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Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 Days

Use your first 100 days as PMO leader to define a mandate for long-term success.

  • As a new PMO director, you’ve been thrown into the middle of an unfamiliar organizational structure and a chaotic project environment.
  • The expectations are that the PMO will help improve project outcomes, but beyond that your mandate as PMO director is opaque.
  • You know that the statistics around PMO longevity aren’t good, with 50% of new PMOs closing within the first three years. As early in your tenure as possible, you need to make sure that your stakeholders understand the value that your role could provide to the organization with the right level of buy-in and support.
  • Whether you’re implementing a new PMO or taking over an already existing one, you need to quickly overcome these challenges by rapidly assessing your unfamiliar tactical environment, while at the same time demonstrating confidence and effective leadership to project staff, business stakeholders, and the executive layer.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • The first 100 days are critical. You have a window of influence where people are open to sharing insights and opinions because you were wise enough to seek them out. If you don’t reach out soon, people notice and assume you’re not wise enough to seek them out, or that you don’t think they are important enough to involve.
  • PMOs most commonly stumble when they shortsightedly provide project management solutions to what are, in fact, more complex, systemic challenges requiring a mix of project management, portfolio management, and organizational change management capabilities. If you fail to accurately diagnose pain points and needs in your first days, you could waste your tenure as PMO leader providing well-intentioned solutions to the wrong project problems.
  • You have diminishing value on your time before skepticism and doubt start to erode your influence. Use your first 100 days to define an appropriate mandate for your PMO, get the right people behind you, and establish buy-in for long-term PMO success.

Impact and Result

  • Develop an action plan to help leverage your first 100 days on the job. Hit the ground running in your new role with an action plan to achieve realistic goals and milestones in your first 100 days. A results-driven first three months will help establish roots throughout the organization that will continue to feed and grow the PMO beyond your first year.
  • Get to know what you don’t know quickly. Use Info-Tech’s advice and tools to perform a triage of every aspect of PMO accountability as well as harvest stakeholder input to ensure that your PMO meets or exceeds expectations and establishes the right solutions to the organization’s project challenges.
  • Solidify the PMO’s long-term mission. Adopt our stakeholder engagement best practices to ensure that you knock on the right doors early in your tenure. Not only do you need to clarify expectations, but you will ultimately need buy-in from key stakeholders as you move to align the mandate, authority, and resourcing needed for long-term PMO success.

Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 Days Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how capitalizing on your first 100 days as PMO leader can help ensure the long-term success of your PMO.

Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 Days – Executive Brief
Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 Days – Phases 1-4

1. Survey the project landscape

Get up-to-speed quickly on key PMO considerations by engaging PMO sponsors, assessing stakeholders, and taking stock of your PMO inventory.

Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 Days – Phase 1: Survey the Project Landscape
Mission Identification and Inventory Tool
PMO Director First 100 Days Timeline

2. Gather PMO requirements

Make your first major initiative as PMO director be engaging the wider pool of PMO stakeholders throughout the organization to determine their expectations for your office.

Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 Days – Phase 2: Gather PMO Requirements
PMO Requirements Gathering Tool
PMO Course of Action Stakeholder Interview Guide

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.3/10

Overall Impact

$13,974

Average $ Saved

19

Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

City Of Lawrence

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

6

I appreciated having someone with experience to bounce ideas off of and Travis always had helpful advice on how to move the project forward.

Lifecare Assurance

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,999

32

Elvis's real-world career experience overplayed on the I-T PPM framework is very helpful

Advantage Sales & Marketing, LLC

Guided Implementation

9/10

$14,949

20

San Diego County Office of Education

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

The best part is that it aligns with where we think we need to begin, as well as having access to tools that are already built. Also, the fact that... Read More

Baptist Health Care Corporation

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

N/A

Matt and Bryan are great to work with and very knowledgeable about the tools.

International Civil Aviation Organization

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

N/A

we're just starting... too soon to evaluate

Load More Testimonials

Workshop: Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 Days

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Assess the Current Project Ecosystem

The Purpose

  • Quickly develop an on-the-ground view of the organization’s project ecosystem and the PMO’s abilities to effectively serve.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • A comprehensive and actionable understanding of the PMO’s tactical environment

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Perform a PMO SWOT analysis.

  • Overview of current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
1.2

Assess the organization’s portfolio management, project management, and organizational change management capability levels.

  • Documentation of your current process maturity to execute key portfolio management, project management, and organizational change management functions
1.3

Take inventory of the PMO’s resourcing levels, project demand levels, and tools and artifacts.

  • Stock of the PMO’s current access to PPM personnel relative to total project demand

Module 2: Analyze PMO Stakeholders

The Purpose

  • Determine stakeholder expectations for the PMO.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • An accurate understanding of others’ expectations to help ensure the PMO’s course of action is responsive to organizational culture and strategy

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Conduct a PMO Mission Identification Survey with key stakeholders.

  • An understanding of expected PMO outcomes
2.2

Map the PMO’s stakeholder network.

  • A stakeholder map and list of key stakeholders
2.3

Analyze key stakeholders for influence, interest, and support.

  • A prioritized PMO requirements gathering elicitation plan

Module 3: Determine Strategic Expectations and Define the Tactical Plan

The Purpose

  • Develop a process and method to turn stakeholder requirements into a strategic vision for the PMO.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • A strategic course of action for the PMO that is responsive to stakeholders’ expectations.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Assess the PMO’s ability to support stakeholder expectations.

  • An understanding of PMO capacity and limits
3.2

Use Info-Tech’s PMO Strategic Expectations glossary to turn raw process and service requirements into specific strategic expectations.

  • A preliminary PMO mandate
3.3

Define an actionable tactical plan for each of the strategic expectations in your mandate.

  • High-level statements of strategy to help support your mandate

Module 4: Formalize the PMO’s Mandate and Roadmap

The Purpose

  • Establish a final PMO mandate and a process to help garner stakeholder buy-in to the PMO’s long-term vision.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • A viable PMO course of action complete with stakeholder buy-i

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Finalize the PMO implementation timeline.

  • A 3-to-5-year implementation timeline for key PMO process and staffing initiatives
4.2

Finalize Info-Tech’s PMO Mandate and Strategy Roadmap Template.

  • A ready-to-present strategy document
4.3

Present the PMO’s strategy to key stakeholders.

  • Stakeholder buy-in to the PMO’s mandate
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About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

9.3/10
Overall Impact

$13,974
Average $ Saved

19
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 11 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Survey the project landscape
  • Call 1: Scoping call
  • Call 2: Conduct a Mission Identification Survey
  • Call 3: Take inventory of the PMO’s resources and tools
  • Call 4: Develop a PMO network stakeholder map

Guided Implementation 2: Gather PMO requirements
  • Call 1: Assess the interest and influence of key stakeholders
  • Call 2: Develop a requirements gathering elicitation plan based on stakeholder priority

Guided Implementation 3: Solidify your PMO goals
  • Call 1: Assess the current state of your portfolio, project, and organizational change management capabilities
  • Call 2: Define strategic expectations and a tactical approach for your PMO

Guided Implementation 4: Formalize the PMO's mandate
  • Call 1: Define an implementation roadmap
  • Call 2: Develop a communications plan
  • Call 3: Establish a feedback and evaluation process

Authors

Matt Burton

Travis Duncan

David Lee

Related Content: Project Management Office

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