PMI PowerPoint Template Maximum 2 Lines, Arial 28pt bold · and register key information—charts, graphics, etc. Spreadsheet to register key issues and risks that are urgent and

HOUSTON, TX, USA | 5–8 NOVEMBER 2017

#PMOSym

PMO17BR312

Agile Transformation Through Effective Leveraging of PMO Capabilities

Dr. Edivandro Conforto, Researcher and Consultant

Elaine Augusto, Head of PMO

Learning Objectives

• To understand how the PMO can tailor its capabilities and services to

successfully support the agile transformation

• To recognize key characteristics, practices and factors in order to develop agility

using a hybrid approach

• To identify key challenges and issues when adopting agile practices and culture

in more traditional organizational contexts

• To identify what practices and competencies can lead to improved performance

for their organizations based on the case results

2

Agenda

3

• Case overview & motivation

• PMO characteristics and practices adopted

• PMO support to agile practices

• Result analysis (participants’ perceptions)

• Key takeaways

• How to get started?

• Q&A

“The PMO is not static! It

must be an evolving,

organic structure that

supports the organization in

delivering its strategic

objectives.”

4

Dr. Edivandro Conforto

The Case

5

• Global company – 75,000 employees

• 170+ manufacturing sites around the globe

• Revenue €11.5 billion (2015)

• The Business Unit – Technology Centers (1,900+ employees worldwide)

– Technology Center Brazil, São Paulo State, 280 employees

– Developed products and new technologies produced in 60 countries

The Motivation

6

“Excellence in planning,

controlling and managing

new product and technology

development projects”

Balanced Score Card (BSC) Goal

©2017 Dr. Edivandro Conforto. All rights reserved.

The Context – PMO Characteristics

7


• Team = two persons (full time)

• Support and preparation of management and technical project meetings

• Project documents monitoring and control

• Process and tools support and training

• Progress and senior management reports

• Register and disseminate lessons learned

The Context – Product Development Process

8

The organization adopts a phase-gate approach, highly mature and standardized; global

and regional meetings to assess project progress, risks, etc.

1 2 3

Deliverable

Deliverable

Deliverable

Deliverable

Deliverable

DeliverableGate Gate Gate

*Figure to illustrate the process in use.©2017 Dr. Edivandro Conforto. All rights reserved.

Understanding the Challenges

9

We conducted an

informal survey

with 12 project

managers

Top three issues

1

2

3

Communication

Autonomy

Unproductive meetings


What Practices Were Adopted (1/2)

10

Project room (right beside the portfolio director’s room)

Use of visual boards and sticky notes to support discussion

and register key information—charts, graphics, etc.

Spreadsheet to register key issues and risks that are

urgent and need immediate action

List containing all projects for that portfolio (fixed on the

wall)

Project leaders prepare “one page” status for each project


What Practices Were Adopted (2/2)

11

Two-level planning and controlling approach (phase x

iteration)

Use of a web-based collaboration software and instant

messaging—share information quickly

“Fast talks” (daily informal meetings – 30 minutes);

everyone is invited. It happens at the same time and same

place (project room)

Active involvement of the key stakeholder (responsible for

the portfolio of projects and business unit director)

PMO facilitates the meeting; prepare the room and data

about the projects


How Did the PMO Support These Practices?

12

Coach participants about key concepts and how to use agile

practices more effectively

1

2

3

4

5

Prepare and maintain the project room—graphics, whiteboards, etc.

Maintain information about projects

Facilitate the discussion or meeting. Make sure every project is

discussed and all participants have a chance to speak

Register all relevant information about the projects, using sticky

notes or the documents fixed on the wall

Coordinate next steps and organize the agenda for actions

across projects. Risk mitigation, re-planning, etc.


Measurement of

Results and

Benefits

13

How Did We Do It?

14

Define Practices

• Based on the

agility-critical

factors

• Key motivations

for improvement

• Preliminary

interviews

Select Pilots

• 1 first project (3

months)

• Selected projects

that were

initiated

• 7 pilot projects

• Different projects

Measure Results

• Defined metrics to

evaluate team and

leadership

perceptions

• Created an

assessment tool

(online) using the

agility assessment

tool

• Collected data

We followed a three-step approach to implement practices and measure their benefits:


Demographics (Total of 21 People)

15

Have you ever used agile practices before?

5, 24%

16, 76%

Yes No

Analysis performed considering two groups:

9, 43%

12, 57%

Project Team (Project Leaders and Team Members)

Leadership (Directors, Portfolio Manager, FunctionalManagers, PMO Leader, Functional Area representatives)


1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0

Q4.1. Simplify monitoring and controlling process

Q4.2. Reduced time spent with progress meetings

Q4.3. Increased the project progress visibility

Q4.4. Reduced time spent to create management documents

Q4.5. Improved team alignment and understanding regarding project deliverables

Q4.6. Reduced rework and resource waste

Q4.7. Improved process flexibility to absorb changes

Q4.8. Improved the frequency in which partial results are discussed/verified

Management Process Improvement Characteristics (Group Average)

Leadership Project Team

Management Process

16

Project Team (n=9)Leadership (n=12)

*Difference is statistically significant

Scale: (1) Completely Disagree – (7) Completely Agree


These practices

contributed to

improving

communication

effectiveness...

17

©2017 Dr. Edivandro Conforto. All rights reserved. *Comments from participants

Project Team

Leadership

“These practices are helpful to ensure new information is shared with all involved.”*

“These “fast talk” meetings contribute to align information and make it effectively flow between all involved to improve decision making.”*

“Contribute to team members, keep up to date—reducing time and energy spent on gathering information.”*

“The fast communication, anticipating events and the discipline to always talk about critical topics of the projects are the main changes brought by this approach.”*

However, for

technological-driven

products, we need

to seek the right

balance

18


Leadership

Project Team

“The fast talks speed up the management aspect, but it is being used to share technical information—but the duration of these meetings are not long enough.”*

“They contribute to aligning information—help the team be focused on the main goals. However, technical discussions are not allowed during the fast talk, with overemphasis on management aspects of the project. Here, the main focus should be the technical aspects!”*

Goal Alignment

19

*No statistically significant differences were found

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Q5.1. Improved team comprehension about project goals

Q5.2. Improved Team understanding about projects contribution tobusiness goals

Q5.3. Improved goal alignment (time, cost, quality) according tostakeholders expectations

Improvements Related to the Project Goal Alignment


Scale: (1) Completely Disagree – (7) Completely AgreeProject Team (n=9)Leadership (n=11)



Constant alignment

helps to drive

results, but it also

has its downside—it

needs balance

20


Project Team

Leadership

“Daily discussion about critical points in the projects favored the rapid decision making.”

“The excess of contact with senior management leaves projects exposed to personal desires and goals, which can negatively impact performance and overall stakeholder alignment.”

“I have no doubt this contributes to a better comprehension of the main goals, especially for new team members.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Q7.1. Increased project information sharing speed

Q7.2. Increased information flow between team members

Q7.3. Increased comprehension about the information shared

Q7.4. Increased team and stakeholders communication speed

Q7.5. Increased speed to access relevant information from other areasinvolved

Improvements in Communication


Communication

21





Communication has

to be effective at a

cross-functional

level, not only at the

local team level

22

Project Team

“There is a better alignment between the stakeholders (senior management) and the project leaders.”*

“These practices are very useful for the local teams (same business unit), but I don’t see the same benefits for other groups.”*

Leadership

“We need to have a more collaborative environment where everyone is considered part of the project.”*


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Q12.1. Increased speed in collecting information to analyze a problem orrisk

Q12.2. Increased speed to approve project changes

Q12.3. Increased speed in communicating approved changes to teammembers

Q12.4. Increased speed in communicating approved changes to otherareas

Q12.5. Increased speed in implementing approved changes

Improvements in the Team’s Agility Capabilities


Team’s Agility Capabilities

23





Agility starts at

the team level,

and it is

sustained from

the top. It

needs to be

scaled and

supported by

all executives

24

“Other areas have to be convinced of this approach—use less paper.”*

“The approach of fast talk seems to be working pretty well, but we still need more work to make it part of the process.”*

*Comments from participants©2017 Dr. Edivandro Conforto. All rights reserved.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Q11.1. Increased speed to deliver resuls compared to the original plan

Q11.2. Reduced riscs effects or impact on project performance

Q11.3. Improved project quality requirements alignment

Q11.4. Increased customer satisfaction with project results

Q11.5. Increased stakeholder satisfaction with project results

Q11.6. Increased the likelyhoood to meet cost objectives

Q11.7. Increased strategic goals and project results alignment

Improvements in Project Performance


Project Performance

25





Agility alone will not be enough

to substantially improve project

performance and results

26

“We need to apply these practices in projects from the beginning, and I see a lot of potential. The experience registered in this evaluation is related to the ongoing projects and the complementary support to what we were using.”*

“We still need to improve the discussion to cover more strategic issues between teams.”*


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Q13.1. Speed to adapt strategy and business goals

Q13.2. Speed to adapt business portfolio of projects

Q13.3. Speed to adapt internal process to meet new demands andchallenges

Q13.4. Speed to resolve problems that require multiple areas

Q13.5. Speed to adapt ongoing projects

Q13.6. Speed to develop new technologies and innovation

Improvements in Organizational Agility


Organizational Agility

27





Organizational agility is

multi-level, cross-functional

and cross-business

28

LeadershipProject Team

“I saw many activities for the project level (group of projects), but I did not see anything specific to the portfolio level.”*

“These practices need to be implemented in the whole organization.”*

“… we don’t have the involvement of other areas of the organization. The team aligns the activities and changes with the stakeholders and has the responsibility to engage other areas so they can execute specific activities.”*


Overall Satisfaction With the Implemented Practices

29

22%

67%

11%

0%

100%

0%

I don't know

Yes

No

Do you intend to use these practices in future projects?

Leadership Project Teams

11%

78%

11%

0%

100%

0%

I don't know

Yes

No

Would you recommend these practices to other teams in the

organization?


33%

11%

56%

8%

8%

83%

I don't know

Yes

No

Would you stop using these practices and go back to the old

approach?



Key Takeaways

30


• PMOs should continuously adapt to deliver value to the organization. They are not supposed to be static!

• The PMO can be transformed into an agility center of excellence and provide support to leverage the combination of multiple management approaches and to scale agility capabilities.

• For complex, technology-driven projects, the best approach is going to be hybrid. It will be hard to shift to a “pure agile” approach

• Always consider additional factors (beyond agile practices) related to the organizational structure, culture and team to improve agility capabilities

• Be ready to navigate the implementation curve. It takes time! We will always find early adopters and enthusiasts, and people that don’t want to challenge the status quo

How Can You Get Started?

• Next week: Identify some of the main challenges and opportunities to

improve in the PPPM dimensions

• Next 90 days: Identify opportunities to leverage some of the agile

practices discussed in this presentation

• Next 12 months: Promote training and learning opportunities; adopt a

systematic approach to implement and test some practices; use the tips

from this presentation to measure results

31

Thank you!

32

Questions?

Contact Information

33

Dr. Edivandro ConfortoDr. Eddi Conforto is a global research award winner and consultant, specially focused on organizational agility, hybrid approaches and agile management transformations. He was recognized by institutions such as the PMIEF, IPMA and POMS for his research in agile management. From 2013 to 2015, he lived in Boston, MA USA, and worked as a research associate (post-doctoral) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-CEPE) on global programs around agility, program management and system engineering topics. Dr. Conforto also serves as the Strategy Research Advisor at Brightline Initiative, a not-for-profit global coalition dedicated to help organizations bridge the gap between strategy design and implementation. Dr. Conforto has advised executives and teams from different industry sectors on how to successfully navigate the agile transformation in different perspectives, including project, program and portfolio project management offices and strategy implementation. He has co-authored three books, the most recent being Integrating Program Management and Systems Engineering (2017), and has published more than 30 articles, some of them in leading journals such as the Project Management Journal® (PMJ), MIT Sloan Management Review (SMR), International Journal of Project Management (IJPM), and Journal of Engineering and Technology Management (JET-M). He teaches Agile Management at the MBA program at PECE-POLI, USP, Brazil. He holds a PhD and a master`s degree in agile innovation from the University of São Paulo, São Carlos School of Engineering (EESC-EI2).Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ecconforto

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edivandro-conforto-ph-d-8a09b49/

Documents

PMI PowerPoint Template Maximum 2 Lines, Arial 28pt bold · and register key information—charts, graphics, etc. Spreadsheet to register key issues and risks that are urgent and