For many PMOs the bewitching hour comes all too quickly – if you haven’t agreed your PMO’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) upfront with your senior stakeholders, how can you demonstrate the value of your PMO? Remember that KPIs need to be scrutinised not only in terms of achievement, but also reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that they are the right KPIs given your organisation’s strategic direction.

Realistic and appropriate KPIs are just as important as setting KPIs in a business as usual environment. Business units/divisions and their respective heads/managers utilise KPIs – so should the PMO.

KPIs are needed to track the progress of the PMO particularly as portfolio, programme and project management matures and adapts to changing environmental conditions.

Your current KPIs need to focus on the agreed remit of your PMO. For example is your PMO:

• Supporting certain initiatives throughout their life cycle? Here PMO KPIs will be closely linked to the programme/project success.
• Providing centre of excellence functions such as training, standards, governance, and health checks?
• Performing portfolio management? Are they advising and aligning your organisation’s programmes and projects in terms of overall strategic direction?

Your PMO may need to address some or all of the above. Specifically, your PMO’s KPIs need to align with initiative success and strategy: ultimately organisational success.

PMO KPIs Engineered for Success

Strategic/Business Contribution	Time to Market: Improved predictability of delivery timescale for new projects
	Return on Investment: Actual versus forecast ROI for initiatives within the PMO’s remit
	Benefit realisation: Actual versus forecast benefit realisation for the portfolio on an annual basis
Projects and Programmes	Success Rates: Increased success rates of programmes/projects
	Support not bureaucracy: Improved access to PMO service offering
	Risk and resource constraints: Improved understanding of risk, dependencies, constraints and subsequent impacts on the business
People and Values	People retention: Improved programme/project staff retention (versus cost of continuously bringing on new staff)
	People focus: Availability/improved career pathways for portfolio, programme and project people
	Customer satisfaction: Stakeholder satisfaction survey improvement (including timeliness and suitability of outcomes to customers and ease of working relationships with PMO resources)

 

KPIs drive behaviour, focusing your PMO on (hopefully) the right things. It is about transparency and understanding. As portfolio, programme and project management matures and organisational strategy changes, a PMO’s KPIs need to be revisited, challenged and adapted.

It is not about quantity; don’t be a slave to collecting data on a long list of KPIs that can distract your PMO from what really matters. It is about quality and focus. The PMO’s KPIs need to directly relate to PMO capability and value-add.

REMEMBER – what matters to your senior management team? What matters to achieving organisational goals?

Will you fly through the bewitching hour, fully focused on the value of your PMO to your organisation?

Need help setting your PMO’s KPIs or want to assess the maturity of your PMO? Speak to our Principal Consultants 1300 70 13 14. Check out our PMO courses too.