With the growth and change in different work management practices such as a more agile approach to delivery, lean management and even hybrid or flexible working models, locations, and hours, the definition of what is or not a project is something that our clients ask us all the time.
Up until 2019, PPO approached project portfolio management (PPM) software implementations in a typically waterfall approach. We would spend full days with our clients meticulously taking down requirements and then carefully crafting the best solution to meet those requirements – and it worked well – so why did we change our ways? Well, let’s think of the typical issues PPM software implementations face using a waterfall approach.
Unexpected project delays have always been a source of concern for project environments. There are lots of reasons for these delays, ineffective project planning and scheduling, late procurement of materials, poor design, design changes and the list goes on. But the one cause that is understated and within the project management office’s (PMO) mandate to address, is the delay in approving project and product deliverables. I’m sure you can recall more than one occasion where a key deliverable wasn’t approved on time.
It is good practice for organisations to regularly think strategically about where they want to be, what they want the organisation to look like, and how they need to go about getting there. Traditionally, this process happened on an annual basis and was largely integrated with the annual financial planning process.
Mediclinic Southern Africa operates a range of multi-disciplinary acute care private hospitals in South Africa and Namibia. The company chose to work with Project Portfolio Office (PPO) to assist in the positive transformation of its enterprise project office (EPO) and infrastructure project management capability (IPMC), using PPO’s secure, cloud-based PPM tool.
Project portfolio management (PPM) solution provider, Project Portfolio Office, offers a PPM maturity assessment service, aimed at benchmarking an organisation’s current project management competency, and then providing a practical roadmap that will allow both the business and its Project Management Office (PMO) to deliver on strategic objectives, reduce costs, and increase success rates.
An organisation’s Project Management Office (PMO) should play a vital role in delivering on the business’ strategy. However, gaining an understanding of this action plan – and the company’s maturity to execute its declared strategy – is a necessary first step in unlocking a PMO’s value. A clear view of stakeholders’ needs and expectations is also key to this process.
In a rapidly changing business world, the ability to adapt and apply new information is fast becoming more important than any other skill. It shouldn’t come as any surprise then, to hear that Project Management Offices (PMOs) have come under growing pressure from their organisations over the past few years to become more agile, strategic and value-adding; a point that has become further highlighted recently against the backdrop of the COVID-19 outbreak.
It’s common for organisations to launch complex and large-scale change transformation programmes yet, nearly 75 percent of these programme fail to improve business performance within the short or long-term. At the start of these transformation programmes, there is almost always tremendous pressure to get going as quickly as possible and this is where some of the first mistakes are made. Executive Sponsors are eager to get going to build trust that the investment is in good hands, whilst programme practitioners want to ensure that there is a solid foundation in place to execute the programme.
I returned from the UK on Friday 13 March and self isolated until my negative COVID-19 test results came through on Wednesday 18 March. We closed the Project Portfolio Offices offices on that day, moved all staff to work remotely and officially stopped all face to face engagements on Friday 20 March. It’s thus been over two weeks that I’ve been working from home, which has given me the opportunity to eventually share some thoughts on our February 2020 PMO Forum event.
