PMOs and best practice in government projects and programmes
Erandi Stretton – Head of PMO, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, UK Government.
Why is it important for major public sector projects and programmes to have a PMO established from the outset?
In a government setting, delivering change involves spending tax payers’ money, so there is a clear obligation to ensure the money is spent well, justified and that change achieves value.
Having worked in UK government departments for nearly a decade, I know that a PMO creates the structure, clarity, control and confidence before the complexity and reality of projects and programmes begins.
The PMO establishes the strategic alignment between an organisation’s objectives and the delivery objectives of its major change initiatives. It becomes the single source of truth across the constraints of scope, cost, risk, benefits and governance/assurance, along with managing the crucial reporting mechanisms.
Best practice – such as PRINCE2 Project Management and PRINCE2 Programme Management, among others – is part of the thinking when establishing a PMO; converting uncertainty into predictability, being able to make forecasts and predictions while aiming to avoid the need to “firefight” later.
Key responsibilities and activities of a government sector PMO
1. Governance and assuranceThe PMO oversees whether a project or programme is meeting its delivery purpose. It is also concerned with having the right people sitting on each board; the terms of reference and obtaining the correct approvals for everything that happens and ensuring timescales are maintained.
2. Planning and reporting
The PMO supports the development and maintenance of integrated plans across projects, programmes and the portfolio, standardises delivery approaches, and runs performance dashboards so that senior leaders can see, in one place, how the change portfolio is performing against strategy.
3. Benefits management
PMOs work with corporate functions (finance, analysis and data, etc) to design the desired benefits from a project/programme and ensure they meet the business case and are aligned to a government department’s key performance indicators.
4. Capability and standards
Upskilling a project or a programme team can include learning and development and resource planning. The PMO ensures teams are trained on how to manage risks and this may involve delivering workshops based on best practice methods such as PRINCE2 Risk Management (formerly M_o_R), providing universal risk management principles and approaches.
Other best practice instruction may include PRINCE2 Programme Management, which enables programme managers to handle even the most complex programmes that arise in government.
Having a best practice foundation has become even more important with the shift from single-outcome projects to large, integrated change portfolios. For example, where 10 years ago a department might have run separate initiatives – one to set up a new funding framework, another to deliver large-scale housing and another to provide the supporting infrastructure – these are now often combined into one multi-year, multi-billion programme with several interdependent outcomes.
With this level of complexity, applying PRINCE2 Programme Management principles helps teams handle multiple strands of change in a strategic, transformational way.
The evolving skills and competencies in PMOs
Where PMO skills were traditionally focused on reporting and compliance, things have evolved over time and now, in major government projects, PMOs need people with strategic influence and the ability to adapt their leadership styles.
And this can involve PMOs challenging the governance structures in place, for example questioning whether the right person is in the right role to encourage better decision making.
There are three key skills and capability areas that PMO professionals need today:
● Risk management, planning, assurance and benefits realisation.
● Technical skills, i.e., data analysis, reporting dashboards to support decision making.
● Behavioural skills: stakeholder engagement and systems thinking; connecting dots and aligning.
An important evolution is also having the ability to treat people working on projects and programmes properly. Regardless of how good processes might be, leaders need empathy and appreciation of what everyone is going through in a major change initiative. This has been a key learning in my career setting up and leading PMOs and programmes.
Increasing the chances of project/programme success and benefits realisation via best practice
Mature PMOs use multiple frameworks to create an integrated ecosystem of best practice. That could include PRINCE2 Project Management for consistent project management practice (e.g., governance, control and documentation); PRINCE2 Programme Management supports transformational and strategic change and benefits realisation; PRINCE2 Portfolio Management ensures alignment of departmental strategy and objectives, while PRINCE2 Risk Management supports risk governance and decision making. Finally, PRINCE2 Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices Management provides the overarching model for establishing and operating a PMO.
Having standardised approaches across PMOs, projects and programmes offers assurance to senior leadership that best practice management is established, giving them confidence that change will have structure and maintain a direct connection to organisational objectives.