I love managing projects. I don't love the paperwork. When I first conceived PersonalPMO, I was working as a Senior Project Manager for Computer Associates. The company had just gone through the ISO 9001:2000 certification and the impact of that had just been rolled out to the PM community.
Our initial reaction to the changes were undeniably negative. We were forced to move from a low to high maturity level in the space of a couple of months and with it came a tidal wave of paperwork. The powers that be had digested the PMI methodology and built a process around it. This process was now enforced through the ISO program office and violations were punishable with dismissal.
Over 250 company PMs were sent for PMP training and only those who passed were able to stay on as PMs. It was a tough time, confusion reigned and moral was low.
The biggest impact to our daily workload came in the form of paperwork. Every part of the project now had to be documented and tracked regardless of size. We would spend 3 weeks documenting a 1 week engagement, ensuring we had every conceivable plan in place, project charter, communications plan, change management plan, staffing plan, risk plan, you name it, we had it.
Our project kickoff process required we review all documentation with the customer prior to commencement. Needless to say, the less project management aware customers were not happy, especially as we were billing them for the time. We quickly went from project MANAGERS to desk bound paper pushers.
As time passed, the process started to rationalize itself. The PMO realized the overhead was drowning the PM's and taking us away from managing the actual projects. We spent more time trying to be compliant, (audits were monthly), and less time with the customer or on site with the implementation teams. Lightweight versions were rolled out, tested on both customers and PMs alike, then implemented. We had the same structure with a little less bureaucracy.
However, while all of this was going on, an amazing transformation was taking place. By implementing this new rigor, CA had really managed to contain the project failure rate and we all started to see significant improvement in project success and customer satisfaction. Despite the arduous process, we were seeing great results. The discipline, process, education, conviction and drive applied to this situation really paid dividends. I was converted.
Part 2 Soon....