The PMO Symposium: Conference Review Part 3

Yesterday was a mix of validating old ideas and being surprised by new insights.

Conference breaks always afford the opportunity for some wonderful conversations, hearing what is going on in other organizations, and sometimes having my own experience or ideas validated. Case in point: I had to smile when one topic that surfaced was the need for a Chief Project Officer within organizations. I thought to myself … “ahead of our time, once again,” remembering how this role was outlined in Kent Crawford’s books (The Strategic Project Office, Optimizing Human Capital, and PM Rolesand Responsibilities) many years ago. It’s great to see this idea resurface and gain traction.

Another unexpectedly heartening session: the Fireside Chat hosted by Beth Partleton (PMI Fellow) which included Joanie Newhart (OMB), Laura Furgione (US Census Bureau) and Linda Ott (DOE). What an impressive team of women discussing what each area of the government is doing! Politics aside – with people like this running our projects, our tax dollars are hard at work and will be successful!

Oldie but goodie: Among the number of interesting models used by  Morten Sorensen, VP PMO from Peraton in “How PMOs Drive Value in Effective and Strategy-Aligned PPM”, the time-tested, simple but so-correct definition that Project Portfolio Management is doing the right things … and Project and Program Management means doing things right. He added “and enabling benefits” and I agree: a big piece of doing things right is tracking whether they are delivering on the planned outcomes.

Check out more PMO Symposium conference stories on our PM College blog! So many ideas we couldn’t fit them all on one page. Thanks to all the conference planners, presenters and attendees that made the PMO Symposium, once again, an event to be remembered.