Never Too Small for a PMO

Why is it that only large corporations have a PMO ? What is a PMO anyway?

PMO stands for Project Management Office. Typically, the PMO is responsible for setting standards and developing process for delivering projects. They are responsible for defining the project management methodology, including the tools to use, metrics to capture, and workflow steps to follow. They are also responsible for ensuring that project delivery is repeatable and of high quality across all projects and business units.

One key to a successful consulting practice is a repeatable delivery model. (See last week's post on the subject.) Another key is clear expectation setting and project management. Whether you are a large enterprise managing numerous, simultaneous, and large-scale projects or a small, boutique consulting firm, both of these 'keys' are critical and will benefit your practice.

Still, I have never run across a PMO in a small- or medium-sized business. Some SMBs claim (as I have in the past) that "our projects are too small to warrant the same project management diligence as a larger project." Others are moving too quickly to even think that there is a better way. Still, others know there is a better way but suspect that implementing a PMO will be a bit like changing the tires while the car is moving.

Sure, it is not necessarily feasible to hire a dedicated team of project management professionals who manage the process of managing projects and ensure consistency across all projects. It is feasible, though, for a smaller business to assign a small number of senior consultants to a task force responsible for developing project management standards, tools, and metrics and ensuring that all consultants who manage projects do so in a consistant manner.

You don't have to boil the ocean, either. Pick one of the five components of a project (see last week's post on repeatable Delivery Frameworks) and define the project management activities, tools, and metrics required (and those that are optional). Once everyone is following that process well, move on to the next stage in the project lifecycle.

Being smaller doesn't mean there is less to do. Having a repeatable project management process will improve your on-time/on-budget delivery, which will improve your profit margins, resource scheduling, and customer satisfaction.

It Sometimes Takes Mistakes to Evolve Your Practice

It's a beautiful, sunny, and dry summer day in Boston, and after a long day, I have decided to give props to my team and to a consultant we recently brought in to train my team on the Fundamentals of Consulting. The consultant, Jean DiGiovanna of ThinkPeople, did a fantastic job of reinforcing messages I have been delivering to the team about what it means to be a consulting professional, and I am thrilled to see my team incorporating what Jean taught us in her three-day workshop.

So I said I'd give some props to my team, too.

First, the team has responded with a genuine interest in putting the lessons learned to work and practice. They have asked that we spend time every other week practicing the skills and best practices we learned in the training. They are, for the most part, committed to being a World-class Professional Services Organization.

Second, it will take time for the skills we learned to become second nature, and we will make mistakes along the way. The biggest difference between now and pre-Jean's training, though, is that the team recognizes when a mistake or misstep is made and is committed to avoiding that problem again.

Recently, we kicked-off a client project using our "usual" methods for kicking-off a project "like this." After the training, the team recognized what they could have done differently in the kick-off and made adjustments to what they could/should have done up front. Additionally, when they realized today that they could have done a better job of communicating expectations with the client, the conversation quickly turned to "how do we make this right" and "how do we avoid this next time."

Mistakes will be made; that is to be expected, but a truly world-class PSO uses the mistakes to the practice's advantage by using the lessons learned to further improve and evolve the practice.

As Jean DiGiovanna says, if you make a mistake, make it right. I am proud that my team understands that.

Thanks Jean, and Thanks Team!!

Repeatable Delivery Framework - Myth or Reality?

Search for the phrase "Repeatable Consulting Delivery Framework" in Google, and you get 45,000 results. After a quick review of the first 10, I determined that most had nothing useful to say about what a repeatable delivery framework (or model or methodology) really is, with the exception of this article by Andrew Cadwell, Principal Consultant at KickStart Alliance:

A Strategic Delivery Framework Sets the Stage for Success

How do you truly build and maintain a repeatable delivery model when each customer's needs and pains are different from the next and when the idea of a "packaged offering" is really just that...an idea. (How many times have you delivered an engagement exactly as specified in the data sheet? I know...that would be nice!)

While I am not a huge fan of the Project Management Institute (PMI) (I know too many PMI certified Project Managers who can't project manage themselves out of a box), I know they did get a few things right, such as their definition of required project phases:

• Initiation
• Planning
• Execution
• Monitoring
• Closing
  

The folks at Bright Hub have done a nice just describing each.

In my organization, we call these five phases:

• Presales and scoping
• Planning
• Execution
• Project Management
• Completion and Wrap-up

In each phase, we have defined (or are defining...it's a work in progress) the mandatory and optional steps (and associated tools) that should be used. Additionally, we are going through an analysis of our primary engagement formats and assessing the required and optional steps and tools of the Execution Phase, looking for similarities and clear differences.

We are using a knowledge base to capture the workflow through the various stages and store templates that must (or could) be used at each phase.

While the specific customer needs and projects dictate flexibility, the team has a clear understanding for how to navigate a project "like this." Additionally, we have build a feedback mechanism designed to capture lessons learned and customer feedback in to the process, allowing it to evolve and mature over time. It's a labor of love.

So What is the Role of a PSO at a Software as a Service (SaaS) Company, Anyway?

This article on PS Village, The Voice of the Village describes the role of a SaaS-based PS as one of providing transformational consulting services to its custo

Featured Article: So What is the Role of a PSO at a Software as a Service (SaaS) Company, Anyway?

I am interested in your thoughts about how this applies to your business.

Is measuring bookings, revenue, utlization, and billing rates enough for a PSO?

Traditional Professional Services Organizations (PSO) often measure between 10-30 metrics designed to allow management to evaluate the health of the consulting practice. Among these metrics are:

• Bookings
• Revenue
• Team and Individual Utilization Rates
• Gross and Net Profit Margin
• Revenue per Billable Head

...and the list goes on and on. While these metrics are great indicators of the operational efficiency of your practice, are they really providing you with the insights you need to know if your practice is delivering the right value to your customers and your company alike? Let's face it, these metrics are very inward looking metrics that indicate little, if anything, regarding the affect your practices is having on your customers’ success. Nor do they indicate in any way your practices affect on your company’s ability to grow customers and sell more products.

Shouldn't the role of any PSO be to help customers achieve goals and realize value as it pertains to your products and drive growing adoption of the products offered by your company? Wouldn't it stand to reason, then, that direct PSO bookings, revenue, and profit margin are less important to the evaluation of the practice than the team's ability to drive more adoption of the products, resulting in increased bookings and revenue at a corporate level?

With that said, how do you measure whether a customer is realizing the value they expected and having success with your products? How do you connect the dots between the efforts of the PSO and the bookings, revenue, and profit margin of the company?

Over the next two months, I am conducting research to try to answer those very questions. Essentially, the biggest question on my mind today is: What are the right KPIs and Critical Success Factors for measuring the effectiveness of a PSO. My research will focus on the differences between a SaaS-based PSO and an Enterprise Software-based PSO. One thing is certain from my initial research over the past month...there are a lot of people asking this very question, but few have come up with a quantifiable answer.