Okay don’t take the title literally. There are much fewer than 99 steps, though it is not simple.

I’ve worked for several small IT managed service providers. Like every company that survives its first few years, there comes a point in time when the organization must mature in order to scale and grow. I’ve taken part in a couple of such efforts, and I can’t help but feel we always nibbled around the edges on the PMO side. Most people with a pulse tend to intuitively know what the areas of improvement are. This is evidenced by all the complaining we hear at work about dysfunctional processes, teams, etc. But there are different approaches to actually driving and managing change.

I recently went through a thought exercise, mostly on the elliptical and in the shower, of how I might approach improving an immature PMO holistically and strategically. Below is a lightly edited braindump of this exercise. I specifically had an IT managed service provider in mind. But much of it is broadly applicable with minor tweaks.

Hopefully someone out there finds this useful as a starting point or for idea generation.

PMO Improvement Program

• Establish RACI for each initiative, 1 person accountable.  Part of performance review.
• Establish governance for program.

Pillar I – Organizational Alignment

Pillar II – Standards, Process & Procedure

Pillar III – Performance Measurement

Pillar IV – Staff Development