The document discusses the role of project management offices (PMOs) in supporting reviews and assurance. It states that unnecessary project failure occurs when people lack full, validated information about project status and issues. The role of reviews and assurance is to provide this important information to project and portfolio managers. PMOs can help establish effective review processes to gather and disseminate this information.

1. Supporting Reviews &
Assurance
The Role of the PMO
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2. Outline
 Projects fail
 That’s OK
 Portfolio mgt is easier than project mgt…
 … provided you can get the right information
 Setting up an assurance programme
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3. Why do projects fail?
Simon Schoeters
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4. Christiaan Triebert
We lose touch with reality
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5. Simon Schoeters
Failure becomes obvious
when we run back into reality
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6. Failure is OK!
L Gnome
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7. There are 2 types of failure:
Inherent & Unnecessary
macrophile
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8. Statistics don’t work for
project managers
Steve A
Johnson
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9. Statistics do work for portfolio
& programme managers
James Bowe
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10. Portfolio & programme
managers have more tools
veryuseful
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11. But they often don’t have the
information they need
IsaacMao
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12. But they often don’t have the
information they need
derekGavey
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13. But they often don’t have the
information they need
maveric2003
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14. But they often don’t have the
information they need
Jeroen_bennink
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15. Grand Canyon NPS
That’s where the PMO helps –
providing clear information
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16. Kheel Centre,
Cornell University
Right Information – Skills –
Process – Stakeholders
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IvanWalsh.com

17. Supporting Reviews & Assurance
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ell brown
PMOs can work at three levels

18. The role of assurance is to
provide validated information
owenwbrown
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19. How do we set up an effective
programme of reviews?
Colin_K
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20. 1) Make reviews the norm
Lars P.
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21. 2) Be clear who you’re serving
Bird Brian
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22. 3) Tune investment to risk
levels
digitalmoneyworld
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23. 4) Use a mix of review types
vie_ascenseur
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24. 5) Negotiate clear objectives
for each review
Richard_of_England
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25. Baseline Criteria Reference
Inputs Review execution
Artefacts & other
items to review, plus
supporting details.
Recommendations to
improve review artefacts
Models
Outputs
Improved
artefacts.
Go/ No -go
decision.
Control parameters
Feedback
to improve
reference
models
Analysis Loop
6) Run a structured process
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26. 7) Focus on evidence
Simon Schoeters
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27. 8) Manage logistics
strudelt
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28. 9) Minimise overheads
jcroninone
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29. 10) Train people
One Laptop per Child
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30. 11) Act on findings
mikebaird
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31. 12) Monitor effectiveness
SearchEnginePeople
Blog
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32. 13) Disseminate lessons
learned
The U.S. Army
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33. Assurance supports
stakeholder communications
Keoni Cabral
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34. Summary
 We engage with risks to achieve rewards
 Sometimes the risks win
 Aim is to eliminate unnecessary failure
 Program & portfolio mgrs have a lot of tools
 They need information in order to use them
 Reviews & assurance provide this information
 PMOs can do a lot to set up effective reviews
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35. Unnecessary Failure…
… happens when people with the skills,
resources and authority to act effectively
don’t get full, validated information about
project status and issues.
The role of reviews and assurance is to
provide this information.
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36. Thank you
graham@grahamoakes.co.uk
@GrahamDOakes
36
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37. Graham Oakes Ltd
 Making sense of technology…
 Many organisations are caught up in the
complexity of technology and systems.
 This complexity may be inherent to the
technology itself. It may be created by the pace of technology change. Or it may arise from
the surrounding process, people and governance structures.
 We help untangle this complexity and define business strategies that both can be
implemented and will be adopted by people throughout the organisation and its partner
network. We then help assure delivery of implementation projects.
 Clients…
 Cisco Worldwide Education – Architecture and research for e-learning and educational systems
 Council of Europe – Systems for monitoring compliance with international treaties; e-learning systems
 Dover Harbour Board – Systems and architecture review
 Greenpeace – Project reviews, enterprise architecture, digital strategy
 MessageLabs – Architecture and assurance for partner management portal
 National Savings & Investments – Helped NS&I and BPO partner develop joint IS strategy
 The Open University – Enterprise architecture, CRM and product development strategies
 Oxfam – Content management, CRM, e-Commerce
 Thames Valley Police – Internet Consultancy
 Sony Computer Entertainment – Global process definition
 Amnesty International, Endemol, Intel, tsoosayLabs, Vodafone, …
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