Book Review: “What is your PMO Doing WRONG” by Michael Hatfield, PMP

First lets get a term out of the way, PMO means “Project Management Office” not “Pissed Me Off”.

Let’s get started…

I have been following Micheal Hatfield, PMP on the new PMI Blog, Voices on Project Managment.  I like his content and edge.   The original blog post that caught my eyes was  The Brass Ring of PMOs which talked about Cooperation and problems with implementing PMO.

but consider what you, the PMO director, are asking: You essentially want everybody else to change the way they’ve been doing business, for decades in some cases. I would submit that asking anybody to change anything they’ve been doing a certain way for years, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the new way is better for everyone involved, is difficult in the extreme.

Scarface, PMO Director

I agree.  I have the scars to prove this.  Pain sucks so I have been doing research and soul searching to avoid it!!!  Funny… they do not list  “must enjoy pain” in any of the job posts for PMO Directors.  They should.  Anyway… I digress.

Enjoying Michael’s posts, I decided that the topic was right and bought his book, Things Your PMO is Doing WRONG.  I am glad I did.  Michael challenges much of the typical wisdom, tactics and assumptions which I have personally been leaning on “to move things forward”.  I submit, that even if Michael is 100% DEAD WRONG in his analysis of implementation tactics, challenging long held assumptions is a VERY VERY GOOD THING.  For this reason alone, it is a MUST READ.

I am a little confused by one chapter though called “Cooperation and Defection” grouped under Part 2 of the book entitled “Tactics that Work”.  In this chapter Michael dives into CMM (Corporate Maturity Model) which I found sort of off topic, and then proceeds to state in his conclusion that…

While the capability maturity model provides a nifty gradation structure for furthering a given capability within the macro-organization, current writings on the subject fail to satisfactorily address a critical component: How to actually further a capability?

Hmmm…  So… then… this is then a tactic that does NOT work and should be under Part 1 of the book, “Tactics that Don’t Work”.    Further, there was nothing in the chapter about building cooperation or minimizing “defection” (not participating in the capability implementation plan) as tactics that work.  In fact, later in the book he more or less suggests to expect less than 100% cooperation and to just push forward!

I think there is merit in the approach suggested in the book.  The solution presents itself (pp 35) through the analysis of a winning program from a contest to find the best programmatic approach to maximize positive outcomes to the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” model for measuring cooperation and defection.   I intend to put it to use (future blog post?).  However, Micheal’s subsequent implementation plan, upon closer inspection, relies on some of the very tactics identified in Part 1 of the book, “Tactics that Don’t Work”.   For example…

• There must be a mechanism for responding to project that attempt to opt out.
  • Paraphrasing… “[defection] must be punished immediately”.  This is ultimately a form of coercion which is reference more than once in Part 1 as really bad!!  Loss of job bad!!
  • HOWEVER, immediate punishment is balanced with the IMMEDIATE and COMPLETE forgiveness for cooperation so perhaps some of the damage can be restored?  I think it can.
  • In the examples, the punishment comes form Senior executive calling Project Managers and their teams on the carpet as to the lack of participation.  This is a form of having “Executive Buy-in” or “Leveraging Organizational Power” which again is reference in Part 1 as a problematic tactic.  I suppose there is a subtle difference here because the Executive is the one coercing.  People will still see the PMO Director as the puppet master.  Never the less, it is still going to force compliance.
• Using the MIS (Management Information Systems) axiom, “Start with the end in mind.”
  • Get agreement from Executives as to the reports they need to “steer the ship” FIRST, and then build the system to generate those reports SECOND.
  • Again, this is a form of “Leveraging Organizational Power”, because we can now use this report to enforce compliance.  “You have to give me data to support this report, otherwise, I cannot generate the report for the CEO!!  Do you want to be the one to tell the CEO that you are unable to give two simple pieces of project status data because it is too hard and/or too time consuming!”

I think the key word is Balance which I made bold, underlined and italicized just above.  The PMO Director working to grow Project Management capabilities in his or her organizations needs to pull from a large and varied set of tools.   Therefore, many of the tactics suggested in Part 1 of the book, do help but cannot be the sole set of  implementation “drivers”.  A balanced use of many tactics is required and needs to be tailor depending on the audience, company and culture.

Most importantly, the book is a fast read, only 69 pages.  It is also well written.

Thanks Michael!