes keeping a close eye on performance and helping leadership see through the fog of complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Author: Martin Paver Director at i3Works<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n How many Programme Managers set off with good intentions and then end\n up with a raft of reports and information that they never get the \nopportunity to absorb, rationale and ultimately ask \u2026 \u2018so what\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PMOs can become an industry in their own right, often providing data \nand analysis to prop up decision making rather than focusing on the \ncore, essential, killer analysis that enable the Programme Manager and \nSRO to \u2018fly the plane\u2019. How often do we jump into the Gucci dashboards \nand pictures without laying enduring foundations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting back to basics, there are 3 essential steps to tackling this \nproblem. Lets put a scenario around this to make it easier to grapple \nwith. Billy has recently been appointed as Director of a small business \nand he is struggling to understand what is going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1. <\/strong>Assurance. Billy realises that there is \nlittle benefit in reviewing reports or complex dashboards if the \nunderpinning data is flaky. His first step is to get to grip with the \nquality and integrity of the data that he is given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In PMO terms, ensuring that you have confidence in the data that you \nare presented with. Is it sound, it is current, is it appropriately \nsourced, is it peer reviewed? Which data is critical and do you have \nconfidence in its pedigree?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 2. <\/strong>Static picture. Billy asks himself whether \nhe has the simple tools and visualisations to enable him to understand \nthe nature of the landscape that he is grappling with? He imagines the \nchallenge as a multi sided object, e.g. a cube ad is able to view the \nchallenge from a number of different perspectives to get to grips with \nhow to manage it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In PMO terms, ensuring that you have appropriately captured how you \nwant to manage the programme views and that data is available to \nunderpin these views. You should now have a characterisation of your \nprogramme from which you can develop a plan on how you would like to \nmanage it. You can develop a plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 3. <\/strong>Dynamic picture. With a robust data stream, a\n plan and a set of information to let him know how is business is \nperforming, Billy is in good shape. For simple programmes this may be \nsufficient. But for complex programmes, the challenge is in managing the\n dynamic nature of the environment and how the programme interacts with \nit. How the programme evolves and how Billy should respond is often \ndifficult to get right; the programme will have emerging properties \ncreated through this interaction which can be difficult to predict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In PMO terms, this is where effective Programme Managers should be \nfocusing their effort; but only when they have confidence in the first \ntwo steps. Numerous tools, dashboards and systems exist to help resolve \nthis complexity, but it can often be easy to get carried away in the \njourney and lose sight of the destination. How many PMOs have produced \nwhizzy outputs which get rave results and then fall into disrepute as \ninitial production effort begins to wane. Steps 1 and 2 should focus on \nthe fundamentals \u2013 it is important to stay on the same theme and ensure \nthat the analysis is tailored accordingly. Maintain a wide field of view\n with a core set of analysis but supplement it with a tightly focused \nnarrow field of view to address specific issues as they arise. As \nproducers and consumers of this information across complex \u00a3billion \nprojects i3Works appreciate it can be easy to say but very difficult in \npractice. But with a structured approach built upon practical experience\n of what works, and more importantly what doesn\u2019t, the destination may \nbe a little easier to reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Programme Management Office is there to help the Programme deliver its outcomes keeping a close eye on performance and helping leadership see through the fog of complexity. Author: Martin Paver Director at i3Works<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","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\/126"}],"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=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}