The realm of the brand new project office is potentially laced with land mines, booby-traps and “gotchas.”
THE PROJECT OFFICE phenomenon has become quite popular. Much of the recent literature on the subject touts it as the answer to many of the problems besetting organizations that are struggling to deliver projects on time, within budget, with high quality, that meet customer requirements. It has almost achieved the “next big thing” status, as did TQM, reengineering, right sizing, and empowerment in the late 1980s through the early 1990s. As many firms worldwide consider the prospect of creating a project office, not only are project managers’ roles and responsibilities being enhanced, the job of the project office manager is becoming more clearly defined and mature. Five years ago, one hardly ever saw a job advertisement for a project office manager; now these advertisements appear much more frequently. Many consulting firms now have departments that specialize in establishing project offices for their clients.
I've been a project office manager for about three and one-half years now, so while I'm not necessarily an expert on the subject, I've learned a few tricks of the trade. I've filled this role for two different firms that decided to establish their own project office departments. In both cases, neither company had a project office before, nor did they bring in any big-name, high-priced consulting firm to set it up for them. Management had a few preconceived ideas of what the roles, accountabilities, authorities, and responsibilities should be, established the boundaries (some well-defined, others not so clear), and more or less turned me loose. Although I had many years of information systems development and project management experience coming into my first project office manager position, and I had a rough idea of what a project office was, I still had much to learn. And that included learning that before you agree to take on that newly created project office manager position, make sure you know what you're getting into!
Reader Service Number 104
Managing a project office can be the ideal opportunity to improve the efficiency of the organization and obtain personal satisfaction and achievement at the same time. However, the potential risks can be as high or higher than the rewards. Companies that decide to adopt a more project-driven model, and create a project office to manage it, may face an extraordinary number of obstacles before success can be realized. The project office manager bears the brunt of this responsibility. Not only must the project office manager have the requisite skills, abilities, and drive necessary to do the job, he or she must also be fully aware of the organizational dynamics that inevitably will have a much greater effect on the likelihood of success or failure. Here is my “Top 10” list of critical organizational success factors any new project office manager should be aware of.
Project Management Practices
The Challenge. Unless your organization has a firm grasp of professional project management, you will most likely be entering into a chaotic world. Projects are rarely (if ever) delivered on time or within budget, never mind quality and meeting the customers’ expectations. Truly successful projects are rare—they usually happen due only to Herculean efforts and sheer force of will on the part of the project managers. Of course, your job will be to provide some structure where there is little or none. You will find that the projects themselves are your highest priority, which may leave less time than you would like to devote to building the discipline and processes. It's almost a “Catch-22”— you need the structure to help deliver the projects and make them more predictable, yet you have very little time to build the structure (and more high-priority projects are probably on the way!). As if your time wasn't constrained enough, somewhere along the line you will need to train a sizable segment of the organization in how project management works, how each department or group fits in, and what the new roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities are.
The Solution. Make sure that you have enough resources on hand to help build the structure, while keeping the project workload on track. You will need people who are familiar with project management, understand project methodologies, can author standards and procedures, and can provide some basic training. If your budget or authority won't allow you to hire these people, you will either need to do everything yourself (which you realistically won't be able to do effectively) or you will need to ask for help from other areas of the company. Ask for help from departments that have taken on some (or all) of the project manager role in the past. Ask Human Resources to help with training. Putting in overtime is virtually a given, especially until you get some of the critical structure pieces in place. Even when I've had no hiring budget, I've been somewhat successful convincing management to allow me to bring in the people I needed by submitting detailed business cost/benefit justifications to explain the budget variances.
Organizational Hierarchy
The Challenge. Unless you work for an extremely progressive and enlightened firm, the project office, and consequently your position, will be pegged somewhere well below CPO (chief project officer). You'll most likely start out at a departmental level. This is understandable; management wants to see some results—sort of a proof of concept— before elevating the position to a higher organizational level. The problem with this is that other departments that should participate in the overall endeavor may choose not to play. Except for some isolated grassroots buy-in, it can be extremely difficult to gain cooperation and acceptance on anything you do. You'll almost be able to gauge how much clout you'll have by examining the facilities seating chart. If all of the department managers have offices, and you and your project managers have cubicles, that will tell you where the relative importance of functional management vs. project management lies in the organization.
The Solution. Even if you are positioned low in the organizational hierarchy, as long as the department managers understand their roles as resource managers, and their direct reports have the same understanding, you can still be effective. What helps even more is to have updated job descriptions with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities for those involved in project work. Everyone should understand that assigned project-specific accountabilities and responsibilities are tied to performance reviews, just as traditional department or functional-based duties are. In lieu of updated job descriptions, a project charter, with roles and responsibilities for the project clearly defined, is a necessity. You will need to engage the Human Resources department as well as the department managers in this effort.
Infrastructure
The Challenge. All too often, many of the projects are too large and complex to be effectively monitored and controlled by the supporting standards, procedures, and tools available. As with the project management discipline, your job is to build or improve the infrastructure, and you will be faced with similar constraints. You will want to be very attuned to building and implementing standards, procedures, and tools that are right for the organization's maturity level. Anything that adds too much extra time, is too complex, or is too costly will not be supported or used. Take, for example, the company that has never tracked project costs before. In the ideal setting, this would require a time-tracking tool where everyone on the project would log their time, which would yield the actual cost to date, which would be compared to the baseline cost estimate. The sobering reality is that, in addition to implementing the tool itself, you would have other problems. You would have to deal with associates who were not used to accounting for their time (not all would be happy about doing so). You'd also need to obtain rate information from Human Resources and ensure privacy. Finally, you'd have to deal with the enlightenment of top management, who perhaps for the first time would see how much the projects are really costing!
The Solution. Tackle only the very basic standards and procedures at first, such as how to create a project plan, how to track issues, the use of a project charter, and so forth. As the organization learns, adopts, and gets comfortable with those, you can add more. If you are purchasing a process or project management tool, err on the side of simplicity until the project management maturity and processes improve. Otherwise, you won't win any converts and you will waste money on tools with features that will never be fully utilized. In an environment that isn't familiar with mid-range or high-end tools, people will use only the simpler, repetitive features, if they use them at all.
Resources and Capabilities
The Challenge. Not only will you need resources with the right skills for the project office, so will all of the other departments that will be called upon to perform project work in a more structured world. Project team members will now be asked to perform new tasks, such as producing more project documents, which may have never been done in the past. They will need the skills to do them properly. You may also find that the talent you want costs more than what management has been used to paying. And in most cases, the other departments (not you) own the budgets that pay for those resources.
The Solution. The project office must be available to coach and mentor project team members, as necessary. In cases where a particular skill set simply isn't available in the organization, it may be necessary to hire people with the skills needed, or to bring in a consultant and train existing staff. You'll need an appropriate mix of “hero” vs. “structured” project managers; as the organization matures, the ratio of the mix may need to be adjusted. You may have to continually justify the need to hire resources with the necessary skills at the going rates, especially in a tight labor market.
Sales Skills
The Challenge. Even if you have top management's full backing and commitment, you will still need to convince the masses that what you are doing will help the organization, and more specifically, how you will help each affected department and employee. Initial perceptions will go a long way toward determining how successful your implementation will be. If you and your staff are perceived as the “project police,” you will be in continual conflict mode, and sooner or later you'll have a full-scale rebellion on your hands, even if most of the projects are being delivered successfully.
The Solution. Assemble a presentation, which includes a mission statement, an organization chart, a list of value-added benefits, short- and long-term objectives, and any “wins” that have already resulted from the new approach. Schedule and give personalized presentations for each affected department. Don't wait too long to deliver your message. The bottom-line emphasis should be on how you will help them do their job better, without imposing restrictions and unnecessary overhead. Invite others’ ideas and feedback. Let them know that you are there to help.
Political Climate and Culture
The Challenge. You'll be viewed as both a savior and a threat, depending on the department and the individual. Some people will be thrilled to have you on board, so at last someone can show people how to manage projects the right way. Others will perceive you as taking away their job duties and control and will thwart your efforts at every opportunity. Every time you make a mistake (and you will make some), your detractors will be right there, usually complaining to top management. A related issue is how escalation procedures are typically handled. In the past, project issues were escalated up the department manager hierarchies. In a project team approach, issues should be escalated to the project manager first, but old habits are often hard to break!
The Solution. Make sure that your boss and top management understand this dynamic, that it will occur, and that it's all part of the change and maturity process. The project office should not be penalized for the growing pains. The threatened people will require some special attention, especially if they are subject matter experts or key project resources. The more you are able to help them, the more infrequently these problems will occur. Antagonists who become converts often become your biggest allies and advocates!
Empowerment
The Challenge. If your level of authority is significantly less than your level of accountability, you will be firmly entrenched “between a rock and a hard place.” You will be responsible for project success, but with your hands tied, and you will have extreme difficulty delivering the goods. You need to have a reasonable balance between authority and accountability.
Reader Service Number 102
The Solution. Make sure you are comfortable with your authority/accountability ratio before you agree to take the job. Remember, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread!” If you are already committed to a tough situation, perform and document risk assessments. Forward your risk assessments to top management so that they understand what is happening, why it is happening, how you are recommending that the risks be mitigated, and the potential consequences of not taking action.
Organizational Health
The Challenge. If your company exhibits any of the usual symptoms of poor health (falling profits, high turnover, poor morale, constant reorganizations), your job may be tougher than it should be. Everyone will be looking for instantaneous results from you, which won't happen despite your best efforts.
Reader Service Number 184
The Solution. Just putting a project office in place won't cure all of the organization's ills overnight. It probably took the organization many years to get where it is today. It is your job to make sure that everyone understands this and that implementing project management processes and changing the culture is a long-term commitment. A guaranteed no-win situation is when management sets a deadline for you to turn everything around!
Profitability
The Challenge. If your company is one that “makes money in spite of itself,” it will be much more difficult to convince top management that your services are necessary, even if the masses are screaming for it because their daily work lives are miserable! Of the very profitable firms, only the progressive and visionary ones will still believe a project office adds significant value, especially one at the enterprise level. Your best potential for success may lie with companies that are in maturing industries, have more intense competition, have lower profit margins, and need to adopt better efficiencies and disciplines to help turn things around. In a way, a little organizational “pain” is a good thing— it provides the motivation to change.
The Solution. You will need to demonstrate that the project office is helping to improve the company's bottom line. The best way to do this is to compare project performance metrics (time, cost, quality) before and after the project office arrived. If your project office is viewed in any way as overhead expense, your survival may be very short-lived!
Top Management Commitment
The Challenge. If top management does not fully and actively support what you are doing, you will have an easier time trying to boil the ocean than effecting lasting organizational change. None of the other critical success factors—even when met—can completely overcome a lack of top-management commitment. In those situations, grass-roots buy-in (which is somewhat akin to “preaching to the choir”) may be the most that you'll ever achieve.
The Solution. You will need to continually stress and visibly demonstrate that the project office adds value to the organization. It isn't necessary that top management thoroughly understand project management principles (although it's a definite plus), they just have to know they need it to be more effective in the marketplace. It's a cost of doing business that more than pays for itself!
THE LAST INGREDIENT FOR SUCCESS is to learn from people who have walked the walk, made mistakes, and then improved what they've already done. If you have the talent, ability, and desire to run a project office, it can be a truly rewarding experience! With the surging popularity and demonstrated success of the project office concept, your timing in today's job market couldn't be better. Just remember that it can be a rough road in the early going—beware of the “gotchas”! ■