In Part 3a of the PPM Master Class we will turn our attention to the practical application of Project Portfolio Management, by exploring how the business can start to organise itself in preparation for its deployment. Throughout this session we will focus on the role of the Project Portfolio Management Team (PPMT) and the Programme Management Office (PMO) in the adoption and deployment of PPM.

People, Processes and Tools

There are many considerations when implementing PPM, from the impact and requirements on different areas of the business, through to the tools and processes implemented. Here we will look at some of the different people, processes and tools essential for the successful implementation of PPM.

Building PPM with Executive Sponsorship

We have already highlighted that PPM is fundamentally a top-down process, reliant on executive and senior management sponsorship. This means that executive leaders need to take ownership of PPM, sell the benefits at board level and manage its deployment as a change management project.

Organising the PPMT & PMO

The Project Portfolio Management Team (PPMT) is created in order to effectively communicate project information both upstream and downstream, its purpose is also to enable senior executives to ‘buy in’ to the idea of PPM. The PPMT is accountable for the entire project portfolio process. The Programme Management Office (PMO) is a centralised ‘project knowledge centre’ and it is considered best practice to create a PMO as a way of centralising best practice techniques. The PMO provides the PPMT with  all project related data, reporting and analysis.

Embedding Project Governance

The Project Governance process is essentially about creating an accountability framework  to encourage best practice, ensuring the business is able to mitigate the risks that are associated with the project delivery process, through centralised data control, role based visibility, real -time information and milestone management.

Milestone Management

Is central to driving organisational  accountability and business performance. Milestones underpin the delivery of products, services and benefits to an organisation.

Creating real-time information flow

With  access to  real-time information the business can make quicker,  accurate decisions about their business and any potential problems will be highlighted before they occur.

Role based visibility

Role Based Visibility is all about providing the right information to the right people at the right time. Role based visibility provides the PPM process with an instant ‘birds eye’ view of how key programmes, projects and initiatives at the operational level are impacting the the strategic road map.

Resource capability

Achieving an equitable balance between  resource demand and resource supply is of paramount importance for successful management of the PPM process. The business must have a complete picture of their resource capability, via a single resource database in order to successfully deliver the demands that are being placed on the business.

Hierarchy of Project Relationships

The Project Portfolio Management decision structure involves the Executive Board, the Project Portfolio Management Team (PPMT) and the Programme Management Office (PMO). This is not an organisational structure but a map of how each area supports one another in reaching project, programme and portfolio decisions.

At the forefront of the process is the PMO, which is in effect an information repository, providing vital project management services, training, documentation, progress reporting and lessons learned data.  However, this should not undervalue the vital role the PMO plays in connecting the organisations projects to the business’s strategic decision making through consolidated progress reporting to the PPMT.

Between the PMO and the Executive Team lies the PPMT.  The PPMT utilises data from the PMO to help executives make Go/Kill/Hold/Fix portfolio decisions. Likewise the PPMT utilises the Strategic Business Objectives provided by the Executive Team to prioritise projects and provide guidance to the PMO.

Executive Sponsorship

As we discussed earlier, the key to achieving executive buy in is ‘education, education education’.  It is critical to sell the benefits of Project Portfolio Management to the business along with the potential return on investment (ROI) and the potential return on opportunity (ROO) that PPM will provide.

PPM is there to support the executive decision making by providing the  accountability, credibility and help required to manage PPM as a change project, therefore executive buy in and sponsorship is essential. The Executive sponsor also needs to sit on the PPMT to represent the interests of the business  and to gain the ongoing visibility in order to provide long-term sustained support for PPM.

 

Role of the Project Portfolio Management Team (PPMT)

The PPMT is a dynamic team with very defined and clear set of responsibilities and are accountable for the management of the entire project portfolio process including:

• Portfolio Definition & Strategy
• Alignment of Resource & Business Capability
• Analysis, Portfolio Selection, Prioritization & Authorization
• Portfolio Execution & Monitoring

The PPMT is responsible for translating strategic decisions into a practical workable portfolio of projects and communicating this downstream through the PMO, and up to the executive team.

The relationship of the PMO and PPMT is crucial for bridging the stratgic and operational divide.

 

What is the Role of the PMO within the Business

Firstly what is the role of the PMO?
This is a contentious question, because many business view the PMO in different ways.
Typically a PMO addresses the problem of fragmented project information distributed across the business and acts as means of centralising and standardising this information. However unlike the PPMT their role is much wider including the the management of:

• Project interdependencies
• Project Delivery Processes
• Reporting and Analysis on the status of project performance
• Resource Base costs
• Distilling best practice and standards
• Supporting the project manager with training templates as well as the project delivery process

 

The Relationship between the PPMT and the PMO

The PMO marries the project process with the executive streams and business strategic goals. The PMO’s role within the business is not only to act as a knowledge centre, but also to help marry project management processes with executive streams by working closely with the PPMT.

Therefore the PMO assumes two key roles:

• Strategic: The PMO supports the PPM framework and supplies the necessary info to make decisions
• Tactical: Drills portfolio decisions down into the business. The PMO provides direct support to projects delivery process

PPMT, PMO and Project Relationships Model

This diagram provides a simple explanation of the relationships between the PPMT, PMO and projects with respect to focus, scope and communication. The  focus of the PPMT is to create deliverables linked to the organisations strategic objectives.  Their scope is to select, prioritise and optimise the entire portfolio of projects and communicate this to the entire business.

The PMO’s main focus is to provide the business with programme management capabilities, this involves implementing a process for creating deliverables that the PPMT will link to the strategic objectives.  The scope of the PMO is across multiple projects and needs to reflect the interdependencies between those projects.

Finally, project management is focused on delivering the individual projects.

 

Coming up in Part 3b

In Part 3b of the PPM Master Class we continue to look at how you can organise your business  for Project Portfolio Management and discuss some of the key questions that must be considered, such as understanding whether  your business has an understanding of its capability to deliver projects and how mature your governance process is.

 

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