Book writing week three

23 July 201823 July 2018 Stuart

Going Agile

It’s been another good week with the PMO Services and Capabilities book. I feel that this is really starting to take shape now. I have been making steady progress with the book and have been using a few of Agile techniques to help me.

When we started the writing we identified over 300 Services that a PMO could offer. No wonder that no two PMOs are created equal. For each of these Services we grouped them together in 2 tiers. We have a set of PMO Domains, within the Domains we have Groups. The Services then sit within the Groups.

Monitoring the backlog

With such a number of Services to describe it can be a bit daunting. This is when the Agile techniques come in. Why not create a burn down chart? If there are 300 Services to be written by a particular deadline, then you can have your baseline position. Then as each one is written it can go into the complete section and you can therefore see how well you are doing against the baseline.

The other useful, and related technique is to look at velocity, or how many Services are being written per day. This then can be used (as I am doing) as a personal target for what I want to deliver for the day. When I wake up I can take a look at the average velocity and that then become my target for the day. Some days I manage to deliver more than the average, other days it is much harder to maintain as the subject needs more thought and concentration

Is it on track?

The good news is yes. It is on track, in fact due to the previous 3 weeks worth of focus is going really well and the velocity is much higher than I was expecting it to be. I have found using these techniques very motivating, probably because I am ahead of target. It is good to have a lower individual daily target for work to be done rather than think I have 300 to write and I have only done 4 today. It is much better to say I have been averaging 4, and I have delivered 4.

What does next week bring?

Next weeks effort will be much the same as the current week. I have been kidding myself by trying to pick some of the domains without too many services listed, but if I complete a domain or two next week (there are 22 overall) then I will be pleased. If I have a good week I might get this up to a third of it written by the end of next week. A major milestone for me to look forward to and to aim for

PMO Services Book

16 July 201813 July 2018 Stuart

Book writing – week two

It is week two writing the new PMO Services and Capabilities book and it is all starting to take shape. Having had two good weeks at this now i can see how it will all come together. There is a long way still to go, but I feel like I can see how this will be of use to the profession.

In writing this it has made it clearer in my mind certainly about what PMOs can offer and how they can offer it.

What it is about?

If you are not aware this book is being written by myself, Hans Arnbjerg and Dr Robert Joslin. The purpose of the book is to clearly lay out what services can a PMO offer. Having had a look around what is available in the market place, I don;t feel there is a book out there which does describe this in the detail that this book plans to cover.

Why do we need it?

There is a lot of work out there for project managers, program managers and even for portfolio managers, but there is very little dedicated to the PMO market. I suppose this is down to the market being smaller, after all most of the PMO people I speak to have between 5-10 project managers they support, But it must still be a large enough market. If there have been over 1 million PRINCE2 exams taken then if there is one PMO for every 10 of those then we are still talking 100,000 PMO people. Not an insignificant number. And I know there are other exams, and not everyone who takes PRINCE2 is a PM (I took it and I have never been a PM), but I am just using this as a rough indicator.

When can we see it?

We are hoping that this book will be available early next year (2019). There is a lot more work to be done creating this between then and now. No more time for a blog update this week, back to writing some more book

Pop-Up PMOs

23 September 201423 November 2014 Stuart

I read a book recently called Pop-Up PMOs by Mertine Middlekoop, which made me think again about what is important in setting up and running the PMO within an organisation.

When quite a lot of the books and articles I read seem to be about a portfolio office, it is nice to see a book which covers just the fundamental aspects of setting up and running as a Programme or Project Office. This book guides you through what is required to setup and run a PMO, and with a view to projects and programmes being temporary endeavours covers closure and how you can leave the organisation in a better position for it to run the next pop-up PMO.

On the way Mertine covers some of the practical services that such an office could do, and covers the risks that could be encountered if the service is not done, or not done right.

I particularly liked the chapter towards the end which covered the human side of the PMO, rather than just the focus on the tools and process. In particualr it covered how people working a PMO can learn and grow to develop into better PMO people.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has been charged to setup a PMO, from the novice to the experienced PMO individual as we can all learn from books like these.