by DharamCW | Feb 17, 2024 | Project Management
Three Key Elements for PMO Growth
In the thrust of today’s dynamic business landscape, the imperative for Project Management Offices (PMOs) is not just to adapt but to lead the charge in transforming operations. Today, I want to talk about the pivotal role of Change Drivers in the evolution of PMOs.
The Three Pillars of PMO Evolution
1. Capacity & Skills: The bedrock of any thriving PMO, where deep domain expertise meets the agility to scale up operations swiftly.
2. Rapid Execution: With time a premium commodity, the ability to pivot and deliver at speed is non-negotiable for PMOs aiming to stay ahead of compliance curves and shifting market demands.
3. Innovation: Beyond traditional project management, the focus is now on creating value through Innovation In PM, fostering a culture of Continuous Improvement and Quality Management.
3 Fundamental needs of change drivers
🌟 As a trainer and mentor, I’ve observed that PMOs transitioning from traditional execution methods to these three core areas deliver value faster and embed resilience and a forward-thinking ethos into their DNA.
🔗 Embrace the shift and become a harbinger of change in your organization. For more insights into PMO strategy and project leadership, follow vCare Project Management.
🚀 Elevate Your Project Management Career:
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by DharamCW | Feb 7, 2024 | Leadership in Project Management
Maximizing Success – Benefits of Building Stakeholder Relationships
In the realm of project, program, and portfolio management, forging robust stakeholder relationships is a cornerstone of success. I want to highlight why nurturing these connections is pivotal for organizational growth and individual career trajectories.
A strong stakeholder rapport yields:
– Enhanced trust and reciprocal confidence
– A harmonious work environment with less stress
– Sharpened problem-solving acumen
– Informed and agile decision-making processes
– Elevated bid values and client/employee retention rates
– Ample personal growth, paving the way for career advancement
– A resilient foundation for navigating complex challenges
– An enduring legacy that underpins future projects
Benefits of Building Stakeholder Relationships
Investing in stakeholder relationships is more than a strategy; it’s a commitment to cultivating a thriving ecosystem that benefits all parties involved.
Let’s embrace the journey of building stakeholder relationships that stand the test of time and change.
🚀 Elevate Your Project Management Career:
– Register for my upcoming PgMP/PfMP Success Story Webinar: https://bit.ly/3S53K3a
– Book an obligation-free consultation session on Project management Career, training, and certifications: http://bit.ly/2SbhTOK
– Discover training offers and certification discounts: https://bit.ly/3jWVepD
– Stay updated with our Q&A series and certification success stories by subscribing to the vCare Project Management YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl
– Follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
by Dharam CW2 | Nov 24, 2023 | General
The world is becoming more aware of the destructive impacts of climate change, and many businesses have started realizing the critical importance of sustainability to their future operations. Making the projects more sustainable is important to build a more sustainable world. But how to establish it?
Consumer Shift to Sustainability
According to Deloitte research, 28% of customers have stopped purchasing specific items owing to ethical or environmental concerns, increasing to 45% among Gen Z consumers. Approximately half of the consumers are prepared to spend extra money on more ethical and ecologically friendly brands.
However, keeping track of and being open about an organization’s sustainability initiatives is difficult if these metrics and methodologies are not evaluated and integrated into project processes. Unfortunately, what frequently happens is a lot of greenwashing, over-promising, and under-delivering sustainability goals, which may lead to even more distrust in brands and corporations.
As a result, many organizations are adding and integrating new sustainability features into their pre-existing project processes to meet the growing need for accountability and transparency in sustainability activities. However, as regulations evolve and customers grow more attentive, this strategy may no longer be adequate. That is why the organization needs sustainable project management.
Sustainable project management
71% of the world’s top 500 companies openly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, among other energy metrics. Sustainability has become a commercial priority for all industries, and organizations recognize that it is not responsible for ignoring the problem.
Broadening Project Management for Sustainability
However, sustainable project management is more than just being green and combating climate change. It is a duty to ensure that resources are utilized appropriately, that individuals are treated equally and fairly, and that communities are considered when making choices. Therefore, project managers in this sector will adopt a comprehensive approach, evaluating environmental, social, and economic aspects. They collaborate with environmental planners, hydrogeologists, and geotechnical engineers, to name a few of the ecological professions helping to remake our planet for the better.
Principles of Sustainable Project Management
Sustainable project management is an approach that:
- Takes into account the complete Triple Bottom Line viewpoint.
- Considers the complete life cycle of a project, from project-related activities through final deliverables.
- Engages stakeholders actively and openly rather than merely managing their expectations.
- Accepts responsibility for its actions to society and the environment.
- Considers the short and long-term consequences of all project operations and results.
Building sustainability into projects
Project managers are responsible for supervising the project delivery and support procedures. They will both strive to ensure client satisfaction while inspiring their team to deliver excellence. That is the essence of the role of a project manager.
Meanwhile, a project manager concerned with sustainability will take a more comprehensive approach. They will consider resource use, climate change mitigation, property rights, community engagement, and human rights. It’s a complicated profession that, when done correctly, can have a huge influence on civilizations. The project manager’s objective is to produce value and complete a project on time and within budget, but also to do it ethically and fairly.
Environmental management and responsible resource use have never been more popular. As a result, companies worldwide are seeking methods to cut waste and lessen the environmental effect of their operations. Being environmentally responsible not only helps firms appeal to customers, but it may also assist save costs by reducing resource requirements and minimizing exposure to potential regulatory fines.
When a company implements a “green” mindset into its project management approach, the positive impacts may spread across the organization, resulting in increased efficiency, less waste, and increased employee morale. Here are some ideas for building and carrying out sustainable projects in any industry.
Strategies for Project Sustainability Across Industries
- Start by assessing your current project’s sustainability.
Before taking measures toward increased sustainability, you must first understand where you are now. A sustainability analysis can assist the project manager in identifying the most significant development areas and measuring success as the sustainability project takes shape. First, determine if the concept of sustainability applies to a project or project management technique, and then assess the costs and effort necessary to improve.
- Develop a sustainability strategy
Once the evaluation is complete, the next stage is to develop a strategy that describes the business’s goals for enhancing sustainability, like how the goals will be achieved and what the organization wants to gain from the process. Like a project plan, the strategy should identify the people, roles, or departments that will drive the sustainability effort and the degree of power they will have in establishing project priorities.
Every day, modern organizations face new and growing obstacles. On the other hand, sustainable businesses have proven to be more resilient. But where do you begin? What steps can be taken to take your efforts to the next level? Here are the four critical steps in developing a sustainability strategy.
Crafting a Sustainability Strategy in Four Steps
Step 1: Identify the impact factors
Before developing a sustainability strategy, you must determine which factors are important to your company. Each company is unique based on the following:
- The industry you operate in
- The size of your company
- The location
- Your place in the supply chain
Different aspects will be relevant to your business.
The four pillars of sustainability
To ensure that your sustainability strategy has the greatest potential impact, you must first determine which aspects are most important to you. Companies should undertake a materiality analysis to do this. Here are the four sustainability pillars to consider in the analysis:
Core Aspects of Sustainability
- Environment
- Labour and Human Rights
- Business Ethics
- Sustainable Sourcing
Collecting data
Starting a stakeholder engagement with internal and external stakeholders is an excellent strategy for discovering your impact factors. In addition, conducting a survey or interviews will give you more profound knowledge.
Step 2: Determine the long-term vision and mission
After recognizing the crucial material issues, determine which ones you can genuinely influence. It is now time to develop a long-term purpose and vision. These two steps are critical for good strategic planning. They may give consistency and establish limits for your business and its employees.
The ideal future
A mission statement focuses on your company’s present position and briefly explains its main purpose, focus, and goals. On the other hand, a vision statement summarizes an organization’s goals and the larger influence it hopes to have in the future. As a result, your vision and mission statement must represent your fundamental materials challenges and expand on your materiality assessment results. In addition, your company’s distinct traits must be taken into account. This aspect may assist you in prioritizing the impact elements and creating long-term alignment in your organization.
Step 3: Formulate the sustainability strategy
Finally, in the third step, you can begin designing the real strategy, which is a more immediate translation of your vision and goal. It should include all of the impact elements (identified in step 1) that are relevant to your business. More precisely, you must determine short- and mid-term objectives to realize your long-term vision and purpose (identified in step 2). Breaking down these long-term high-level statements will make each step more concrete and manageable.
Setting goals
The goals should be SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timely
After you’ve chosen a set of relevant targets, you’ll need to decide what steps your organization will take to reach them. Project outlines and processes must be outlined in detail. It is critical to ensure that your approach promotes both horizontal and vertical cohesion.
- The alignment of multiple departments and sustainability pillars is called horizontal coherence.
- Vertical alignment, on the other hand, refers to the consistency of choices made at the management (group or entity) and operational levels.
Step 4: Implement the sustainability strategy and track success.
The next stage will be to put your thoughts into action. Developing a great plan begins with collecting relative insights and understanding your primary material concerns. Then, by following a step-by-step approach, you can create a framework that will allow you to focus on investment and drive performance while also engaging internal and external stakeholders.
- Adopt a sustainability standard
As interest in project sustainability grows, companies have established guidelines to assist senior leaders and project managers in determining if they are reaching their sustainability objectives. For example, Green Project Management has issued the P5 Standard for Sustainability in Project Management, a set of goals and measurements that businesses may use to drive their efforts.
- Look for sustainability in partners and vendors.
The larger an organization, the greater leverage it has on the firms with whom it does business. So asking vendors and suppliers to raise their sustainability can lower the organization’s environmental footprint and lead to broader changes among the vendors and customers.
- Spread the word
Communication is the key to success in every organizational activity. Begin including your project teams in the process as soon as your sustainability strategy is determined. Solicit input on your sustainability goals and fresh suggestions from staff based on prior efforts. The more engaged your team is in the sustainability project, the more determined they will see it through.
- Be adaptable
One critical component of project sustainability is the capacity to adapt to changes in the organization, technology, and competition. Because these factors might shift a company’s goals while responding to them can help you succeed. This move might also include modifying project criteria or responding quickly to problems to execute projects on schedule and budget.
- Ensure projects are manageable
Projects become sustainable when they are manageable. While you may have larger ambitions, breaking them down into smaller, more manageable tasks might help you with expenses and resource allocation over time. You may also check your ability to implement manageable initiatives, such as having the necessary teams and approval processes. When planning for the future, be sure the organization can support any system or process modifications that a project manager wants to deploy.
- Review scalability
The ability to raise or reduce your resources based on your project’s demands is called scalability. This need frequently occurs when the scope of a project grows greater than intended, necessitating the use of additional tools, funds, people, or other resources to execute it. Ensuring that you can handle changes in scale may aid in developing a long-term sustainability strategy since it provides that the result will still be worth any additional demands.
Why should every project manager prioritize sustainability?
As governments worldwide establish net-zero carbon objectives, project managers are being charged with rethinking work processes to reduce emissions. Everything from planning to procurement to team structures is being re-evaluated to achieve sustainability goals. However, it is important to realize that sustainability covers more than climate change. It entails balancing projects’ environmental, social, economic, and administrative components to fulfill the requirements of present stakeholders without compromising the needs of future generations. Far from being a burden, sustainability provides an opportunity for project professionals to demonstrate their value by connecting with company strategic objectives centered on net zero. By incorporating sustainability into all aspects of their projects, project managers may make a significant difference and increase their visibility to the organization’s leadership.
Final Thoughts
Project Sustainability Management necessitates a more comprehensive strategy. It considers resource utilization, climate change mitigation, property rights, community engagement, and human rights. The project manager’s mission is to provide value and complete a project on time and under budget and do it ethically and fairly. The intertemporal character of sustainable project management contributes to its complexity. As a result, the lifetime of a sustainable project should not end after completion; environmental and social impacts must also be monitored and regulated afterward.
Project managers are in charge of managing the project delivery and support procedures. Both will ensure client satisfaction while inspiring their teams to produce greatness.
Project managers must consequently arm themselves with new indicators, such as ISO, SA, and others, for monitoring and managing these environmental and social issues. In the end, initiatives serve as a tool for effecting change, introducing new goods and services, and shaping society. As a result, sustainability should not be an afterthought but rather one of the primary aims of any project.
Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Thomas Walenta in YouTube
For any questions related to your Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting https://bit.ly/2SbhTOK
You can subscribe to the vCare Project Management YouTube Channel to catch future videos of our Q&A series and certification success stories: https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl
You can subscribe to and follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
by DharamCW | Sep 8, 2023 | General
From a strategic standpoint, the PMO is critical in project management. Unlike project management, which focuses on the day-to-day operations of a project team, the PMO serves as a framework for project managers, offering PMO methodologies and templates for managing programs inside an organization. In addition, it manages the project management resources required to sustain and deliver projects.
Project management offices (PMOs) are evolving from purely administrative to strategic roles. They are rethinking PMO operations, adopting new technology, and implementing new project management operating models. The evolved PMO is a new PMO concept that is gaining traction. A creative, strategic, and adaptive PMO designed to help modern organizations deal with the volatility of today’s market conditions.
Functions Of A Project Management Office
Functions of a Project Management Office (PMO)
A project management office (PMO) is the foundation of a successful project management strategy in a business. It is a function that gives decision-support information but does not make choices.
A project management office (PMO) supports project delivery mechanisms by ensuring that all business change in a company is controlled. PMOs perform various duties, and their services depend on the department’s maturity and the PMO personnel’s talents. At its most basic, the PMO assists project management teams in making funding, prioritizing, and resource choices. The most mature PMOs provide the following:
1. Governance: The PMO ensures that the appropriate individuals make the correct decisions based on pertinent information. Audits or peer reviews, designing project and program frameworks, and maintaining accountability at all levels are all part of the governance role.
2. Transparency: The PMO delivers information as a source of truth. Information should be relevant and accurate to promote good decision-making and be presented to individuals understandably.
3. Reusability: The PMO fosters knowledge sharing. This aspect prevents project teams from reinventing the wheel and positions the PMO as the hub for lessons learned, templates, and best practices.
4. Delivery support: By minimizing bureaucracy and offering training, coaching, mentoring, and quality assurance, the PMO makes it easier for project teams to accomplish their duties.
5. Traceability: The PMO manages paperwork, project history, and organizational knowledge.
In reality, most PMOs will do various tasks and offer services tailored to the organization’s requirements.
How Business Agility Drives A Shift In Focus For Today’s PMOs
Forward-thinking companies are fast learning that “simply getting the job done” will not equip them for long-term company success. To be successful in business today, firms must provide products and services that satisfy their clients while constantly innovating to grow their markets.
Historically, PMOs were responsible for managing tactical operations that supported project development and implementation. Today’s Corporate leaders recognize that to stay ahead of the market; they need to exploit new possibilities while limiting unanticipated risks – this necessitates a new approach to planning, building, and delivery. Maintaining consistent levels of project success involves more than an organized strategy; it demands a company’s collective attitude to accept required disciplines while staying flexible enough to respond to changes in their business.
1. A major project fails — badly: When an expensive, strategic initiative fails in a competitive market, it compels a company to rethink its strategy. A third of the organizations polled cited a big failure as the impetus for shifting emphasis.
2. A project goes over budget: An underlying driver is cost reduction; project success at higher-than-expected costs decreases profitability and damages customer relationships.
3. A PMO aids a strategic project to succeed: Success, on the other hand, is a catalyst for change. Therefore, the following important reason for building a strategic PMO would be to capitalize on the momentum produced by the successful project.
4. Market competition forces stronger disciplines: Maintaining market share and growing at a controllable rate encouraged larger firms to create consistency to innovate. The capacity to pivot and explore possibilities prompted smaller businesses to establish a strategic PMO.
Key Factors to a Successful PMO Transformation
Established businesses and fast-growing firms are both adapting to changing business environments brought on by competition, acquisitions, developing technology, and new risks. As a result, the importance of alignment, built-in quality, transparency, and the capacity to execute across various project endeavors has never been greater. Innovative design thinking, continuous delivery, excellent quality, and a never-ending drive for improvement are some of the essential characteristics of a modern-day PMO. Here are some causes driving PMO evolution and the seven elements required to turn a typical PMO into a transformation management office (TMO).
Drivers behind the PMO Evolution
Due to increased external business environment constraints, businesses must achieve rapid and substantial value from their projects and initiatives. This aspect means shorter delivery cycles, the adoption of developing technologies, and regularly changed priorities for the PMO. To achieve this transition, the PMO must move its focus from project execution technique to value-driven business results. Change drivers are often aligned with three fundamental needs:
Drivers behind the PMO Evolution
1. Capacity and skills:
- Specific domain areas of technical expertise required
- Extra capacity required
2. Rapid Execution:
- Organizations require rapid execution to address immediate concerns
- No time to plan, but need to execute now to meet deadlines (e.g., regulatory compliance dates)
3. Innovation:
- Legacy project management no longer meets expectations
- Value focus, agility, quality, and continuous improvement are required
Transformation Management Office Critical Factors
Critical Factors to Consider
1. Leadership: TMO core values of alignment, built-in quality, transparency, and program execution must be completely embraced by leaders. They must adopt an agile mindset, emphasizing respect for people and culture, flow, innovation, and continuous development while cultivating a culture of trust and safety when setbacks occur.
2. Organizational Agility: Processes at the program and project levels must be improved to deliver value quickly while allowing companies to restructure and adapt to changing priorities.
3. Lean Portfolio Management: Goals for funding and execution must be aligned around workstreams that bring value to business priorities. Organizations may use this to optimize operations throughout their project portfolio. In addition, governance, monitoring, and decision-making for programs and projects should be decentralized to decrease overhead while boosting agility.
4. Enterprise Solution Delivery: The whole software development life cycle can be aligned with a DevOps methodology that refines and coordinates the work product across workstreams, supply chains, and suppliers to achieve and sustain continuous delivery.
5. Agile Product Delivery: Methods for delivering programs must begin with a customer focus and design thinking while aligning the continuous-delivery pipeline to a release cadence that provides optimum value to the customer.
6. Team and Technical Agility: Teams must be high-performing and cross-functional, with the knowledge and competence to design and execute high-quality solutions and work products aligned with customer-focused business goals.
7. Continuous-Learning Culture: Investing in being a learning organization is critical for employee transformation. Employees must be empowered to discover and uncover future value by embracing innovation and design thinking. Continuous improvement of solutions, processes, and products should be a priority at all levels of the business.
The evolving role of the PMO in digital transformation
Digital transformation has swept across organizations of all shapes and sizes to keep up with the growing expectations and needs of an increasingly digitized world. However, more people are learning that successful digital transformation entails transforming core cultures, structures, and techniques and integrating digital tools. Therefore, the function of the PMO in organizations must adapt to accommodate this shift as organizations evolve to accommodate this change.
According to a PWC study, 70% of organizations had or were working on a digital transformation strategy before the pandemic. Digital transformation may provide several benefits, ranging from better operational efficiency and product quality to increased customer satisfaction and lower development expenses.
However, PMOs have become linked with bureaucratic processes and unnecessary documentation. Their role must develop beyond the conventional limitations of “standards enforcers” to embrace their strategic role as change agents fully. Future PMOs must be at the forefront of emerging technology and implement various tactics that will allow the organization to make the most of available technologies.
Five ways the PMO drives digital transformation
Five ways the PMO drives digital transformation
1. PMOs can inspire and encourage change
The PMO’s role is to assist organizations in gaining the support of all key stakeholders for a digital transformation. Teams are more inclined to invest in digital projects if the transformation’s advantages are personal. PMOs may implement explicit feedback mechanisms to ensure that all important input is easily supplied, reviewed, and acted upon.
2. PMOs act as the strategic arm
PMOs must ensure that their digital transformation plan is consistent with the organization’s overall strategy. For example, investing in high-end software is pointless if your company is attempting to save money and merely needs essential project management tools. PMOs must also comprehend the strategic benefit of digital technology investments and be able to quantify, justify, and carry out plans.
3. PMOs provide support and insight
Digital transformation programs are frequently large-scale enterprise-wide undertakings that need ongoing support and higher-level knowledge to influence their development. For example, PMOs may assist employees via virtual portals with the help of a PPM solution while also gathering Big Data to help evaluate the new technologies’ success and efficiency.
4. PMOs properly manage transformations
Introducing new technology frequently entails forming new teams and learning new skills to ensure a successful adoption process. Managing digital transformation entails guaranteeing the availability of relevant resources, skills, feedback mechanisms, and data collection procedures. PMOs can monitor the full effect of digital transformation activities, manage possible bottlenecks or pressure spots, and optimize ongoing operations.
5. PMOs enable successful digital adoption
PMOs are essential in getting people excited about digital initiatives and driving further use of the tools or processes. PMOs may assist employees in understanding the value of digital technologies by delivering interactive demos and holding learning sessions. When more individuals utilize the application, there is more data to accurately analyze the overall performance of digital activities.
Project Governance and its components
Project governance is an oversight position that includes the project life cycle. It is tied to the governance model of the organization. It provides the project manager and team with structure, processes, decision-making models, and tools for effectively managing and controlling the project. Project governance is critical, especially for complex and risky enterprises. It defines, documents, and communicates consistent project processes to give a whole way of project control and success. It includes a framework for making project choices, defines roles, obligations, and liabilities for project completion, and controls the project manager’s performance.
Components of Project Governance
Components of Project Governance
According to PMI, eight project governance components offer real-world value:
1. Governance Models
The organization should develop a baseline of important aspects required for project governance based on the project’s scale, duration, complexity, risk, stakeholders, and relevance to the company.
2. Accountability and Responsibilities
The project manager’s primary responsibility is to define accountability and obligations. An organization’s operations will only be successful if accountability and obligations are adequately distributed. Therefore, the project manager must specify who is accountable, responsible, consulted, and alerted for each project’s deliverables.
3. Stakeholder Engagement
It is essential to thoroughly understand the project environment while setting the groundwork for your governance plan. The first stage is to identify all of the stakeholders. If even one stakeholder is excluded, it can disrupt the entire project and have a negative impact. One must identify stakeholders from various sources, including sponsors, suppliers, the project team, government boards, company owners, etc. The project manager must identify the stakeholders, their interests and prospects, and, most critically, how to interact with them.
4. Stakeholder Communication
The project manager must design a communication plan after identifying all stakeholders and describing their interests and expectations. A well-planned communication strategy provides all stakeholders with concise, efficient, and timely information.
5. Meeting and Reporting
Once the communication strategy has been properly designed, the project manager ensures that the optimal mix of meetings and reporting is in place. It is critical to design the communication strategy so that each stakeholder knows the mode and content of the communication and the owner, receiver, communication milestones, and decision gates. Furthermore, communication must be concise, accurate, and to the point.
6. Risk and Issue Management
Projects and programs are riddled with hazards and difficulties due to their uncertainty and unpredictability. It is challenging to forecast what will happen. Still, it is vital since a lack of preparation will throw the project team well behind schedule. Any project or program must begin with an agreement on identifying, categorizing, and prioritizing risks and concerns. How the danger or issue is handled is far more significant than the issue itself.
7. Assurance
Project assurance ensures that risks and concerns are addressed effectively and provides the indicators that provide delivery confidence. One of the most important aspects of assurance is developing metrics to provide a view of project success.
8. Project Management Control Process
It is the simplest component yet the most complicated to implement. Process control activities, metrics relevant to the project, and measurements are monitored and controlled. Also, this is a collaborative review; the management must monitor performance regularly and address any variances on time.
Creating project governance is more complex than it sounds. First, a significant investment is required when embarking on a new project. What’s more challenging is determining what advantages are linked with it. The following are four major advantages of project governance:
- Single point of contact
- Problem management and resolution
- Information dissemination and clear communication
- Outlines the roles, connections, and responsibilities of project stakeholders
Reinvent the PMO’s role in the digital age
The structure, provenance, and stakeholders of IT strategy, regulation, and management operations are changing dramatically due to digitization. As a result, the project management office, or PMO, must move its focus from project governance and delivery to digital transformation. According to a Gartner study, 87% of firms prioritize digitalization. Furthermore, today, 77% of an executive’s top priorities depend on technology.
As a result, PMOs are under enormous pressure to transform. But unfortunately, the project, program, and portfolio management processes they build and monitor are geared toward predictability and consistency rather than the speed and flexibility necessary to satisfy digital demand.
More flexible job descriptions and growing ownership of project management activities by business partners and other delivery professionals put traditional hierarchies and established PMO positions to the challenge. As a result, the PMO’s future role in digitization initiatives is established rather than for it since it usually needs to be considered in discussions about digitally driven changes to the IT operating model.
The traditional role of the PMO: Three advantages
Organizations are altering the function of the PMO in response to better support the enterprise’s digital aspirations. To accomplish so, they must examine possible activities critically through the prism of the PMO’s comparative advantages. The majority of PMOs have three main benefits, which are either inherent because of the PMO’s function or location or were developed as a result of experience:
1. A neutral enterprise perspective:
As capital allocation and portfolio priority approaches alter to give the financial flexibility necessary for digital work, the PMO’s objective, enterprise-wide perspective on demand, investment, and resource consumption, is more valuable.
2. The ability to operate via influence:
As organizational boundaries grow more flexible and who “owns” project management becomes less definite, influencing and empowering others, rather than direct ownership, becomes even more crucial.
3. Stakeholder insight:
As digitalization expands throughout the business and accounts for an increasing quantity of work, the number of first-time stakeholders and stakeholder complexity for each work item increases. Therefore, understanding the preferences of these many stakeholders and experiencing synthesizing their feedback becomes critical in producing results from digital work.
The PMO’s new role: Advancing digital ambitions
Leading PMOs are leveraging these advantages to shift the focus of their mission away from governance and delivery activities, embracing a strategy-over-governance and management-over-operations stance. Here are three approaches to altering the PMO’s role in the digital age:
Altering the PMOs role in the Digital age
1. Orchestrating delivery and team workflows
The PMO is well-suited to develop and promote interactions across increasingly different types of work and stakeholders due to its enterprise perspective and stakeholder insight. PMOs can play significant roles in driving the adoption of new delivery practices (e.g., Agile, DevOps) and will need to build systems for team collaboration across methodologies. This move entails identifying and managing interdependencies that might derail existing activity and lowering the effort necessary for interaction across teams, other governance roles, and third parties.
2. Developing and enabling digital talent
PMOs have expanded their roles in creating and fostering digital talent, adjusting career paths, and equipping project management professionals with the skills and techniques required to handle increasingly dynamic digital work. This initiative includes fostering new competencies such as product ownership, cultivating an enlarged network of project management practitioners, and providing targeted assistance for increasing business-managed projects.
3. Supporting digital transformation
Digitization is driving change in the IT operating model, with 52% of IT businesses utilizing or planning to use a new model centered on product lines. The PMO’s role in facilitating this transformation will be essential in the future. For example, the PMO may assist with enterprise-level capital allocation, design, and management of product line investment roadmaps, assess product line success, and manage the organizational transformation required when IT transitions to product lines. Aside from IT, the PMO will be asked to help implement digital business activities.
Final Thoughts
The future PMO will be more strategic and intricate than traditional approaches, emphasizing driving decision-making, execution, and outcomes while becoming more decentralized to interact with each workstream to achieve one common goal efficiently. Finally, PMOs will be more crucial than ever in addressing the challenges that organizations are now confronting. An effective transformation will need PMOs to act as the organization’s voice and face.
As the pace of digitalization increases, the PMO role will be put under increased pressure. As a result, PMOs are looking for methods to cut back on their time and effort on operational and governance tasks. Thus, PMO leaders must leverage their unique assets to change their focus from governance and delivery assistance to strategy and management activities that support digital projects.
Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Justin Buckwalter in YouTube
For any questions related to your Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting https://bit.ly/2SbhTOK
You can subscribe to the vCare Project Management YouTube Channel to catch future videos of our Q&A series and certification success stories: https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl
You can subscribe to and follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
by Dharam CW2 | Aug 25, 2023 | General
The modern workplace is undergoing a significant transformation. As a result, project professionals in both the public and private sectors worldwide have started to recognize the full range of benefits that successful project management can bring to their businesses and are prepared to make the required adjustments, particularly on cultural changes.
The success of each project is dependent on an effective project management strategy. Considering the next generation of project professionals, it is critical to have an efficient leader who can direct this process since it is methodically planning, organizing, and executing a pre-determined series of procedures to maximize resource utilization and achieve objectives. Project goals will likely be met with a manager monitoring adequate planning and checking off milestones.
To compete in the upcoming competitive market, a project manager must have the technical, digital, and other essential project management skills to comprehend future project challenges. On the other hand, a project leader with an effective skill set can tackle all the challenges in a project in the right way. So here are some of the challenges and skill sets to manage a project for the next generation of project managers.
Challenges of Project Management
According to data provided in the PMI’s Pulse of the Profession 2020, 11.4 percent of corporate investment is lost owing to poor project performance.
What variables might contribute to poor project performance? There are examples of a need for more precise planning, inconsistent procedures and techniques, incorrectly managing or accounting for all project stakeholders, budget overruns, and other causes.
Categories of Project Failure
However, if we take a step further, the causes of project failure fall into three major categories:
- People
- Processes
- Communication
Let’s look at the most common challenges for project managers and some tips on how to overcome them.
Challenges of Project Management
- Undefined Goals
Identifying project goals is one of the most common challenges in project management. The entire project and team might suffer when objectives need to be clearly defined. When top management cannot agree on or support undefined goals, the project has a limited likelihood of success. To define and convey clear goals, the project manager must ask the right questions and make the right decisions.
- Scope Creep
“Scope creep” occurs when incorrect project management permits the scope of a project to expand beyond its initial objectives. Clients and supervisors may request modifications to a project, requiring the project manager to examine each request and determine how and whether to accept it meanwhile also conveying the implications to all stakeholders regarding budget and timelines.
- Inadequate Skills for the Project
A project may necessitate the use of talents that the project’s contributors may need to have. Project management may assist a project manager in determining the required competencies, assessing existing personnel, and recommending training, outsourcing, or recruiting extra people.
- Lack of Accountability
When each team member accepts responsibility for their role in project success, the project manager’s leadership characteristics may come through. A lack of responsibility, on the other hand, might bring a project to an end. Learning to lead groups toward a shared objective is an essential part of project management.
- Improper Risk Management
Another key aspect of project management is learning to cope with and plan for risk. Because projects rarely go as planned, risk management is a desired project manager trait. To do their work effectively, project managers must solicit input, build trust, and understand which aspects of a project are most likely to deviate from the original plan.
- Ambiguous Contingency Plans
Project managers must understand which path to pursue in pre-defined “what-if” situations. The entire project may become entangled in unexpected problems if contingencies are not recognized. On the other hand, requesting that people identify possible problem areas can result in a smooth and successful project.
- Poor Communication
Poor communication can cause major project management issues. Project managers must offer direction at all project stages so that each team member understands what is expected from them. Therefore, effective communication with all people involved in the project is critical to its success.
- Resource Deprivation
Management must offer adequate resources for a project to function smoothly and successfully. The project management process aids project managers in establishing demands and securing approval up front, as well as how to assign and prioritize resources during a project.
- Lack of Stakeholder Engagement
A project can be ruined by an uninterested team member, customer, CEO, or vendor. A skilled project manager communicates openly and invites input at every stage to increase participant participation.
- Digital Transformation
Adapting to the correct tools, systems, and procedures becomes even more crucial as more firms board the digital transformation train. This difficulty stems from adapting to the appropriate project management system, enabling teams to construct, change, and improve existing procedures to expand and scale.
Overall, project management is in great demand and isn’t going away anytime soon. Indeed, project management is anticipated to expand by 33% by 2027. However, to keep up with the ever-changing business landscape, project managers must be updated on proper project management methods and trends.
Major Challenges for the Next Generation Project Managers
Major Challenges for the Next Generation Project Managers
- The first major challenge project managers must confront is technology globalization and the disruption of traditional corporate culture and model. This aspect includes eliminating the requirement to do business or manage projects from a single place. The adaptation of the “virtual team” has become a must, and a company’s agility might mean the difference between success and failure. What used to take months may now be accomplished instantly, emphasizing the necessity of a company’s ability to fast and naturally adapt to the fluctuating nature of today’s technology culture.
- The second major concern is worker involvement, a project manager’s capacity to grasp various roles and responsibilities and use agility to wear numerous “hats” depending on the project. Knowing generational drives, establishing moral leadership, and understanding how the team performs are all part of this.
- Finally, project managers will be impacted by innovation and risk. The problem is figuring out how to strike a balance between innovation and risk—as managing risk is an important project management skill—but without it, it’s hard to realize the entire project’s potential.
Future Trends of Project Management
Consider project management ten years ago: fewer tools, smaller teams, and more straightforward tasks. Since then, the project landscape has changed dramatically, with important developments such as:
- Blockchain
- Artificial intelligence
- Sustainability
- Remote teams
Future Trends of Project Management
Trend 1 – Blockchain
More businesses use blockchain technologies for management, such as when conducting dispute investigations. The capacity of blockchain to automatically update data makes it ideal for reconciling records and transactions. One of the most significant contributions of blockchain to project management will be smart contracts, which are effectively self-executing contracts powered by computer code.
Smart contracts reduce the number of key functions within the project manager’s scope, such as checking on project milestones and assigning new ones, which speeds up management processes. As a result, quicker workflow assures project completion on time and improves a company’s overall performance.
Trend 2 – Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is increasingly finding its way into project management systems, managing anything from predictive analysis to risk management. Because of its efficacy, as per the PwC report, by 2030, AI is expected to contribute:
- $42.7 B (7.7%) to Egypt’s economy
- $135.2 B (12.4%) to Saudi Arabia’s economy
- $96.3 B (13.6%) to the UAE economy
The primary capacity of AI is to provide data insights for decision-making, which increases the agility of any given project.
Trend 3 – Sustainability
Project sustainability is more critical than ever now. Governments and societies worldwide are demanding greener alternatives throughout the life cycle of a project.
Green initiatives are cost-cutting solutions for businesses. For example, energy is required for project completion, and shifting to renewable sources reduces costs. In addition, this frees up resources that may be directed toward other essential areas like innovation and research. Meanwhile, sustainable practices improve a company’s reputation and encourage consumer loyalty.
Trend 4 – Remote Teams
Remote teams have been the norm since the advent of communication technology. As a result, businesses gain from a more diverse and borderless talent pool easily available through contracts. In addition, they spend less on office space, travel, and other administrative expenses.
Data from Upwork’s Future Workforce Report 2021 revealed that more than half of the US population was working remotely to some level. Furthermore, 40.7 million Americans will likely be fully remote during the next five years.
Furthermore, in its 2022 State of Remote Work Report, Buffer discovered that 97% would promote remote work to others and continue to work remotely, at least for some time or for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, just 26% of businesses are prepared to offer a remote work environment.
As a result, it’s not unexpected that more workers anticipate that workplaces will become entirely virtual over the next several years. In general, remote working arrangements enable businesses to extend their resources while increasing operational efficiency. As such, they are crucial in developing lean, competitive firms.
Key Skills needed for Next-Generation Project Managers
Because of rising trends such as remote teams, digitalization, and automation, project management has changed dramatically in recent years. More companies rely significantly on technology to plan, execute, and monitor work.
As an example:
- Big data and artificial intelligence for better risk forecasting
- Remote progress tracking using digitization technologies
- Automation software for more efficient execution
These solutions have improved firms’ management capabilities and altered project management’s future.
According to Gartner research, 80% of management duties will be automated by 2030, and future managers will need more technical skills. They must be knowledgeable about cybersecurity, blockchains, machine learning, and robots, all of which are expected to play larger roles in management.
To stay up with trends in modern project management, a fundamental understanding of topics such as data science, conflict resolution, and entrepreneurship is required. For example, data science skills may assist a manager in incorporating AI into more elements of the project life cycle. Here’s a closer look at what these skills include and how they’ll stay up with future innovations in project management.
Key Skills Needed For Next Generation Project Managers
Skill 1 – Data Science
Big data insights are essential management tools in the future, especially for large projects with extensive life cycles. In terms of planning, insights from previous projects indicate inefficiencies that can guide the current project, such as the number of idle hours and their causes. In terms of execution, data analytics assess progress and spot deviations early, such as changes in material prices and exchange rates that exceed estimates.
Skill 2 – Conflict Resolution
Today’s projects are extremely complicated, with constantly changing deliverables. As a result, conflicts are never far away.
These conflicts, if left unaddressed, can undermine your team’s performance, resulting in delays and missed deliverables. Managers must thus understand the aspects of conflict resolution, such as:
- Behavioral and organizational aspects of a positive workplace
- Effective communication
- Effective contingency planning
Skill 3 – Entrepreneurship
Project managers are essentially CEOs. On the one hand, they are in charge of project deliverables, while on the other, they are negotiating with shareholders and setting targets based on estimates. As a result, being productive requires more than technical and administrative skills. Project managers must also have entrepreneurship skills, such as strategic thinking and market insight. This skill is beneficial for modifying deliverables, which is typical in agile projects like software development.
Skill 4 – Resource Management
Budgets and timeframes became tighter as projects got more significant and more complicated. Today’s project managers must balance budget constraints, deliver quality, and achieve deadlines with limited resources. They are entrusted with creating a lean organization.
For optimal efficacy, a delicate balance of resource allocation is required, as over-allocation to one activity inhibits the others. So, managers must understand resource management principles such as equilibrium shifts and flexibility.
Skill 5 – Digital Skill
Digital skills are essential for future project managers. According to the CBI’s report on developing a world-leading innovation economy, upskilling employees with digital skills is critical. However, the digital skills pipeline could be improved. They believe more should be done to foster more ambition in that field.
Digital Skills For Project Managers
Project managers need to have the following digital skills:
- Data analysis, analytics, and management
- Data security and protection
- Compliance with the rules and regulations
- Leadership and collaboration online
- Management of knowledge
- Decision-making based on data.
Considering the vital significance of the project manager’s role and how it changes, here is a list of additional skills for project leaders to follow in the present and future to enhance their careers and succeed.
Skills For Future Project Leaders
- Emotional Intelligence: The capacity to detect and interpret events and interactions (both verbal and nonverbal) in the context of the project plan.
- Adaptive Communication:The ability to explain one’s views to various individuals, groups, and cultures, whether orally or in writing, utilizing the most successful communication approaches for each group.
- People Skills: The ability to rapidly establish and maintain strong connections with team members and stakeholders.
- Management skills: The capacity to serve, encourage and concentrate a team, and create team member collaboration.
- Flexibility:The willingness and capacity to modify one’s project management style and course of action in response to business needs.
- Business Skills:Understanding the organization’s business, strategy, and industry. Understanding of a plan and ability to coordinate tactical work around that strategy.
- Analytical abilities:The capacity to think through circumstances and make judgments.
- Customer Focus:The ability to comprehend the end user’s or end customer’s demands and the drive to guarantee that projects meet those needs.
- Results-Orientation:The capacity to do tasks efficiently and successfully.
- Character:The project manager should have a pleasant demeanor and a solid moral and ethical foundation.
Final Thoughts
With a focus on the future generation, we’ve entered a project management world where we need to be aware of the key challenges we’ll encounter as project managers and the skills we’ll need to improve to succeed: technology globalization, worker engagement, and the battle between innovation and risk. There are, however, a few crucial insights to remember as you continue your journey through the strange and ever-changing world of project management.
- Be agile or be gone:Business constantly needs greater flexibility, strategy, and adaptability than ever before. No one strategy will work every time; knowing how to adjust to change with agility and rapidity is essential.
- Expect all teams to act differently:Teams will always be more diverse than those who make them up. However, you can lead more successfully if you genuinely grasp your team and each member’s unique imperatives. Because project teams determine project success, one of the most crucial skills of a competent project manager is the ability to construct an effective, high-performing team.
- Help team members understand the big picture:This will assist them in preparing for obstacles. When attempting to resolve an issue or manage change, keep the immediate consequences in mind to prevent losing sight of the forest for the trees.
Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Thomas Walenta in YouTube
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