While we have talked about a variety of subjects along the way to building our ‘Value Added PMO’, no subject or topic can be of more importance than Selecting the Proper Staff for Value Added Performance. It’s not just about selecting and staffing your PMO, but it is also about continuing the work and effort that has already been put in setting the correct tone and mindset for the day to day work that the PMO organization will turn out. While you are going to need different skills for your PMO, you are also going to need different levels of leadership and independent thinking within your PMO. All must share this same trait.
Staff within the PMO Organization must be able to both Mentor and Assist the performing organization.
When putting your staff together, you need team members who are looked up to by others; share the qualities and respect a great teacher receives; and has the technical ability to help solve problems. While one of the primary jobs that the PMO has, is to ensure that the PM’s and other team members that report into the PMO follow methodology and practices – it is also their job to lend a helping hand to not only understand and adhere to those practices, but to help foster a better understanding on what those standards are there for. Let’s go back to the example set out earlier in this series of something that is not wanted, for sometimes it is more important to uncover poor traits and practices, rather than simply looking for the good ones. You do not want or need someone on your team that is looking forward to finding all of the mistakes that they can, in the work that someone else is doing. The example used previously is the motorcycle officer in the boots, helmet, sunglasses and such that is walking towards you with the ticket book in hand recording your license plate number – before he ever talks to you. You are going to get a ticket. If you find yourself with PMO team members with that type of attitude, then you need to think about either helping them to change it – or finding someone else to fill the position. That type of attitude, will have the same effect as a torpedo does slamming into a full oil tanker. There is going to be a resulting explosion, followed by a tremendous amount of debris that will need to be cleaned up.
So, let’s talk about the traits that some of your PMO staff will need to have and how you might go about finding them in your candidate pool. These traits may be mixed and matched within different people. It is not likely that they will all be found within one ‘perfect candidate’. It’s going to be about building a team that you know and understand how to mix and match their skills with the duties performed. Here are the traits that I look for, and try to find when building a team.
- Leadership – there has to be at least one or more additional team members that have definite leadership skills that can be used.
- Process Oriented – virtually everyone on the team needs to embrace and understand the importance of process.
- Steady as a Rock – you are going to need at least one team member who is capable of assisting on almost anything, and is reliable.
- Scheduling Expert – you need to have at least someone on the team that is considered an expert in your scheduling tool of choice.
- Task Oriented – one or more of the staff should be BA’s or PM’s in develoment, and are able to execute repetitive tasks while learning.
- Credentials – while I am not one that automatically thinks that everyone must have certification, it does help with credibility.
Leadership Team Member – Since you are building a Project Management Office ‘Organization’, it is assumed that you will be working on either a program sized effort with many projects under it’s authority and responsibility – or simply a larger department or organization that wants the guidance and leadership that a PMO can bring. No matter they size, you need to find someone that can perform as your ‘right hand person’, step in and make decisions and provide leadership when needed. This person should have good solid Project Management skills and experience and aspire to be a PMO Manager or Program Manager as their next level of responsibility. They should have credible experience in leading projects to successful conclusion. It is also important, that they know and understand the difference between a ‘Value Added PMO’ and one that simply exists to gather and report statistics. If you find someone that is or has been totally frustrated with other PMO organizations and the lack of leadership, mentoring and assistance that they have found – you are on the right road to a good match.
Process Oriented Team Member(s) – This is the item that must be found in all of your candidates and future PMO team members at some level. They must understand and embrace the importance of defining solid process models; ongoing process improvements; and how to work together both within the PMO team and the larger organization. In addition, if your PMO is going to be responsible for authoring and gaining formal approval of your overall methodology and process definitions, then finding someone with both Project Management experience along with Training/Communication experience is a great find. This is one of those areas that at least one person is needed that has had some specific experience in helping define and/or maintain Process Definition/Process Improvement initiatives.
Steady as a Rock – Although we mentioned above the necissity of having a team member (besides the PMO Manager) that has Leadership qualities, this trait is the one that you won’t be able to truly uncover during an interview process – but it is absolutely part of your ‘Critical Success Factors’. You are going to need someone that you can hand off almost anything to, and they are going to take it and run with it to successful completion. They will always be there to assist, no matter whether it is a team member of the PMO, the PMO Manager or one of the performing organization PM’s that need assistance. These are team members that have great experience, offer sound advice, perform at or above expectations flawlessly and for the most part simply make your overall job easier to do. They are ready and willing to help, no matter the situation. The best that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, was someone that when I interviewed was a good solid candidate, that I though would make a very good team member. He turned out to be the person that I could not have done without, even though others may have had better credentials or more experience in some areas. It is the person that you would hire again, at any time.
Scheduling Expert – This is a major necessity, no matter the scheduling tool(s) that you may use. There needs to be someone on the team that has more than just an ‘in depth’ amount of knowledge and experience with your scheduling tool of choice. While MS Project is accepted by many as the defacto project management scheduling tool, it is not by any means the ‘gold standard’ or the one used in most places. The point being, no matter what the tool used, someone in the PMO has to have the ability to get the most out of the tool, and more importantly – is the one that will dig in a fix the scheduling problems that occur and are presented to the PMO for a cure, by the PM’s and Project Coordinators in the organization. If you can find someone that can ‘think outside of the box’ regarding scheduling tools, and how to make the tool work better for you and the extended team, even better.
Task Oriented – While many may think that this is easy to fill, it is also something that you can generally overlook incorrectly. There is going to be an ongoing need in your Value Added PMO for one or more team members to collect and produce reporting, metrics, and do what many would consider to be ‘menial’ tasks. In short, someone that is learning about Project Management or someone that has skills that are generally attributed to a Business Analyst (the most overused and misunderstood job title today) or lower level employee. Nothing could be further from the truth. At different times during the standard work week, there are going to be standard reports and information that need to be gathered, analyzed, corrected and reported on. People that have significant Project Management experience are not going to be the best for that. People that are familiar with and expereinced dealing with large amounts of data, compiling that data and presenting it for reporting are the best. They need to be very task oriented, so that the outputs will be repeatable from week to week.
Credentials – Many people believe that the proper credentials are needed no matter what. Credentials simply let you know that the holder of those credentials have completed some type of formal training; exhibited skills and experience to achieve licensing standards or meet minimum levels of work experience. If your audience of Project Managers that are in the performing organization and look to the PMO for guidance and assistance have a majority of PM’s that have professional credentials (PMO, Prince, Agile or other accepted Certifications), then it is a good idea that some members of the PMO have recognized Professional Certification also. However, be certain of one thing. If you are working in a shop that adheres to Prince Certification standards, having someone in the PMO with PMO credentials isn’t going to help that much. This is true no matter the prevailing certification standards.
Now that we’ve defined the types of staff skills that are needed, how do we go about knowing the number of staff positions to fill, and choosing the best person to fill each of them. The most important thing to understand is that there will likely not be a perfect match of skills to positions. In most cases, you will need to ‘blend the activities’ of each team member so that you achieve maximum results. The person that you find that will be your ‘right hand person’ and has the best leadership skills, may also be responsible for providing scheduling expertise. The same goes for the other traits that we’ve defined. You are going to need to understand how to blend and build your team so that all of the traits defined, are covered throughout your new Value Added PMO Organization. Other than the traits that you will look for and the ability to form a cohesive team, the number of team members will need to be assessed and approved.
This is an area, that when you start out you are most likely to come up short in. You can put together a needs analysis and make all of the presentations and forecasts that you want, but it is quite likely that you are going to find yourself with less positions to fill than you actually need, as you first start out. On a assignment several years ago, we started with two people. We had to fill all of the ‘jobs’ and skills needed. As we grew and the demands increased, we settled in at a total of 4 team members, including the PMO manager. This team supported a PM team of approximately 12-14 PM’s and their functional team. If you are supporting a program or department with 2-3 PM’s, your organization is going to be small. My recommendation is that you need to attempt to achieve a mix of 1 PMO Team member for every 4-5 PM’s in the performing organization. On the other hand, if you have PM’s that are managing multiple projects within the organization, your analysis may be more project oriented. Simply put, the more projects and PM’s that you support effectively, will require additional staff at some point in time. You are likely going to have to slowly ‘build upon your team’, as they gain credibility and also as the demands for additional reporting and metrics rise.
Next week: Putting it all together and Managing your PMO Team.
