Turning a PMO into a Powerhouse
Creating new IT visibility and value
Every day, in Central Arizona, more than two million people count on Salt River Project (SRP) to provide the electricity and water they need.
For over 100 years, the utility has navigated changing service demands and infrastructure needs to deliver greater value to its customers. And now, like all utilities, SRP is operating in the midst of unprecedented industry change and economic challenges.
With the need for efficient, effective IT evolution well in mind, SRP asked Point B to help reinvent its fledgling Project Management Office (PMO). The goal: to provide the vision, roadmap, hiring criteria and sense of urgency for the PMO to be faster and more effective in executing the utility’s strategic IT projects.
A practical focus on getting results
“The first thing Point B brought to the table was its expertise in how to run a PMO,” said Kevin Nielsen, manager of Information Technology Services (ITS) at SRP. “We were relatively new at it. They brought the experience that we lacked as well as the wisdom and leadership in how to get it done.”
Point B began by getting to know and understand the culture at SRP and making practical suggestions about the PMO’s vision and responsibilities. We worked closely with Kevin Nielsen and Pat Temple, SRP’s PMO manager, to redefine expectations, streamline processes and align responsibilities with authority—all with the goal of realizing IT project benefits much more rapidly.
Modeling a new caliber of PMO leadership
Point B recommended that SRP’s new PMO vision elevate the role of project manager to require stronger leadership skills. While we assisted SRP in the selection process of their new project managers, SRP asked us to temporarily backfill several of those positions to keep projects going and to demonstrate what SRP’s new caliber of project management could look like.
“At first, we just weren’t ready to take charge and go forward,” Kevin Nielsen said. ”Point B brought in the people to make sure we stayed on track and kept moving forward.”
Creating value and visibility through small, swift victories
To overcome any initial skepticism about a "new, improved" PMO, we prioritized a number of small but quick and visible wins. The mission: to make sure that the PMO earns its place at the table every day by getting results.
“Point B learned quickly what we were like, and what would and wouldn’t work for us,” Nielsen said. “They brought us new ideas and ways of thinking about things. They were great at simplifying—making things easy and actionable. They didn’t get caught up in the complexity or bureaucracy.”
Seeing is believing—and buying in
Before long, the reenergized PMO had garnered enough successes that stakeholders began to take notice. As IT managers saw stronger leadership capabilities in the revitalized PMO, they were comfortable delegating IT projects that they would once have held onto. The result was a rapid cultural shift at SRP, with a leap in productivity and energy.
Leading to new IT value
Within its first four months, the revitalized PMO dramatically increased its value, visibility and relevance in the eyes of its internal customers and utility executives.
“The new individuals we’ve brought in under the new PMO structure are already making a huge difference for us as an organization,” Nielsen said.
Just one example: “The new project managers we’ve hired have taken over a major project in our Distribution/Transmission unit and brought it under control and under budget,” Nielsen said. “We’d never have been able to do it with our old PMO structure and project managers.
“Point B also helped us build what we affectionately call ‘PM Lite.’ When a project doesn’t meet the criteria to warrant a project manager from the PMO, the technical lead or the lead from the business unit still has a simple, clear structure in place to follow. This is getting rave reviews. It’s made life much easier and allows us to leverage our resources even further.”
The bottom line? IT and business managers who once bypassed the PMO are now calling and asking for resources. And in an era of cost cutting, SRP’s PMO is delivering such high value that it recently warranted an additional hire.
See Point B's Point of View on Simplicity