Stage 3: Fully Functional.
The main objective for this stage was automation of
all activities. Elapsed time for this stage was four months.
All initial activities needed to be more effective, adding value to project man-
agers and also to an achievement-driven organization. Measurements included
achievements defined and assigned for accountability, automated and imple-
mented assignments, templates created and being used. Major processes must have
automated trend analysis conducted and mentoring in place, and 70 percent to
80 percent of all projects must have a project plan and activity duration derived
from historical data.
Stage 4: Continuous Improvement.
This stage is in process as we write. They es-
timate an elapsed time of eight months.
They employed their standard quality assurance system. They updated soft-
ware tools according to PMO user needs and tuned the success measures. They
planned key areas to improve such as project numbering, tracking of project suc-
cess, decreasing the number of failed projects, and increasing the number of pro-
fessional project managers on staff. They expect 90 percent of all projects to have
a project plan.
Quality Assurance
Project office employees need many skills to perform quality assurance within each
project. A wide range of methodologies, software applications, procedures, tools,
and templates are employed. Because project office employees all work on multi-
ple projects, knowledge and experience with methodologies, software applications,
procedures, tools, and templates builds up faster than it does with project man-
agers on single projects. The reason to make the project office responsible for qual-
ity assurance is that improvements can be implemented and communicated faster
than when the task is left to the individual projects.
The project manager is responsible for the overall project delivery process.
Project office employees are not expected to know the project technical content.
Standardized project planning and frequent project delivery process experiences

FIGURE 7.4. STANDARDIZED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROCESS.
Knowledge sharing
and continuous
improvement
Quality
assurance
Relieve
PM
activities
Project
delivery
process
Plan Do Check Act
• What are stakeholder expectations?
Identify primary high-level project expectations for each stakeholder.
• How does the project or product affect stakeholders?
Analyze how the products and deliverables affect each stakeholder.
Determine what actions the stakeholder could take that would affect the suc-
cess or failure of the project.
Prioritize the stakeholders, based on who could have the most impact on
project success or failure.
Incorporate information from earlier steps into a risk analysis plan to develop
mitigation procedures for stakeholders who might be disposed to harm the
project.
• What information do stakeholders need?
Identify what information needs to be furnished to each stakeholder, when
should it be provided, and how. The answers to the first three questions
should provide a basis for this analysis.
The stakeholder analysis is fundamental to PMO project success. Bucero uses
the type of map illustrated in Figure 7.6 to keep track of all political issues dur-

niques. These sessions helped brainstorm ideas, suggestions, and real needs
from various perspectives, which helped develop a more aligned vision for the
PMO.
• Identifying barriers such as organizational climate, perceptions, customer pres-
sure, too many communication links, and too many projects, and working to
avoid or minimize them by talking with the middle managers.
Implementing the Project Office 181
FIGURE 7.6. A STAKEHOLDER MAP, EACH BUBBLE A KEY PERSON.
High
Power
Low
Low High
Level of Concern
Support and Sponsorship
The stakeholder analysis tool helped get more support from the management
team through business needs identification. The PMO program manager acts as
facilitator, promoting, managing, encouraging, and optimizing relations among
all stakeholders.
Here are a few of the things the program manager did to achieve sponsor
support:
• Explaining and validating the PMO mission and objectives periodically
• Keeping management in the loop (sharing real PMO status, problems, and issues)
• Using a PMO selling presentation
• Showing small deliverables very quickly to convince them with tangible facts
• Showing passion, persistence, and patience (different people, different behav-
iors, different culture)
• Offering all services without charge to any solution area, PM, or consultant
Sponsors’ Role
How did sponsors demonstrate support?
They pushed the rest of the organization to use the PMO services and also