Your company has been growing every quarter, far exceeding their annual and five year goals that were set up. On the books and if you ask leadership, things are going along fantastically. Look a little deeper, however, and you find high employee turn over, dissatisfaction, and malcontent among a large swath of the employees - even the ones who are "content" to keep doing what they're doing.
Leadership decides it's time to start a Project Management group, grab a few employees from various departments, give them new titles, and kick off their PMO, tasking these newly branded PM's to develop the department.
A few months in and things aren't going smoothly. There is a constant battle between sales and the project team, between the project team and the teams involved in executing said projects, and every PM has a completely different idea of what it means to "manage" a project.
Outside help is hired - and this only makes matters worse, as the outside people quickly leave or are creating enemies trying to do their job in a place where they have not been empowered - even on paper - to do so.
If any of this sounds familiar in your situation, there is generally an underlying cause - and it is that the policies and procedures that have worked historically are no longer working. PM's aren't in a position to define company-wide policies or hold other departments responsible, and leadership isn't clear on what the day to day for a PM actually looks like. Stories from the employees vary wildly, but there is one thing that is clear: the system is broken.
Frequently, while leadership may recognize the pain, they often are too disconnected from the day to day to really understand the complaints. Without clear and detailed policies and procedures in place, the PM team has nothing to lean on when they start demanding compliance. "We've always done it this way, and it has worked" is a common mantra from established teams who don't want to change - and leadership isn't sure what - or how - those teams SHOULD change.
This is where Velocity Consulting Services can step in. Rather than hiring yet another employee who will quickly get frustrated, leadership can bring us in to bridge that gap between leadership, company goals, the PMO and PM's, and the other departments, putting to paper what is expected and needed from each group.
A thorough and realistic P&P for the PMO gives everyone a leg to stand on when things aren't going smoothly, and provides leadership clear guidelines when they need to step in or when issues rise to their level. It provides all employees an idea of what is expected of them, and what they can expect of others.
Overly generalized policies and procedures never work. They leave too much room for individual interpretation, making the squeaky wheel the only one that gets what it needs.
Help your team help your company. Let VCS create clear and concise guidelines to ensure current - and future - growth can be smoothly handled by all teams involved, and help your PMO succeed, creating ecstatic clients and setting your company apart from your competitors!
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