12.2 SPMO Implementation Thoughts

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We described the SPMO organizational structure and project team composition in Chapter 1. In addition to these defined roles for the project and SPMO, the SEP roadmaps defined which activities are to be performed by the Core Team, the SPMO, and the other project team members during the project’s phased effort. Figure 12.1 illustrates the SPMO domain.

Figure 12.1: SPMO Scope and Methodology Domain.

The single most significant activity of the SPMO is that of tracking the progression of each project and managing the completion of the deliverables during the course of the project development. Doing this will focus the Core Team on what work will need to be accomplished next in the work effort and keep them aligned with a steady progression of task completion activities. Review of the deliverables is an absolute must. Quality should never be sacrificed for the sake of completion.

As an IT leader, you benefit from having all information for every project at your disposal. Cyclical status reports and data taken from the project database will allow you to communicate better across the organization. You will be able to better track project costs and manage budgets collectively. You will find that the wealth of information at your disposal becomes useful to other business leaders, and they will ask for access to your project data (because you have raised the bar and set higher expectations). Executive meetings will be much easier to prepare for, and communication of project data will become less and less a focus of executive staff meetings. Business objectives will take more of the spotlight in these meetings.

My experience has been that the better the SPMO and you do your job, the less visible you become in these staff meetings. Businesspeople tend to spend their time focusing on problems, and if you take away the problems, they are free to focus their energies elsewhere. You may be thinking that less visibility is a double-edged sword. True, but it should be viewed as an opportunity to allow you to communicate your vision, strategy, and ideals to other business leaders in more of a one-on-one setting instead of using the staff meeting to try and achieve these goals. Taking such a vis-à-vis approach tends to strengthen bonds and build trust in a relationship. It also allows other executives a forum in which to ask you so-called dumb questions without being embarrassed in a staff meeting. You will most likely be surprised by the number of times executives from other business units begin to value these sessions as a mini-learning event and request recurring meetings on your calendar. You should always take the time to cross-pollinate your views with your peers. It builds strong trust and alliances in an organization, and there is nothing more powerful than an executive team that trusts each other and works well together.

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