PMO Conference 2019

Five Streams of PMO Sessions, Three Keynotes, Over 400 PMO Practitioners Come Together

The PMO Conference opens its doors at 8am on Thursday 13th June and ends at 5.45pm. There are five different streams of presentation and sessions to choose from. There’s something for everyone, regardless of what type of PMO you lead and work in. All sessions are recorded and are available for conference delegates afterwards.

Further sessions are still being added; you’ll be notified as they come online. Eight more coming your way soon!

Opening Keynote – Pushing the Limits – Being Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Dr Robert Joslin

Every organisation needs to differentiate itself in some way to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. This requires its people to push and continue to push limits in terms of thinking, idea development and realisation. The top organisations are continually encouraging their teams to push limits in their thinking in order to achieve breakthroughs. Is pushing the limits only reserved for research and development teams, organisational design teams and consultants or can this philosophy be applied to the community of PMOs?

Can pushing the limits of your understanding of PMOs double the impact they are currently having in your organisation? What does it mean in terms of working outside your typical comfort zone and what are the implications for you and your PMO teams?

Find out more about how to build an environment that encourages pushing the limits and the implications on learning and discovery?

Takeaways:

• Understanding the difference of being inside and outside one’s comfort zones and its relationship to impact
• Determining how to create an increasing impact that requires being continually outside of one’s comfort zone
• Examples of PMO experts working outside of their comfort zones to impact the PMO community.

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Keynote – The PMO Hero – Storytelling in the Age of AI

Felipe Mattei

With the rise of AI and the ever-increasing accessibility to automation services, what will the PMO do when projects which traditionally required a whole team to deliver move towards plug-and-play? Could the PMO reinvent itself? Learn how to use Storytelling to move up the value chain and go beyond requirements-oriented project delivery, towards a story-centric delivery mechanism that leads to more impact.

Takeaways:

• Understanding of Story Structure
• The Storyteller role
• Story-centric project delivery pipeline for higher efficiency and more impact
• How to move up along the value chain towards a Publishing Management Office

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Closing Keynote – PMO 3.0 – Digital PMO: Complexities, Customers, Canines and Bi-lingual Chickens

Ralf Finchett

We know the change environments we work in are getting increasingly complex and fast-paced, we hear it all the time but what is the PMO supposed to make of that, and more crucially, what should we be doing? We understand that digital is all the rage but isn’t that for all the smaller start-ups and trendy Silicon Valley hotshots?

If we ignore it, is the PMO heading towards extinction? If we want to embrace it, where do we even start?

Ralf Finchett has been around the PMO scene for over 15 years, he speaks from his broad experience of actually doing the PMO role, across many industries, multiple continents and in Digital delivery environments.

In this closing keynote, Ralf who started @PMOPlanet over ten years ago, Chief Agile Pragmatist and PMO Legend shares his PMO Digital Transformation war stories, wounds, scars, bruises and crashed spreadsheets!!

He’ll share how the Digital PMO deals with the complexities; placing customers outcomes centre stage; getting into the big deal about metrics, not benefits; the culture, the landscape, the language, the organisational challenges plus where that canine comes into it, and yes, talking chickens.

You’ll leave the session with the answer to the question; Evolve or Die…. and on a lighter note, what are the minimum viable services any Digital PMO should be offering today?

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Stream Session – What Value is a PMO if There Are No Experts in Techniques and Tools?

Unique insights from 2 years of research

Sabita Saleem

Every trade and profession use Techniques and Tools (T&Ts). Masters of a trade know which tool and technique to use and when and when not to use them individually or in combination. The world of PMOs, projects, programmes, and portfolios (PPP) are no exception. Like trades, they need to have experts in the understanding and application of T&Ts.

Research has shown when T&Ts are used in the wrong phase or when the right technique or tool is not used then it increases the chances of project failure.

Did you know that on average, project managers only know 10 out of over 200 techniques and tools? Also, did you know that only 5 project success factors are directly linked to 29 T&Ts? By the way, there are over 70 project success factors (based on academic research) which show there’s a major shortfall in knowledge and an issue (not even a risk) on the likelihood of project success.

There has never has been a clear understanding of what is a technique and a tool? These terms are used interchangeably that people do not even question what constitutes a technique or a tool.

Gain unique insights from 2 man-years of research that explain how little value a PMO is if it is not a master of techniques and tools. It’s now time to address the competency deficit and increase the value of PMO to the organisation.

Takeaways:

• Understand the link between techniques & tools, project failure and success factors
• Get clarity by understanding the difference between a technique and a tool, and the importance of new categorisation of techniques
• Understand why it’s needed to address the shortfall in mastering techniques & tools across portfolios, programmes, projects and PMOs

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Stream Session – Patterns of Strategy and Planning Execution Programmes

Patrick Hoverstadt

In this session, we will introduce “Patterns of Strategy” – a radically innovative approach to strategy formulation and execution that models the strategic fit between the organisation and its environment and how emergent strategy is shaped by strategic relationships with other actors.

Patterns show the drivers of emergent strategy, how this destabilises strategic planning and what you can do about it.  It is an extremely pragmatic approach that significantly shortens the time needed to develop strategy, can be applied at any scale and used for both competitive and collaborative strategies. As well as strategy formulation we’ll show how to develop an execution plan with clear metrics, and communication plan, an approach to providing a bridge between strategy and delivery. This session is ideal for those working within portfolio management and enterprise PMOs.

We will share our experience of using the approach with over 70 client organisations in a wide range of sectors and show the 80 common and successful patterns of strategy.

Anyone interested in how strategy is formulated, why it fails so often and how to convert strategy into action should come along to the session.

Takeaways:

• Understand the Patterns of Strategy approach
• Gain an appreciation of why many traditional approaches fail
• Learn about a new approach to execution planning

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Stream Session -Change Management Information & Tools for the PMO

Paul Clavering

Change Management is about the change from current workings to the desired end state. The focus is on people and helping them through this transition.  The skills go hand in hand with project management, but the two roles require different skill sets.

However, there are techniques and tools that a PMO can incorporate into best project management practice which enables both them and project managers to manage change more effectively.

This session will focus on some of the basic concepts of change management and how they can be used to help understand the size of the transformation and make sure that it aligns to key project activities. The session will include real examples that demonstrate the impact of change management approaches on a project.

If you’re currently exploring the adoption of change management principles and approaches within your organisation or PMO, this session is a great place to start.

Takeaways:

• A high-level overview of some of the change models in use currently
• A selection of tools that can be used to help start to map the change management journey
• A clear understanding of the different skills that are needed for PM ‘v’ CM.

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Stream Session – Travels Through Portfolio Management and PMO

Holger Heuss

PMOs set up to enable and support portfolio management is becoming increasingly common and in this session, Holger recounts his stories; theories and experiences to bring actionable insights for anyone currently managing or working within Portfolio Management Offices.

Through his travels, we take in the realities of successful portfolio management; the relationships between the finance team and the portfolio team; the different types of portfolios and what influences optimisation. He also dips into Agile portfolio management and takes us into what the real role of the PMO should be – what they should be doing responding to an agile transformation; why and how.

With experiences in portfolio management and PMO spanning from Financial Services to Retail to Pharma, the travels Holger shares give some great food for thought.

Takeaways:

• What does modern portfolio management look like
• What the PMOs role is in establishing modern portfolio management
• What the PMOs response looks like to an agile transformation

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Stream Session – The Realities of Robotic Process Automation in the PMO

John McIntyre

Too many PMOs are held back from fulfilling their potential by getting bogged down with labour-intensive processes. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence tool providers make bold claims about their ability to tackle the issue but are seen as expensive to implement, maintain and operate.

In this session, John cuts through some of the hype surrounding AI and RPA and offers practical, real-world examples of how RPA technology can be used by PMOs to accelerate processes, increase accuracy, and allow PMO analysts to spend more time on actual analysis.

In this insightful, from-the-coal-face perspective, John creates a compelling case for the adoption of RPA in the PMO space and explains why PMOs are uniquely positioned to trigger an automation evolution that extends beyond reporting and governance and extends across the entire organization.

Can adopting RPA increase the efficiency of your PMO? Can AI identify new ‘lead indicator’ KPIs for your portfolio? What improvements can your PMO drive in the projects space, and across the business as a whole?

Takeaways:

• Find out how RPA can be utilised by the PMO
  
• Understand the real impacts automation can have on the PMO service offerings
  
• Understand what steps can be taken to make it a reality for your PMO
  

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Stream Session – Growing a Greenfield PMO in a Media Forest

Sonia Sharma

In this session, we cover the challenges in setting up a new PMO in the Media forest – in this case, Channel 4 the broadcaster. Sonia takes her through her experiences in setting up a Greenfield PMO where there are already several different and ingrained ways of working. You can’t just cut down the trees and start again! She will cover the differences in approach used at a department level and the Enterprise level and provide practical advice on managing stakeholders, developing processes and the use of tools.

If you’re currently working as a PMO Analyst looking to move into PMO Management or interested in how a different industry tackles new PMO implementation, attend the session for real world and practical insights

Takeaways:

• Understand the challenges of setting up a greenfield PMO.
• Managing creative stakeholders and making the PMO work in an industry like Media.
• Guidelines on how to setup a PMO whether it is at the Enterprise or Department level.
  

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Stream Session – The PMO Triple Constraint: Standardisation, Discipline and Visibility

Michael Reynders

Similar to the juggling act required by Project Managers to manage project delivery within the triple constraint of time, cost and scope, the PMO also requires a juggling act to meet ever-changing business and stakeholder expectations.

The idea of a PMO triple constraint with the parameters of standardisation, discipline and visibility will be discussed as an approach to safeguard PMO’s applicability to, and sustainability for the organisation.

This presentation tracks the PMO journey to date at Mediclinic, and provides some key learnings on the maturation path from being ignored, being tolerated, being respected to becoming a business partner.

Experience will be shared on using competency frameworks and assessments in order to plot the next steps for PMO maturity at Mediclinic

Takeaways:

• The presentation provides practical insight to integrating the project, change and benefits management approaches in order to ensure successful project delivery, adoption of change and realisation of benefits in order to realise business strategy.
• Ideas will be discussed on balancing the PMO constraints of standardisation (process and methodology), discipline (PM habits and behaviours) and visibility (reporting and prioritisation) as part of the maturation process.
• Sharing of lessons learnt from the Mediclinic journey to date will be of benefit to PMO’s intent on following a similar maturation path

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Stream Session – The Catalyst – A PMO Role in Agile Transformation

Jon Ward

If the PMO typically acts as owner and advocate of project and change management best practices; then why would this be any different when adopting new agile ways of working?

This session will outline the catalytic role of the PMO.  How the PMO can energise and facilitate an Agile transformation within an organisation.

Using a path-to-agile framework; Jon will outline the importance the PMO can play at each step.  However, transformation means change at all levels and this includes the PMO.  Finally, Jon will point to the changes the PMO needs to make to itself in order to perform its function in an Agile or Hybrid environment.

Takeaways:

• Gain an understanding of a path-to-agile framework
• Understand what the role of the PMO is in facilitating an Agile Transformation within an organisation
  
• Practical steps on how the PMO needs to change themselves
  

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Stream Session – Agile: The Auditor’s Perspective

Stuart Bates

PMO professionals and auditors both want the same thing when it comes to change delivery- to deliver change that creates or protects business value. We also both want that change to manage risk.

Agile delivery aims to deliver business change at pace, and sometimes it is perceived that agile change will be delivered without appropriate control, in contrast to waterfall delivery.

This talk aims to show how agile doesn’t necessarily mean that risk will not be managed effectively – I will explore what (good) agile controls look like and how these can be demonstrated: from the project team to the PMO, and to any auditors reviewing the change.

Takeaways:

What (good) agile controls look like and what a PMO team can:

•  ask project teams for, to demonstrate controls in place
• show or direct auditors who are reviewing the project to, in order to demonstrate the controls in place.

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Stream Session – Our Caring PMO

Carol Hindley

Pastoral care is hugely important for Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) – the IT arm of the Houses of Parliament.  So much so, they have adopted CARE as one of their four core values. In this session, Carol explains how the Digital PMO fosters genuine relationships and understand their user needs.

Carol will provide an overview of the activities they have undertaken to ensure the personal / team health and wellbeing. They’ve built morale and a real sense of community in the PMO.

The session introduces the Team Healthcheck concept and explains how it is used as a new KPI of successful delivery – how they have obtained programme board agreement that team health always trumps cost and time on major strategic rollouts. Wellbeing exercises are intrinsic to the success of Portfolio Leadership meetings and the PMO is driving the development of Portfolio professional guilds, supported by programmes of coaching and mentoring schemes for portfolio people.

Does the PMO have a “duty of care” to its Programme and Project Managers and if so, what should that look like?

The session also outlines how these activities are having an impact on the Digital Service as a whole and how other PMOs can take away practical insights which will prompt you to consider the benefits of a caring PMO.

Takeaways:

• Learn how team health can become a metric of Project/Programme success, monitored by the PMO
• Understand more about wellbeing’s positive impact on productivity within delivery organisations
• Mental Health issues affect 1 in 4 people – how many people might need some help in your PMO or in your project environment?

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Stream Session – Supporting and Facilitating the Highest Ever P3M3 Assessment – PMO 4.4

Wajjahat Khan

How mature is your organisation’s approach to portfolio, programme and project management?

In this session, Wajjahat can tell you exactly how mature the Signalling side of Network Rail is, 4.4. That’s the highest score ever achieved in a P3M3 assessment and today we learn how they did just that. Wajjahat shares his key insights and learnings from the journey which saw him not only oversee the assessment within the business but also contribute to the improvements made.

In his role in the Central Programme Management Office he also shares some of the key initiatives from the PMO that contributed to upshift in assessment ranking and handed the Signalling team at Network Rail the role as the global benchmark for P3M3.

Takeaways:

• Insights and practical tips for the PMO in facilitating a P3M3 assessment within the organisation.
• Gain the inside track in what it’s really like to undergo the assessment and what lessons you can expect to learn along the way.
• Learn about the types of initiatives and projects the PMO gets involved in to contribute to P3M3 success.

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Stream Session – A Career in PMOs to Executive Management- MSc and DBA (Doctorate) in PMOs: The Missing Link

Dr Robert Joslin

PMOs reputations greatly vary as does the impact they make in their organisations. The qualifications of PMO team members and PMO managers also varies from PMO to PMO, but what is consistent is lack of senior executives that came from PMO backgrounds. Earning a bachelor degree has long been the starting point in many people’s careers, but with the competition for professional positions, especially the impact of ‘role mobility’, greatly increases the pressure on individuals to differentiate themselves. Professions today, consider an MSc or higher as the differentiator that once was reserved for a BSc.

In most, if not all professions career paths exist but PMOs are unfortunately special in that there has never been a recognised profession. Perhaps in part due to the lack of the word ‘management’ after the word PMO. PMOs are not just about the entity but the Management of PMOs. Earning the status of a profession requires meeting approx 30 criteria to varying levels. Over 20 criteria are associated with being part of a professional association and 18 of the 30 criteria can be directly or indirectly influenced by graduate degrees (MSc/DBA) in the field of the profession.

This presentation shows the importance of making PMOs a profession and couple this with a graduate education in the field of PMOs, strategy and leadership will increase the opportunities of PMO professionals being candidates for the next generation C level.

Takeaways:

• People in PMOs have the opportunity to help be part of developing an industry recognised PMO profession
• The opportunity to make a real career in PMO Management and beyond to executive and C-level management
• An insight into the types of topics covered in MSc and DBA

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Stream Session – A Roadmap for a Data Analytics Driven Future

Dr James Smith

Advanced project data analytics offers great promise for the project management profession; the methods have been proven in other industries. But it’s not a switch that can be turned on overnight. Within this presentation, we will explore a roadmap that will help PMOs and their organisations to grapple with their strategic data objectives, improve data quality and progress from management information towards predictive insights.

We’ll look at a potential roadmap you can work with and utilise – to help bring clarity and understanding. We’ll look at what’s stopping us or the potential challenges ahead and how we can start to take steps for readiness. Finally, we’ll look at the practical side of making project data analytics in your organisation a reality.

Takeaways:

• Gain insights into a potential roadmap for your PM and your organisation.
• Gain an understanding of project data analytics – to remove the fear and increase confidence in developing a way ahead.
• Practical steps for implementation 

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Stream Session – Ella’s Kitchen’s Recipe for PMO Success

Ellen Jarret

Hear the story of how the Ella’s Kitchen PMO went from non-existence to PMO of the Year in just two years.

This session shows how any organisation can create its own unique PMO, regardless of PM maturity level. In fact, much of what this PMO has done is deliberately immature and that’s been fundamental to its success.   Learn how their ‘pea-themed’ strategy caught the imagination of their colleagues and helped them build trusting, collaborative relationships with their project teams, and find out how you can take some of these tricks home to your own PMO.

With unique branding and bags of personality, this is a PMO with a difference –  a colourful story which will capture the imagination of any PMO practitioner

Takeaways:

• How to give your PMO some personality
• How to engage with diverse people and stakeholders across the business
  
• How to use creativity to tailor what and how your PMO communicates with the rest of the organisation
  

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Stream Session – The 6 Roles PMO Leaders Need to Play to Navigate Uncertain Waters

Bekka Prideaux

Change is inevitable (and necessary) but we do seem to be facing more than our fair share in the past few years – and leading in uncertain times can be challenging, whether due to political turmoil, unpredictable marketplaces or environmental factors.

Your team and the teams you work with will look to you to lead them through the uncertainty, and this can really put your leadership skills to the test.

Knowing where to focus your energies can really help you, your stakeholders (who are facing the same challenges) and your teams not just survive but deliver great results.

So how do you know what to actually do?

In this session, we will review the 6 roles a leader needs to play and how they should play them as they balance delivering right now and planning for the unknown.  We will look at how they add up to leading an engaged and effective team and stakeholder group.

The practical hints and tips shared in this presentation will support both the growth in your personal leadership and the influence you have in your organisation while avoiding the dangers of falling morale, lack of focus and increasing staff turnover.

Takeaways:

• What the 6 Roles of Leadership are, what they mean for a PMO leader and how they add up to leading an ethical, moral and highly effective PMO
• Hints and tips on how to grow their leadership skills and influence
• Ideas on how they can support their team as they work in increasingly uncertain times

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Stream Session – Transforming your PMO – the Agile Way!

Adam Skinner

The best PMOs are continually looking to improve the value they provide to their organisation however beyond ‘manage your maturity transformation like a project’ there is very little guidance to help shape and steer this activity. In this session Adam will:

• Argue that transforming a PMO heavily lends itself to a methodology based on Agile principles and;
• Walks you through his preferred approach – with worked examples, tools and templates and a deep dive into the steps and stages.

Whatever type of PMO you’re looking to build – build it the Agile Way!

Takeaways:

• A methodology to allow the application of agile principles to PMO (and indeed any ‘Office’) maturity transformation.
• Practical takeaways – examples, tools and templates to get you started

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Delivering the Leeds City Region £200m Per Annum Portfolio – Digital Transformation for Governance and Collaboration

*GOLD – Sponsored Session*

Craig Taylor & Gero Renker

West Yorkshire Combined Authority (the CA) brings together the public and business sector through the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP). The CA ’s Delivery Directorate oversees the delivery of the Leeds City Region £200m per annum portfolio, including the local growth fund (incorporating the West Yorkshire + Transport Fund) and Leeds public transport investment programme (LPTIP) within an agreed assurance framework, working closely with a network of partner councils and organisations.

This session explores the evolution of the CA’s PMO, using Microsoft cloud technology to transform inefficient, manual processes and deliver: * Enhanced collaboration across the network of partner organisations * Financial controls and system-supported funding claims processes * Efficient governance and decision support through comprehensive automated reporting. * Increased compliance and reduced risk Find out how the CA approached its transformation challenges and what benefits have been achieved across the entire operation through cloud-based content sharing and process controls.

Takeaways:

• Inspiration from a real-life story of a PMO that managed to massively improve portfolio governance and collaboration processes working with multiple external partners.
• How technology was fundamental in achieving this.
• Pragmatic tips on how you can do it yourself and commence your own journey.

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