The Phase Zero blog

Portfolio management doesn't need to be complicated. If you are running a small team, don't get overwhelmed thinking you need an enterprise PPM tool to get started. You don't, the basics will get you 80% of the value with 20% of the effort. Here's what actually matters: One master list - All projects, their current status, priority level, and who's assigned. A simple spreadsheet works fine. The key is having everything visible in one place instead of scattered across emails

After my last post I had a few people reach out to see how we recommend starting a new PMO off so I thought this post might help. I remember the first time I got tapped to help build a PMO. I was excited and I could see the end state in my head. I wanted to get there as quickly as possible, so I just started putting all the end state processes into play. Zero to PMO Maturity in a week. It did not go well. I had to learn the tough lesson to fight that urge to immediately get t

You were good at managing projects. Now you're running a PMO. Nobody trained you for this jump, and that's more common than you think. The shift from doing to enabling is harder than it looks. You're used to driving tasks to completion. Now your job is setting up other people to succeed. It feels less direct, less controllable (sometimes completely out of control). It’s normal to want to change everything in the first month. Fight that urge.  Here is my take: Your first 30 da

You don't need dedicated project managers to build effective PMO processes. We’ve written about the one-person PMO, let’s cover the no PM PMO. If your organization is at the “We could use a bit of project management” tipping point it’s a logical to think you need to hire PMs before you can standardize a project approach. Don’t let that stop you, you can create consistency with "Project Leaders" instead. These are the people who already have day jobs but get tapped to run spec

The One-Person PMO is a reality for more companies than you would think. In our experience, many small financial institutions have someone "doing project management" but no formal structure around it. Without any methods or mentoring the person juggling projects gets overwhelmed, stakeholders don't know what's happening, and leadership loses visibility into progress. Often they were the one who happened to be the most organized person when a major initiative needed a leader.

Regulatory audit and exam season hits the same way every year, but can still make organizations scramble like it's a surprise. In our experience, the biggest mistake is not planning for the resource drain. Auditors and examiners can pull your best people away from projects for weeks at a time. Your PMO should be adjusting competing project timelines before exam season starts, not after your team is already underwater. The key is treating exam prep like any other project. Focu

A Maturity Model is only as useful if it creates a clear path to action for you and your team.  In this article we will cover how to...

Process is the final, and arguably most complex, dimension we included in our Maturity Model.  Process maturity covers the creation,...

The Tools dimension is simple at the start and ramps in time and complexity as you seek to improve your maturity.  Most PMOs start with...

When we talk about the People dimension of PMO maturity we are specifically referencing the project managers in your organization.  In...

Project Management Organizations come in all forms, from the single project manager PMO to teams with hundreds of project managers all...

Project Managers exist in every kind of organization but not every organization has an identified PMO leader.  One of the key parts of...