One of the most frequently asked questions we get here at The PMO Professionals is “what is the best PMO tool?” The truth is that one size doesn’t fit all; just as PMO is used to describe a project, programme or portfolio office – the best PMO tool for each situation will depend on what…
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“The PMO Lifecycle: Building, Running & Shutting Down” by William Dow, PMP is my go-to book when setting up or improving a PMO, and I keep it close to hand on my business bookshelf for easy reference. It’s definitely a how-to manual, packed with checklists, diagrams and review questions to embed your learning. You can…
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I often get asked what PMO stands for (especially by baffled members of my family!). Well the ‘P’ can stand for project, programme or portfolio, the ‘M’ stands for management, and the ‘O’ stands for office – or officeR – because let’s face it how can a person like me be an office? …so PMO…
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The experience of running projects contains insights that ought be useful to organisations and individuals, yet very often this useful knowledge is not fully or effectively exploited. Does your organisation learn all that it could from its delivery experience? See if you recognise anything in the post below… How can you tell your organisation is…
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To get the best out of people, a group lesson session needs to foster the right atmosphere, ask the right questions, and encourage the right behaviours. This can be achieved very effectively by having the lesson-gathering session(s) run by someone completely independent of the project or even the organisation. What are the benefits of having…
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You’re bought into the idea of having your project or programme retrospective run independently. So what should you look for in a partner to run your retrospective? Knowledge This is about whether the partner has a good understanding of the processes involved in identifying and capturing insights, and turning these into actionable learning. Do they understand how…
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I was booked by Lindsay Scott of the House of PMO to deliver a webinar on setting up and working as a contractor. It was important to me that it went well, because I was also going to use the webinar to launch a brand new business – The PMO Professionals. I had some (ahem!)…
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From commuting in wet weather to stakeholder management. (No really – stay with me…) I often commute to and through central London on my way into work. One wet day I found cause to wish that people would carry large golfing umbrellas on busy public transport vertically when folded, because a pointy golfing umbrella held horizontally…
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I’ve been thinking about authenticity and the way that Project Managers [PMs] and PMO professionals present themselves in the professional arena. I saw a LinkedIn post a while back highlighting a vacancy advert requiring that the PM had previous experience of managing ‘ugly’ projects, and recounting experience of having interviewed multiple PMs whose projects had…
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This post uses the lessons learned process framework in my book to describe what I learned from producing my #OpenToWork video series.
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