Transforming Solutions, Inc. (TSI) was engaged by Information Technology Services at a southern flagship university to help establish a Portfolio Management Office (PMO). This office was intended to support a variety of projects from across the University system. The University engaged TSI to help establish the PMO with training, structure, management strategies, and development of critical PMO foundations through the development of a charter, mission, and vision. Extensive in-depth training was also provided on topics such as project management, Lean Principles, and Business Process Improvement. TSI provided this training and ongoing support to the PMO staff and worked collaboratively to foster a culture of innovation and improvement throughout IT Services and the campus community.

TSI’s Approach and Role

Approach

To accomplish the identified goals, TSI engaged the following approach:

PMO Development

In order to launch a new Portfolio Management Office, TSI was brought in to collaborate and provide ongoing support and development to newly appointed or hired PMO staff. Working closely with the PMO Director, a series of high level and detailed trainings were provided surrounding project management, office setup and maintenance activities, and mentoring for PMO growth and stability. Overall, TSI provided training to approximately 40 individuals including Project Managers, Business Analysts, Business Process Analysts, and administrative staff. Additionally, TSI collaboratively presented to groups throughout IT Services to foster cultural change towards improvement and level set language used across the unit. Part of the PMO development was a Business Process Improvement Training and Mentoring program which included an in-depth dive to BPI for PMO staff and a Train-the-Trainer component for Business Process Analysts.

BPI Training and Mentoring

To support PMO growth and development, the University asked TSI to provide in-depth training in TSI’s BPI methodology. With varied experience levels of PMO staff, TSI chose to implement its’ I DO, WE DO, YOU DO approach to training and mentoring. This approach provides a deep dive exploration of the 6 steps of the methodology followed by hands-on implementation of the concepts learned. It also allowed each individual in training to progress at their own pace. With the I DO phase, the TSI facilitation team led the facilitation and documentation of the current state, analysis of current state, and future state sessions and developed the deliverables for each session. The facilitators-in-training observed the methodology in action during the I DO sessions and reviewed the process of creating and finalizing the deliverables. 

In the WE DO phase, facilitators-in-training were actively part of the facilitation team for current state, analysis of current state, and future state sessions as well as for the development of deliverables for each process area. Collaborating with the TSI facilitation team, the facilitators-in-training took the lead with mentoring, guidance, and feedback as needed. Once a desired level of competencies were achieved and communicated, the individual continued to the YOU DO phase. In the YOU DO phase, each mentee took the lead for the facilitation team for all stages of the process improvement and developed the deliverables independently with review and feedback from the TSI team. For each session, pre-session planning and post-session debriefing meetings were held to share best practices for preparing for process improvement and gathering feedback about implementation of the methodology and engagement with stakeholders. This training was intended to empower PMO staff to be able to implement BPI across the University as needed for its projects.

Train-the-Trainer

Once each PMO staff member evidenced mastery of each competency for the various training components (BPI, Project Management), they were engaged to serve in a collaborative role with other mentees, observing, co-facilitating, and providing constructive feedback. Additionally, they were engaged to facilitate the training presentations for different topics to staff within the PMO, IT Services, or other stakeholders across the University. To modify and evolve the training content, PMO staff collaborated with TSI to add relevant examples, develop case study content, and track delivery. Each mentee received feedback, suggestions, and coaching throughout their trainer development.

Role

TSI worked closely with the PMO Director to develop training curriculum, materials, and tools that would result in sustainable PMO Operations. TSI serves as a project manager in collaboration with the PMO Director and other Business Analysts to reinforce training and project management best practices. TSI served as a facilitator, lead trainer, mentor, and evaluator.

Results

Throughout the engagement both the University and TSI gathered data to support progress toward goals, effective implementation of methods, measure outcomes, and evidence a return on investment. Some of this data included:

• 40 individuals received general project management training for the PMO development
• 20 individuals received deep dive training and mentoring in TSI’s Business Process Improvement methodology
• 20 Portfolio Management Office staff completed team training in Lean principles, Project Management, and Organizational Change Management
• 6 individuals completed all competencies for the train-the-trainer developmental coaching and now serve in the training role for the PMO
• Detailed feedback and coaching was provided and tracked for 20 PMO BPI mentees and train-the-trainers to ensure visibility and transparency of competency development
• Metric tracking was established to monitor project timelines, progress, success, and other defined measures
• Methods for tracking business processes and desired metrics were developed for the PMO which continue to be used for PMO internal work 

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The use of a strong-performance brand causes participants to feel better about themselves when undertaking a task…

When companies are trying to improve their processes and do not have much experience in the areas of delivery effectiveness, they potentially face a need to spend more money on a big brand name consultancy than is needed. At TSI, we see this once in a while when a potential client may select one of the bigger national management consulting firms.

Sometimes, client organizations do not select us because the bigger consulting firms simply are the “bigger consulting firms;” they have a more widely known and established brand. Hiring a national name brand can be important to clients. However, it can often be a disadvantage to them as well. This is because the big guys often cost significantly more, may not assign a seasoned consultant to the work, or may not have a specific “fix” for a client’s need.

Brand Names & The Placebo Effect

Several years ago, Shankar Vedatam, social science correspondent on NPR, did a story relating to the research of the placebo effect on consumer purchases. The story focused on the perception that big brand name products (e.g., Nike golf clubs) provide better results.

The report hit home for me with the following quote:

The effect is strongest among people who are novices in their respective task. Experts, really receive little or no boost due to the performance brand.

The Value in a Niche Brand

Take caution and beware as you move along the maturity path for your PMO, portfolio management, or program governance capabilities. Are you convinced in your path because the best solution is being put forward? Or because you are talking with a well-known, brand-name consultancy? Analogous to the study about golfing, in many situations, there is little real advantage in leveraging a more recognizable brand. And in many situations, there is a disadvantage to pursue the illusion of a “national brand” if the project team is less experienced than what is needed.

Instead, the key is a sound solution, a clear vision and roadmap for delivery, an experienced implementation team, and a measured way forward.

If your organization is a novice, or just not yet an expert in delivery, consider your needs, possible solutions, and the value you hope to realize. Do not be swayed by the placebo effect. There is value in the niche solution providers as well. I cannot promise a hole-in-one, but I can promise to reduce your anxiety on the fairway and help you improve your game. TSI has been around for more than 25 years; our consultants are seasoned experts, and we have the specific ‘fix’ for your need across a variety of service offerings.

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• What does it do?
• Is there only one definition?
• What does it look like?
• How does it operate?
• Who should be part of the team?
• What capabilities make a PMO successful?

Lots of organizations use the three little letters P-M-O, but what those letters represent can be very different:

• A Project Management Center of Excellence (i.e., authors of the PM processes)
• A Governance Office (i.e., overseers of compliance)
• A project manager resource pool
• A portfolio management facilitator
• A resource management center, charged with balancing individual contributor or team supply and demand

Regardless of the type of PMO, you have these five steps will help you advance your team and add value to your organization.

1. Understand Your Current PMO

Have you had your PMO assessed? I’m not referring to a customer satisfaction survey from your stakeholders. I mean an assessment that addresses what you are doing, what you could be doing, and how to move forward, based on a standard set of criteria. Doing an assessment like this, however, can be a challenge to self-administer.

Do you have a set of objective criteria? Do you have a standardized approach to follow (is it tried and proven)? Are you an unbiased party to the assessment?

Assessing the maturity of your practices is not about a number.  Sometimes organizations get stuck there. The Capability Maturity Model Integration framework (CMMI) has a five-level rating system. Organizations that focus on simply attaining a “Level 3” grade are missing the point. It is more important to understand your why. As Simon Sinek has famously pointed out, “A why is like a compass direction. It tells you where you are going.” What value does your PMO provide? What motivates your team? These answers will be more important than a numerical grade on a five-point scale. It is valuable to understand where you are with respect to your value.

2. Follow a PMO Roadmap

Without a map that directs your growth journey, how can you assess if you are making progress? Your PMO roadmap should have both short-term and long-term goals, deliverables, and measures of value. A roadmap lays out the desired functional state of your PMO. It outlines the steps necessary to reach the future state. Similarly, the roadmap can address the span of control of the PMO. The PMO focus may be on IT only, one operating department, or the entire organization. Your roadmap will change based on where you provide coverage currently versus where you want to go.

3. Build with Experience

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel and borrow liberally from others (other leaders, other departments, other organizations). Tailor as necessary to make processes and methods fit your culture, your industry, your team size, and your capabilities. Don’t try to have your project managers architect your PMO. It is not that they are not able; it is about capability and experience. Do you want to risk creating a new team with someone who has never created a PMO before? PMs are great at delivery. However, that does not mean they are necessarily organizational architects.

4. Define, Capture, and Showcase Value

To borrow from a famous scene in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, for your PMO to be successful, you have to be able to show them the money.  The “money” has to be the value your stakeholders want from the PMO. Be careful: if you are the PMO leader, don’t specifically focus on building the PMO you want to run. Your stakeholders’ perceptions are your reality. Define a way to measure value and report back early and often on how well you are doing against your metrics.

5. Strive for Continuous Improvement

Follow your roadmap, but don’t let the journey end. Think about continuous improvement and get a little bit better every day. Project management offices can get stuck in a rut. They deliver on a set of functions and they eventually stop evolving. Chances are that your organization is continuously changing, so be sure you are adapting to it. Change does not always have to be a Big Hairy Audacious Goal; little changes make a difference too. Think about change as simple, incremental, and always delivering value.

Contact us!

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Transforming Solutions, Inc. (TSI) was engaged by a southern flagship institution to ensure that appropriate mechanisms were in place to meet the needs of the University community for the modernization of its student information systems, which included the four University institutions. The project was driven by the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in collaboration with the other three campus CIOs.

To support the broader priorities of the CIO for improvement across IT Services and the University, a Portfolio Management Office (PMO) was established. TSI, in collaboration with the PMO team, was tasked with training and mentoring the PMO staff in business process improvement (BPI) methodologies. Additionally, TSI spearheaded the process improvement initiatives across the four campuses to assess the current state of readiness for change, opportunities for improvement, pain points, requirements for a new student system, and collect data about student, staff, faculty, and administrator experience across the four institutions through constituent experience sessions.

TSI’s Approach and Role

Approach

To accomplish the identified goals, TSI engaged in the following:

BPI Training and Mentoring

TSI was asked to provide in-depth training in TSI’s BPI methodology. With varied experience levels of PMO staff, TSI chose to implement its’ I DO, WE DO, YOU DO approach to training and mentoring. This approach provides a deep dive exploration of the 6 steps of the methodology followed by hands-on implementation of the concepts learned. It also allowed each individual in training to progress at their own pace. With the I DO phase, the TSI facilitation team led the facilitation and documentation of the current state, analysis of current state, and future state sessions and developed the deliverables for each session. The facilitators-in-training observed the methodology in action during the I DO sessions and reviewed the process of creating and finalizing the deliverables. 

In the WE DO phase, facilitators-in-training were actively part of the facilitation team for current state, analysis of current state, and future state sessions as well as for the development of deliverables for each process area. Collaborating with the TSI facilitation team, the facilitators-in-training took the lead with mentoring, guidance, and feedback as needed. Once a desired level of competencies were achieved and communicated, the individual continued to the YOU DO phase. In the YOU DO phase, each mentee took the lead for the facilitation team for all stages of the process improvement and developed the deliverables independently with review and feedback from the TSI team. TSI was present to provide feedback and assistance as needed. For each session, pre-session planning and post-session debriefing meetings were held to share best practices for preparing for process improvement and gathering feedback about implementation of the methodology and engagement with stakeholders. Additionally, for each WE DO and YOU DO session, verbal feedback and written feedback in the form of a rubric with comments were provided to each individual. The rubric included competencies such as preparedness, meeting management, methodology implementation, and soft skills. Competency development was rated with the following scale with detailed feedback for each:

• Exceptional – ready for next phase, shows full development of competencies, no further need for co- support
• Proficient – Evidencing growth and development of competencies, may need more co- support but showing strong progression.
• Developing – not ready for next phase, needs to receive feedback and mentoring for further development, still needs co- support.

BPI Train-the-Trainer

Once each PMO staff member evidenced mastery of each competency for BPI development, they were engaged to serve in a collaborative role with other mentees, observing, co-facilitating, and providing constructive feedback. Additionally, they were engaged to facilitate the training presentations for different topics to staff within the PMO, IT Services, or other stakeholders across the University. To modify and evolve the training content, PMO staff collaborated with TSI to add relevant examples, develop case study content, and track delivery. Each mentee received feedback, suggestions, and coaching throughout their trainer development.

Process Improvement Sessions

TSI created a visual representation of business processes that identified the stakeholders responsible for the process, to what standard it should be completed, and how the success of each process should be determined for critical entities with direct influence into the Student System: Recruiting and Admissions, Student Records, Student Accounts, and Financial Aid. These student-focused units were assessed independently at each of the four institutions to document the similarities and differences of the current state business processes.

As part of the I DO, WE DO, and YOU DO phases of BPI training, Business Process Analysts (BPA) worked collaboratively with TSI team members to manage the process work in order to appropriately plan for, staff, and map out processes for all functional areas across the University that worked with the current student system. This included all functional areas that touched Recruiting and Admissions, Student Records, Student Accounts, and Financial Aid such as Athletics, Bursar, Financial Aid, Registrar, Advising, International programs, the Graduate School, and others. After a pilot phase of process improvement through the current state, analysis of current state, and future state, the University decided to expand process improvement to all four campuses. This decision was intended to align system requirements and processes across all four campuses to align needs for a new system and ensure all campuses needs were met.

By using real processes, the PMO staff were able to gain hands-on experience of the intricacies involved and flexibility needed in processing mapping. 350 processes were mapped across four campuses with two deliverables (current state process map and analysis of the current state document) produced for each process area. 

As BPA’s mastered the needed competencies for independent process improvement, they took over leadership of process improvement for the PMO. After completion of the training initiative and the process improvement initiative across the four campuses, the PMO had 13 fully trained staff members to lead process improvement. Six of these staff members were designated as BPAs and continued process improvement projects throughout other departments on campus.  The other 7 trainees had either switched roles or had continued on as trained project managers. Some metrics that were collected throughout the process improvement sessions included the total number of: pain points, opportunities for improvement, participating stakeholders, processes, and sessions held.

Stemming from the 350 process improvement sessions, constituent experience sessions, and supplemental requirements gathering sessions, 1119 unique requirements were gathered to support the broader system selection project.

Constituent Experience and Voice of the Customer

In order to assess readiness for change, capture unique needs of campus constituents, and understand the experience of faculty, staff, students, and community members using the existing student system, the University requested that TSI conduct Continuous Improvement Constituent Experience and Voice of the Customer sessions across the four institutions. TSI team members partnered with University staff members to facilitate and document these sessions and analyze the data collected as a result. University staff members were trained in the methodology for both facilitation and documentation. Some of the data surrounding these experience sessions included total number of: student participants, faculty, staff, and community participants, sessions held, unique requirements from each session, and existing requirements that emerged but already identified in another session.

Role

TSI led training and mentoring in Business Process Improvement (BPI) and constituent experience. TSI served as a project manager and lead for the BPI mapping initiatives and constituent experience sessions across the four University institutions. TSI served as a facilitator, documenter, lead trainer, mentor, and evaluator.

Results

Throughout the engagement data was gathered to support progress toward goals, effective implementation of methods, measure outcomes, and evidence a return on investment. Some of this data included:

• 20 individuals received deep dive training and mentoring in TSI’s Business Process Improvement methodology
• 13 individuals successfully mastered all competencies of the Business Process Improvement training and mentoring initiative evidencing mastery of facilitation, documentation, deliverable creation, and stakeholder engagement
• 6 individuals complete the train-the-trainer developmental coaching and now serve in the training role for the PMO
• Detailed feedback and coaching was provided and tracked for 20 PMO BPI mentees and train-the-trainers to ensure visibility and transparency of competency development
• 350 processes were mapped for the current state and analyzed collaboratively with TSI and BPI trained PMO process mapping analysts 
• 46 Constituent Experience sessions were held across the four campuses
• 145 unique requirements were gathered from the Constituent Experience sessions
• 1119 unique student lifecycle requirements were gathered throughout the duration of this project across the four institutions
• Metric tracking was established to monitor total numbers of: pain points, opportunities for improvement, participating stakeholders, processes, and sessions held.
• Methods for tracking business processes and desired metrics that were developed with TSI for this project continued to be used for the PMO internal work within the PMO after completion of the project

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