Setting up an effective portfolio office

Transcription

1 Setting up an effective portfolio office Steve Watkins Head of IT Portfolio Office, Environment Agency Steve Clarke Managing Director, Onemind Management 22 nd June

2 The objective The assignment was to assist in setting the bar for project management in the Environment Agency s IT department Corporate Information Services (CIS) where it needed to be rather than at what was thought reachable. 3

3 Onemind assignment Establish Programme Management Office to: Define PPM discipline Define tools & methods for the PPM disciplines Define Pg & QA requirements Establish CIS performance metrics Modified to: Form an IT Portfolio Office and not a PMO To do the right thing rather than doing the wrong thing better To significantly improve PPM performance To generate 14m productivity saving over 5 years To meet vision set out in Project Charter 4

4 What we are trying to achieve Safe, fast and light projects Increased focus on getting it right first time Independent assessment of project safety Reduction in bureaucracy No of key milestones down from 18 to 12 No of products down from 210 to 30 Monitoring system in place. 5

5 IT Project Charter A vision statement on future PPM practice Contains targets & commitments Outlined the major changes including: cultural change and people development Resource pool management Gantt central to all management Described benefits Gained community & senior management sign up. 6

6 P3M3 Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model assesses organisational processes and project-level activities CIS set P1M3 targets Five levels from 1 to 5 Level 1 - project definition Level 2 - project-based repeatable processes Level 3 - centrally defined processes Level 4 - managed processes Level 5 - optimised processes 7

7 CIS Targets CIS at P1M3 level 0 in May 2006 Target: P1M3 level 2 by May 2007 Target: P1M3 level 3 by April

8 Elements of an Portfolio Office PPM Tools Trend reporting (TRAM) DLC Process & Stage Checks Quality of plans Portfolio Shape, Challenge & Support Culture & Behavioural Change PPM Maturity & Programme Governance Resource Pool Coordination & Management 9

9 Challenges we faced PM s had low level of planning ability PM were using Project 98 No compliance with then current PPM standards Ineffective escalation of issues Little consequence for poor performance Use a production line approach to PM With almost no use of teams Functional staff (like testing) maintained quality at expense of project schedule and cost Disjoin between the business and IT. 10

10 Quality of Plans Basic Plan Minimum to run a trend report (with costs) Intermediate Plan Competent plan with PBS, products, generic resources, budget and aggregated costs Mature Plan Detailed budget and costs in plan, named resources, schedule actuals fed from timesheets, and earned value. 11

11 Role of the IPO 12

12 Sample project 13

13 IPO achievements PM trained and coached in planning techniques Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM), Project 2003 and MindManager released PM all trained in and using Project 2003 and EPM Structure for IPO finalized and recruited New process-based Delivery Lifecycle published With streamlined stage checks Trends and Milestone report produced. 14

14 Changing skills and culture Plans at Intermediate standard Monitored compliance with new Delivery Lifecycle Escalation effective with senior management proactive Poor performance being managed Still a production line approach to project management Functional staff (like Testing) starting to move to trusting projects as project standards raised Project managers self-assured due to their practice Onemind development workshops started Areas of business planning to adopt approach. 15

15 CIS Target P1M3 level 2 by May 2007 (P1M3 level 3 by April 2008) Can it be achieved? Yes Was it achieved? 16

16 Recommended Maturity Level CIS is at Project Management Maturity Level 3 But note: Good practice at Level 3 needs to be consolidated There are areas where improvements can be made Weak programme management impairs project delivery Project managers confident because of their practice. 17

17 Main lessons learned Need a comprehensive and integrated design on how to improve project management, including: standards, processes, reporting, tools, staff development Need to engage functional as well as project management staff Need lots of people-support and cultural change Need genuine and visible senior management reinforcement Need to set an externally assessed and bold target. 18

18 See us on the Onemind stand Onemind Management offers: Staff development Consultancy Interim management While specialising in programme, project, process and change management. 19

19 Steve Watkins CIS IT Portfolio Office Steve Clarke Onemind Management Ltd