The participants share their experiences with establishing a new PMO and best practices for data analytics, risk, and project confidence.

Notes: Co-hosts Jeff Plumblee and Matt Stoltz host this Community of Practice Live Event! The topic is establishing a PMO for the first time at an organization: What are the best practices and some of the challenges? What are best practices for data analytics? Additional topics are data analytics, project risks, and project confidence.

Key Takeaways:

Establishing a PMO takes patience and understanding. Understand the “why” behind the PMO. A PMO requires the clear support of senior management. In the first 90 days, make a spreadsheet that shows improved efficiencies clearly with dollars saved and reduced labor requirements.
Mature companies want to know what problem a PMO solves. Startups want documentation. Establish a process that makes sense. Existing project managers are used to doing things one way. It’s painful to impose the structure to establish a PMO. Get a good mix of people at the table who know the pain points.
Think both tactically and strategically. Show stakeholders how the PMO helps them. Ask how you can help them be more successful.
Data analytics is about capturing data of interest to the stakeholders and executives. Express how it benefits the company. It’s hard to pull statistically significant data from soft skills. Make sure the data makes sense to the executives. Risk management includes building an allowance for delays.
It takes time to build relationships and know what to expect from team members. You may need to seek supplier redundancies or build padding into the schedule for delays. Communicate often; communicate early so that a delay is not a surprise. Know when to kill a project because of unacceptable delays.

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Community of Practice Live: Building Project Structure, Data Analytics, and More