“Every second project fails”, “Ninety percent of all major projects do not run as planned”, “Resource conflicts arise in 75% of all projects”: A brief Google search comes up with these and other nega­tive reports. The reasons frequently mentioned in rela­tion to these are poor commu­ni­ca­tion, inad­e­quate prepa­ra­tion and plan­ning, as well as overop­ti­mistic assump­tions.

This does not have to be! We want to do things better at Uhlmann and have set up a Project Manage­ment Office (PMO) for change projects for this reason.

Mr. Angele, let us start from the begin­ning. Since when does the PMO at Uhlmann exist and what trig­gered its estab­lish­ment?

The PMO was set up at Uhlmann about two years ago. There were various driving forces behind the estab­lish­ment of a PMO. First and fore­most, busi­ness deci­sions ought to be made on the basis of substan­ti­ated and updated data. To enable this, it is impor­tant, for instance, to recog­nize depen­den­cies between projects, apply uniform project manage­ment stan­dards, and link the finan­cial details of a project to annual plan­ning.

The progres­sive growth of our company group in partic­ular, as well as the dynamic devel­op­ment of markets and busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties make it neces­sary to have a central office that keeps an eye on the big picture. It enables us to opti­mally support the orga­ni­za­tion at all levels.

A PMO can deter­mine the success of the project land­scape.

Stefan Angele

How is the Uhlmann PMO orga­nized struc­turally?

The PMO is embedded in the Central Func­tion UBE (Strategic Projects and Busi­ness Excel­lence). I head the office and there are four employees who are attached to the PMO in a variety of roles, e.g. as key accounts. They are the direct contacts for the ordering parties and project managers in the different busi­ness units and divi­sions. The PMO is closely inter­meshed with the Lean Manage­ment Office (LMO) and Consulting, the other two pillars of the unit UBE.

Can you explain a bit more to give us a better idea of the work of the PMO?

Gladly. Put simply, PMO lays the foun­da­tion for the profes­sional handling of indi­vidual and multiple project manage­ment. We stan­dardize methods and processes, coach and advise employees, and increase trans­parency throughout the entire project port­folio. We put the projects into an overall context and rank them in a port­folio. This also helps to visu­alize resource conflicts, for example. The PMO is a central spar­ring partner for project manage­ment at Uhlmann.

Which bene­fits does PMO bring the company?

Imagine a project land­scape without PMO. We would see indi­vidual project approvals, different methods and templates, and varying reporting systems. In the end, no-one would know what is other­wise going on. We would be unable to recog­nize depen­den­cies, inca­pable of setting prior­i­ties, and also have major prob­lems with budgeting. The PMO helps to handle projects even more profes­sion­ally.

It is essen­tial that we build up and pass on central­ized know-how, and ensure that all project partic­i­pants speak the same language. It is about the posi­tive feeling of having projects under control at all times.

In the past, we were often chal­lenged to recog­nize connec­tions between projects and ensure uniform quality stan­dards in project manage­ment. As the central hub between the Exec­u­tive Board and all project partic­i­pants, the PMO plays a key role for the orga­ni­za­tion. It helps us to make qual­i­fied deci­sions on the basis of compre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion.

Michael Mrachacz, CSO

Which type of projects play a role for you in the PMO?

We look at so-called change projects. All orga­ni­za­tional and all Lean Six Sigma projects are meant here. In the case of orga­ni­za­tional projects, the project work usually chiefly focuses on creating some­thing new, such as estab­lishing new orga­ni­za­tional struc­tures or intro­ducing new, over­ar­ching tools. On the other hand, as far as Lean Six Sigma is concerned, we look at existing processes and try to imple­ment contin­uous improve­ment.

Devel­op­ment and customer projects are not currently part of our spec­trum because of the widely varying char­ac­ter­is­tics, but we have also been able to help define processes and stan­dards.

You mentioned the Lean Manage­ment Office (LMO). What are the differ­ences between the PMO and the LMO?

Both teams are special­ists in project manage­ment, support the orga­ni­za­tion, and train and coach. That is defi­nitely what we have in common. Our activ­i­ties are closely coor­di­nated, not least through the orga­ni­za­tional anchoring of PMO and LMO in UBE. The differ­ences are to be found in closer details. Our Project­Plus process applies equally to orga­ni­za­tional and Lean Six Sigma projects. When it comes to content, however, the differ­ences become visible in the real­iza­tion phase of projects, e.g., regarding the use of tools and templates. PMO looks more at orga­ni­za­tional projects, while our LMO special­ists attend to all Lean Six Sigma projects.

In our eyes, it is partic­u­larly impor­tant that the contracting party and the project manager reach a common under­standing at the start of a project.

Stefan Angele

Let me take up one point here. What is Project­Plus? Please tell us a bit more about that.

Of course. Project­Plus is our internal brand name for the project manage­ment process at Uhlmann. Its appli­ca­tion is binding for all change projects. Various spec­i­fi­ca­tions have been deter­mined in the process phases setup, plan­ning, real­iza­tion, and handover, in order to be able to handle projects even more effi­ciently and according to common stan­dards. The focus is clearly on the first two project phases.

In our eyes, it is partic­u­larly impor­tant that the contracting party and the project manager reach a common under­standing at the start of a project. This mini­mizes the risk of having to take coun­ter­mea­sures in subse­quent phases. Our process, with its tools and templates, ensures trans­parency and commit­ment, and helps all project partic­i­pants to adopt a struc­tured approach.

That sounds like a lot of effort. Surely than means extra work for the project?

Admit­tedly, it may appear so at first glance. However, I wish to stress a partic­u­larly impor­tant aspect at this point. The PMO, the forms to start a project, and the approval process are not ends in them­selves. All our activ­i­ties pursue the clear objec­tive of supporting the orga­ni­za­tion the best possible way. This covers all project partic­i­pants and all manage­ment levels. By making a bit of extra effort at the begin­ning, we want to reduce any idling or unplanned expense in the subse­quent project phases. Imagine two captains in their ships, plan­ning to reach a harbor.

The first captain is highly moti­vated, wants to get home quickly, and imme­di­ately heads off in one direc­tion. The second captain waits a moment, checks his maps, and confers with his first officer. Only then does he set off. Which ship presum­ably reaches the harbor first?

Where can our employees find more infor­ma­tion on the PMO?

We have created new conflu­ence webpages for UBE. Inter­ested colleagues will find plenty of infor­ma­tion related to the PMO, our process, the tools, and upcoming training. Our instruc­tions for use are filed in PDF format on the first page. These cover key infor­ma­tion and check­lists for orga­ni­za­tional and Lean Six Sigma projects in a compact form. Also to be found on our webpages are all rele­vant contacts. Should anyone have ques­tions or feed­back, I encourage colleagues to contact me or my team directly at any time.

 

 

For more infor­ma­tion, visit our conflu­ence site.

 

What future plans do you have for the PMO?

We are very pleased with what we have achieved so far, but what is neither wanted nor permitted is stag­na­tion. My LMO colleagues will agree with me: There are always leverage points for improve­ment. Impor­tant aspects in this busi­ness year are, for example, that we further improve our process together with our internal clients, anchor port­folio manage­ment more deeply in the orga­ni­za­tion, and extend our training program. Prob­ably our biggest project is the company-wide intro­duc­tion of new soft­ware for single and multiple project manage­ment. We are checking various options, also in conjunc­tion with our project leaders. As you see, we have plenty of plans and our work remains exciting.

Mr. Angele, many thanks for this infor­ma­tive inter­view. We wish you and your colleagues continued success with the PMO.