[Music] we're back with the Enterprise agility podcast and today we're wrapping up our series on strategic planning I'm John Lim and today we'll discuss with Annie Jordan and nja Sharif how the project management office or pmo fits into the strategic planning process while you may have heard that the role of pmo is evolving and some even say disappearing it's not really that simple Andy what do you think about comments like that the problem with pmos historically in organizations is that leaders don't know what to do with them they don't know what they want the pmo to do they don't know how it needs to drive value so aligning a pmo or an Enterprise pmo or a strategic pmo or whatever you want to call it office with strategic planning is a very direct way of ensuring that there is value delivery from that function pmos cost money to run whatever you call them so they have to deliver value when it comes to strategic planning they can apply that value in any number of different ways I like to think of the pmo as a consultant to the first part of the early phases of strategic planning they're the experts or at least they should be the experts on what the organization is capable of delivering resource capacity resource capability the ability to run multiple projects in parallel the need to consider organization change they're not organizational change experts but they have an understanding there so that work can be scheduled and cadenced in such a way that it minimizes disruption and that kind of understanding helps Business Leaders to make better decisions I don't want the pmo to be making a decision of investment a versus investment B I do want them to be able to contribute to the process by saying here's what's possible here are some of the options here's a way we can get this done that is less disruptive that's critical then then when we switch into the Strategic execution part when we're actually converting those plans into reality they become more of an execution focused and helping with the communication process helping people understand what's being done and why and then managing the details but we're focusing here on strategic planning so let's focus on that ability to contribute that that idea of being a consultant you can only do that when you've got access to data to information when you understand the capacity of the people when you understand how many projects historically you can do in parallel when you understand what work is coming up and what the dependencies are on there so you can plan for changes in resource needs or resource skill needs and that's something that service now SPM delivers in Spades neure it gives people that visibility it allows pmos to provide that Consulting and that guidance because they have an understanding what's actually happening in the organization and that's again Game Changer right absolutely Andy uh while you're talking about the the role of pmo project management office I was thinking of them as a music conductor in an orchestra oh yeah I love that they are bringing all parts of uh Orchestra together they have and they have to have the tools the data that are that is coming from uh using strategic planning um to make sure that every part of the orchestra at the end they're bringing the most beautiful music uh to everyone to hear it's like bringing value to customers um so they know uh they start planning so they have they know where they want to go they know each part of this planning process where you know how to invest in uh like they get they know what what projects need to be prior Priti so they know where they need to prioritize where they need to put resources and they know how long um this they need to deliver value for so if they are that bridge between strategy and execution they are that conductor that makes sure everyone are aligning um towards the Nord start that we said uh in the previous um podcast where they want all of them they need to be aligned and make sure that they are working towards delivering um value to customers and uh you mentioned uh the fact that they are the coach their consultant uh absolutely um when we talk about uh organizations and the fact that um they are moving from Mostly from projects to product and the fact that we want to have customers at the part and Center of what they're delivering to um pmos are acting as that guide that makes sure everyone is working towards the same goal and they use actually uh strategic planning to do that and it has to be proactive adaptive continuous it's not just one time set it and said and done it need they need to have the tools to be able to start planning and execute and G outcomes and pivot quickly if something happens and be able to communicate across the organization um so they have they need to have that tool and they are sitting at the heart of it um and we actually at service now at the pmo office is called strategic realization office um so it shows how important that group is uh in terms of delivering value to customers absolutely and I mean I think that when you get variances in the work when there's problems in delivery and it's going to happen it's inevitable the teams doing the work are the first to realize that but the pmos are the ones that that's communicated to and can add the context so that when they're briefing leadership they can't just well they not they're able to not just present a problem but present options and potential Solutions and perspective to it that is just missing without that pmo function there and and I love the idea that that organizations are not just changing the name to strategy realization office but actually changing the profile service Nows is positioning the pmo there as that function that realizes the ability to execute on strategy and I mean that truly is how the function should operate and and I think it's something that organizations can learn a lot from service now absolutely thank you Andy all right well I I'm going to go away and persuade NAA to join me again for the next few podcasts but for now that's our three podcasts on strategic planning and I think we've said it all right you need to plan effectively you need to plan in a modern way you need to be able to execute on those plans and you need to be able to be prepared to adjust and adapt remarkably quickly if you think you can do that with spreadsheets well good luck um if you don't then service nowm is there to help [Music]