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CIO Think Tank: The Practical PMO Forum Moderator: Robert Galvin CTO, New York City School Construction Authority
CIO Think Tank:
The Practical PMO
Forum Moderator: Robert Galvin
CTO, New York City School
Construction Authority
Introduction
New York City School Construction Authority– Manage, Design, & Construct new schools for ~ 1
million students
– Renovate & Upgrade approximately 1600 existing
public schools
– Opened 77 new school
buildings in past 3 years
– 55,000 new seats
– Another 25,000 planned
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator3
Agenda
• Introduction
• Inheritance
• How Did We Get Here?
• Early Success
• PMO 2.0
• Thought-provoking questions
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator4
Inheritance
• Most of your ‘inheritance’ in a new
job is an Anchor!
• Vetted? Strategic? Ability to Deliver?
Business Commitment? Business
Value?
• Start asking ‘Why?’
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator5
Inheritance
The challenge:
– Tracking 645 projects
– # of projects – 217
– Age = oldest 5+ years
– Average = 3 years 5 months
– # of business cases = 0
– # of prior year completions =
somewhere between zero and ‘lots’
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator6
How Did We Get Here?
• No defined intake process
– ‘Mommy/Daddy effect’
• No single tracking mechanism
• No governance over committing resources
• No routine communications vehicle to end
users – no means for taking credit
• No post-mortems = No learning
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator7
What Did We Do?
• No more backlog!
• Setup PMO, drawn from outside IT,
reporting to CIO’s office
• Setup intake process & common, shared
database
• Routine bi-weekly meetings / project
reviews
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator8
What Did We Do?
• For Large projects, created a steering team
with Business sponsor and selected
representatives, CIO, PM
• Monthly meetings to review progress /
decide on scope, budget & schedule
changes
• Created standard reporting from the
common project database
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator9
Early Success, But…
• Got control over project backlog - Some discipline introduced to intake process
• Improved internal project communications
• 156 Projects Tracked– Avg 35 days; Max 216 days
• People adapted and found other ways to circumvent process
• Some projects completed between meetings were never reviewed nor discussed;
• Too few business cases
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator10
PMO 2.0
• Deepened ownership into IT organization
– Conducted training in basic PM methods as
well as in use of tools
– Made it Easy to Comply
– Stress openness ‘in the family’
• Meeting focus on problem projects, plus
spotlight one project per meeting
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator11
PMO 2.0 Results
• # Projects tracked – 246
• # Completed
– Large - 3
–Medium - 6
–Small - 52
• # Pending / Held – 16/27
• # Cancelled - 3
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator12
Results
FY11
(4 mos)
FY10 FY09
Projects
Tracked
246 156 645
Completed 83 63 ??
Max Days 106 216
Avg Days 19.1 35.2
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator13
What’s Next?
• Do it cheaper
• Open up (some things) to the
business
–Reporting defects & allow tracking
–Allow submission of new projects / entry
of business cases
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator14
Priming Questions
What is today’s most precious resource?
What are the reasons your projects fall short of
their potential or what was promised?
How do you determine when a project is going to
fail? When do you ‘make the call’?
How much structure is enough? How do you know
you’re ‘there’?
What project was the biggest disappointment to
your leadership? How did the organization
respond? How did you respond?
The Practical PMO - November 8, 2010 - CIO Summit - Robert Galvin, Moderator15
Summary - Handout
• Get ‘Whys’– Know why you’re doing the project
– Know why projects fail
– Know why they succeed
• Governance– Standardize the Process
– Engage the business at the right points
– ‘Just enough’
– Transparency within and without
• Tools– Single Repository of project data
– Scheduling
– Project Documentation portal
• People– Share successes
– Learn from failure
– Build trust
Robert Galvin
Chief Technology Officer
NYC School Construction Authority
Phone: 718-472-8860
