-
Project Management: Da Vinci’s Requirements
May 25, 2013
-
3 Smart Leadership Secrets To Increase Employee Engagement
May 24, 2013
-
Project Management on the Far Side of Complexity
May 24, 2013
-
How-to Guide: Change in Project Management
May 23, 2013
-
How Much Project Management Is needed in a Federated Organization?
May 23, 2013
-
Become a Proactive Project Manager
May 22, 2013
-
Project Management - Communicating Successfully
May 22, 2013
-
Talk Like a Project Manager
May 21, 2013
-
How to Project Manage a Pyramid
May 21, 2013
-
The Art of Project Management: Scale
May 20, 2013
Project Management Office: Invest in Your People
September 12, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Project Management Office
Project Management Office: Invest in Your People
By Woody Walker
A successful Project Management Office (PMO) is made up of many things: great people, solid processes, simple effective tools, etc. But to me, people are the most important piece. Investing in your team takes time and energy but is well worth the effort in organizational loyalty, project management effectiveness and delighted clients. These are a few tested and proven examples of low cost ways to build a strong team of PMs in your PMO.
- On-boarding – Ensure you have a thorough on-boarding process. If you spend the time up front setting expectations and familiarizing your new employees with the PMOs processes, their ramp up period will be shorter and they will be able to perform at the necessary level in a faster time period.
-
Mentoring – Connect your new Project Managers with a mentor – someone that understands how your organization works and someone that is willing to devote time working closely with new employees to answer questions and help them navigate the new landscape.
-
Education – Spend time on a monthly basis sharing a different knowledge process area with your Project Managers such as risk management or scope management. Host a conference call or a video based lunch and learn. Encourage two-way conversation and pick lively topics to get everyone engaged and excited. You will find that everyone on your team has something valuable to contribute.
-
Lessons Learned – Collect and discuss lessons learned across all projects. Have a different Project Manager present monthly and review what went wrong, what went right and how we could improve tools and processes to ensure these lessons can be prevented in the future. Document these lessons learned in a common database and report on learning and process improvements to the executives on a quarterly basis.
-
Business Training – Train your PMs in your organization’s core business. Invite guest speakers from the business to share challenges faced by the organization and educate the PMs on industry knowledge.
-
Soft Skills Training – Expand your Project Managers’ communication and interpersonal skills by encouraging them to present to each other. We learn best by doing. Find something outside their comfort zone and encourage them to become an expert in that topic and to teach others what they have learned.
How do you invest in your Project Managers? I would love your feedback!
Woody Walke is a Senior Director - Project Management Office at Ciber North America. Ciber helps clients solve problems and grow by driving tangible business results from their technology investments.
No comments yet.
feel free to leave a comment
Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!
XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
All fields marked with " * " are required.
- Agile Project Management
- Ask the Hut
- Certification
- Change Management
- Communications Management
- Computer Based Information Systems
- Concepts
- Corporate Transformation
- Cost Management
- Critical Chain Project Management
- Delegation
- History
- HR Management
- Implementing Project Management
- Integration Management
- Lessons Learned
- Management
- Miscellaneous
- People Issues
- PMBOK
- PRINCE2
- Procurement Management
- Program Management
- Project Lifecycle Phases
- Project Management Advantages
- Project Management Advantages
- Project Management as a Career
- Project Management Best Practices
- Project Management Charts
- Project Management Definitions
- Project Management Ethics
- Project Management for Beginners
- Project Management Guides
- Project Management Musings
- Project Management Office
- Project Management Proposals
- Project Management Templates
- Project Portfolio Management
- Project Workforce Management
- Quality Management
- Requirements Management
- Risk Management
- Scheduling
- Scope Management
- SCRUM
- Soft Management
- Time Management
- Training
- Uncategorized