Connecting Strategy to Delivery with Viva Goals and BIG
May 21, 2024
Is project execution is limiting your ability to create real value and is elevating your focus to project portfolio management enough?
May 23, 2024
Introduction
On the 11th July, the APM PMO Interest Network holds it's conference - with a theme "The Big PMO Adoption".
From a PMO perspective - there is typically much more a PMO can do for an organisation than it currently does. There is much talk in PMO circles about clarifying service offerings to take to an organisation. This is great proactive engagement from PMO professionals.
However - the Business Integrated Governance approach is to offer a different proposition.
The proposition is to help the organisation deliver strategy.
In essence - this service would provide all the core capabilities a PMO could provide - but not just on a project, programme or portfolio level - but on a business-wide basis.
This brings a greater definition to 'Big PMO' - a 'BIG PMO' - or as the BIG CIC calls it - "Business Support"
In essence, Business Support provides:
- Support for alignment of purpose and vision with strategy development
- Cascade of objectives and key results through a common information model
- Operation of metrics to support measurement of key results related to objectives
- Prioritisation support - at all levels
- Governance Operation support - at all levels
- Resource Management Support
- Integration / dependency management
- the hub for support offices enabling governance operation.
Please see the BIG BoK Chapter on Business Support and Assurance
To support the APM PMO Conference, the GO BIG Network and partners are supporting a presentation "Connecting PMO with the Business". More on the contents of this to follow.
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Agenda
PART 1 – Setting the scene with BIG, and challenge the PMO to step up – specifically by challenging your audience (in groups) to consider conundrums below
PART 2 – questions for tables. Please come up with 3-5 key points from your discussion
- Table 1 Connection to strategy – do we a. have cascaded objectives with accountable people that are creating projects to deliver, or b. are we more woolly, and have projects trying to find objectives to support?
We are looking to understand from our audience whether they are purpose and objectives driven - or are tactically supporting projects which might help strategic objectives. Is there clarity of how strategy cascades and how responses combine and perform?
- Table 2 Accountability – how does that work? What part does the PMO play in ‘Accountability’ – is it that a. accountability is a private matter between manager and employee or b. at the forefront of strategy delivery?
Of vital importance to strategy delivery is the identification of clear points of Accountability - or "Accountability nodes". An Accountability node may have one or many Objectives, Targets or Challenges to deal with and my be formed into a department, product group, project etc. Is it / should it be the PMO (Business Support) role to ensure the mapping of all points of accountability, their information needs / shares - to enable strategy delivery to work?
- Table 3 Integrated Quality Governance – how does the PMO fit? – is it a. trying to carry out governance support on project and programmes in isolation or b. an integrated part of the organisations operationalised governance framework?
There are many signs that project and programme governance is not integrated well with an organisation. Separate tools, local databases / reports, external meeting specific reporting. Do governance bodies use the same support, synchronise meetings, share RAID capability, work off the same Objectives and Key Results solution?
There are further back up topics (should there be many tables to entertain):
- Prioritisation – do we a. prioritise objectives and deploy resources and funds into the entities which we task to deliver them – or b. do we focus on prioritising projects unrelated to the objectives but based on project scores?
- Resource Management – are projects a. done with what is left after we do our BAU, or b. are we able to make rational choices between BAU and change priorities?
- Dynamic strategy – are we a. able to speed up / slow down projects based on changing strategic priorities – or b. are projects like wind-up music boxes that play until they expire?
Each table has a facilitator to help focus on the question, and each topic will have an online form to enable capture of feedback in real time. This will be gathered and shared with comment / analysis post event.
PART 3 – 10 mins Run through emerging points and offer my points too – mention the back ups
PART 4 – 10 mins PMO take way – Sell what you do – but there are areas of Business Integrated Governance that need xMO support. Can you get a sponsor to pick up the wider role with you?
PART 5 – final Q&A – so we started thinking about the Big PMO adoption – but also possible the PMO adoption of BIG?
