Week 24 (Building a PMO) - Lessons Learned?

If I take the lessons learned from last week and look at them, I think we can logically divide them into 3 categories – People, Processes, and Tools. These are the building blocks of every organization or project. There is a lot of overlap in these lessons and some fall into all three categories, but the division works for my purposes here.

People: The people lessons were:

• The people we had were great; there just weren’t enough of them.
• Unclear roles and responsibilities led to confusion and loss of precious time.
• We were slowed by constant competition for resources.
• We did not have a clear understanding of the work when we estimated.
  

These issues paint a clear picture of our project and our main people-related challenges. We were consistently understaffed, competing for resources and often confused about who should do what. What is not mentioned here is that there were effectively 4 project managers for this one project and no one had full authority – so there’s the answer to the confusion problems.

As I look back, it is possible we did not get the people we needed due to political skill, combined with the lack of a single project manager. Let’s face it, obtaining needed resources within most organizations today has more to do with how good you are at asking than how much you need them. In our case, I think we might have allowed ourselves to be victims. When we did not have what we needed, we often rolled up our sleeves and gave it our best shot while half-heartedly asking for help. This tendency towards action meant that we tried first and then ended up pleading for people only after we had gone down the wrong road. Better to get the right people in the first place, or manage this as a risk with contingency and mitigation plans (longer timeframes, training classes).

The roles and responsibilities problems started from the beginning. The project initiated as if it was a typical, small installation project. These projects generally take 16 weeks; ours ended up at 17 months. This miss-categorization set unreasonable expectations and incorrect staffing. The roles assigned “project manager”, or “business analyst” have a completely different meaning for a 16 week boiler plate project than they do for a 17 month implementation. It took us a while to discover this, understand and adapt. Even as we end this, no one person speaks for the project, fortunately we all speak with one voice – more or less.

Lastly, competition for resources was a constant problem. Only one person was full time on the project up until about 3 months ago when the full-time staff doubled to two people! This excludes IT development staff who were often full time for short periods according to the development schedule. In most cases, we would get a statement of general support without specific date and effort commitments. Then, when needed the people were able to only dedicate a portion of their time, extending the deliverables. Fact is we did not account for that. Maybe that is more the problem than the unavailability. Seems we did not learn from this and plan accordingly. We didn’t do that. We didn’t because it was too hard to get everyone together and we were too busy “doing” the work to take time to plan it. OK – we knew that was wrong, but we accepted it as better than nothing. The error was that we did not add this as a risk and raise awareness to the “powers that be.” I’m starting to feel pretty stupid; I seem to have mistaken some progress for good progress. Isn’t any progress good? Isn’t there a quote that says something like: good is the enemy of great? I’m not feeling so great right now.

PMO Staffing (short)

Many PMOs today are made up of teams of professional, dedicated Project Managers who are assigned to projects throughout their organizations. One job of the PMO is to put the right PM with the right project at the right time. Because of the nature of projects, this can be VERY tricky. Even the best resource management can be inadequate when a project gets into trouble, or when several projects get behind schedule.

Staffing is also prime target of politics. Without a project prioritization system, the assignment of project managers can (and often will) be viewed as arbitrary, unfair, or biased. One way to counter this perception is to be scrupulously independent in everything you do. It will not help all the time, but being know as fair and unbiased in the little things will serve you well when it comes time for the big decisions.

Another staffing political pitfall is more subtle. In these situations, one group starts requesting a specific PM. If Joe did well for Accounting in the last project, then they will probably be asking for Joe again. They will hit you with pleas like “he already knows everyone here”, or “he’s familiar with the way we work”, and more. It sounds immanently logical and that’s the trap. Going down this path will turn Joe into “the Accounting PM.” And if Accounting has their very own PM why can’t everyone else? And why isn’t Accounting paying for him? And finally, why doesn’t he just report to accounting and we’ll get rid of the PMO?

So be careful how you staff your projects and keep the long view in mind – someone has to.

Building Your PMO – People, Process, Tools – Part I – People (cont.)

Assuming you now have the list of qualifications, skills and characteristics of the type of person you want for your PMO. The only problem is that you don’t know how to find these people. How do you get the right person and not be fooled in the interview? Not only that, maybe you have 3 openings, but what mix is right for you and your PMO. We’ll save organization for later, for now a little about how to pick make sure you get the right people. There are a lot of tactics and a ton of good information is available, make use of it! As a general overview, these are some of my thoughts, as always if you have any ideas, post them for others to read.

Use Your Network: You probably know some good people already if you are part of any professional organizations or have kept in touch with friends and colleagues. Even if they aren’t the right people, they probably know someone who knows someone. Your network is probably the best place to find someone. Your friends would not recommend someone unqualified (well, let’s hope not), and you have a great chance of finding a “diamond in the rough”- someone who is better than their resume. There are a lot of good PMs out there looking for the chance to be part of your PMO. I have to recommend Ask the Headhunter, I have subscribed to Nick’s newsletter for about 6 years, and even when not looking for people or a job, the advice has been priceless. The newsletter and column focus on the job seeker more than the employer, but there are some priceless words of wisdom for anyone. The site is a gold mine of advice, you will not regret it! So stealing a key point from ATH:

Get Them to Do the Job: This is tough; in the past we have done simulations which are fun for all by the way. You can give the candidate a problem to solve, but my absolute favorite was “the project meeting.” One of the PMs in our group had a really harrowing meeting where just about everything happened, and he was quite challenged in just getting through the session – which he did. Anyway, we used this meeting as a simulation. Before the interview (after a phone interview usually) we arranged for the candidate to come onsite for some face-to-face talks. We would send the candidate some project documentation telling them about the history of the project, their role as the project manager, and other details about the meeting and the project status. Then, when they came in for interviews, we scheduled a meeting where the PMO members played the part of the project team and the candidate was the PM. We each had a role to play, one of us came late, one was constantly checking his PDA, one was constantly trying to bring up their issue and hijack the meeting, and so on. The really good thing is we have all been in exactly that kind of meeting. Frankly, most candidates were a little lost, but you could tell who knew what they were doing and who didn’t. Also, those who did their “homework” were obvious, as were those who didn’t. If nothing else, this tells you who is serious about the job and Project Management.

Constantly Recruit: One of the most frustrating experiences is to finally get that personnel increase approved only to have it pulled after you are almost ready to make an offer. So what I’ve found to work is to be constantly on the lookout for great people, and to be recruiting all the time. This way you will have a short list of people to choose from and can make the “official” part of the process as short as possible. I do not want to sound like an HR basher, but I have found that HR is generally not interested in you getting the best candidate; they are more concerned with legal and procedural risks and issues. Your objective would be to make the internal part of the hiring process as short as possible. This means you have to do a LOT of prescreening, you might even want to “interview” people from around town by inviting them to lunch and sharing ideas and experiences. Heck, maybe you will want to work with him or her. Another constant recruiting method is to get out there in professional organizations, so your network helps here too.

“Trust your Feelings”: Use the force. If you do not like something about someone – listen to those feelings. Don’t throw someone out solely because of what you feel, but find out why you feel uncomfortable. One good way is to talk it through with someone else. We try to do interviews with two interviewers. While one is talking / listening, the other can observe the interaction. Maybe the person with you saw something – you pulled back when the candidate asked about overtime and vacation. This way when the two interviewers talk immediately after the interview, you can share impressions and probably find the reason for any uneasy feelings. I’ve found that there is almost always a reason I feel uncomfortable about someone, and if I talk with someone, we can usually figure it out. Once you have a tangible reason, you can make a better decision.

OK – four again. Next time I’ll talk a little (maybe a lot) about organization – how to organize the crack team you’ve put together!