Pete Smyth, CEO at Leading Resolutions, a leading UK technology consultancy, outlines the key steps to taking individual project and portfolio management to the strategic scope needed for enterprise-wide innovation and transformation.
For any business with ambitious growth plans, managing how your organisation changes is essential. Constantly juggling multiple change initiatives that affect every part of your organisation, from IT to business operations, can be challenging. Navigating this complexity successfully requires a disciplined approach to prioritisation and governance, where business case development is also non-negotiable.
A traditional Project Management Office (PMO) can cover individual projects and portfolios, yet often lacks the strategic scope needed to guide enterprise-wide transformation. The next step for evolution is needed: building out a PMO solely focused on execution into a Transformation Management Office (TMO) designed to be a strategic partner to business leaders.
This evolution can be covered in three key steps.
#1 – Establish a high-impact PMO foundation.
Jumping straight to a successfully functioning TMO is impossible without first fully establishing an effective PMO. A phased approach delivers immediate value while simultaneously laying the groundwork for future growth plans.
Engaging stakeholders to comprehend strategic aims, reviewing your current project portfolio and documenting the business “As-Is” landscape are all first steps to consider. Based on the subsequent analysis and market best practices, it becomes easier to tailor the PMO foundation to fit the business’s current and future needs, complete with a governance structure and standard templates.
After the design is complete, the setup can begin properly. This means creating an agreed implementation plan to establish core processes for project prioritisation and business case development.
With the design complete, the setup begins. This involves creating and agreeing on an implementation plan that establishes core processes for project prioritisation and
business case development. Businesses will need to consider the scope, schedule and budget available with this, which varies organisation to organisation. Establishing a practical PMO provides clear governance and visibility for the project portfolio to come.
Through this step, the limitations of the PMO versus TMO are also clear on display. Whilst essential to have as a foundation, the PMO model is limited, lacking the ability to track strategic value and communicate with the business rather than simply be guided by it. Ultimately, this creates a gap between project outputs and business outcomes.
#2 – Onboarding and embedding the new ways of working
With the PMO foundation in place, embedding new processes is the natural next step. This phase matures its function from a simple manager of execution to an enabler of collaboration, focusing on key leadership and continuous growth and improvement to ensure new processes for working stick within the target organisation. Providing active leadership to embed new processes for governance, prioritisation, and stakeholder communications is key at this step.
This means working with the PMO team to actively promote and cement the new way of working across the organisation. Implementing measurable key performance indicators (KPI) and reporting dashboards to track project success are critical – without value-based metrics covering cost, schedule, scope and quality. User feedback loops and impact assessments are also needed to identify and implement enhancements; therefore, driving those for continuous improvement ensures the PMO evolves alongside business needs.
The result is establishing a more mature, collaborative PMO with standardised methodologies, risk management and transparent performance reviews. With these in place, it sets the stage for transitioning to the final stage.
#3 – Transforming your broader change agenda
Scaling your now mature PMO into a true TMO serves to create a strategic partner and value orchestrator for both IT operators and business leaders in your
organisation. For this to succeed, it means creating an executable, high-level plan to expand the PMO’s scope for governing and overseeing the broader change agenda.
Keeping all transformation programs consistently aligned with evolving business needs and priorities is the primary function of the TMO. Using data, analytics and most recently AI-boosted technologies, the TMO can provide deeper insights into investments made and measure value creation in actionable terms. Scaling for transformation is easier as the entire team, processes, and structure can handle the entire transformation portfolio. This allows stronger governance and communication, and easier tracking for all programs, not just individual projects.
Adopting a driver for strategic oversight
As the TMO then becomes the central engine for accelerating cross-functional contribution and improving resource management, it enables a strong driver for cultural change and employee engagement across the business. The result is a fully embedded advisor, able to provide the strategic oversight needed to underpin and successfully deliver on growth plans, and ultimately move your organisation from simply managing projects to orchestrating strategic transformation.