Tough times may have led to a lot of staffing shakeups, plus put a damper on the size and scope of the projects teams are managing. If your PMO’s post-recession image needs some polishing, we’ve put together a roadmap to take you into a brighter future.

Reintroduce your team. There’s a good chance at least one of your stakeholder segments doesn’t know who’s who anymore. Take this opportunity to tout each team member’s strengths and skills, and consider scheduling an afternoon meet-and-greet if it fits your organization’s culture. Building stakeholder support is often easier when they know your team as more than just photos on an intranet page.

Advertise recent successes. Projects might have been cut or postponed in the last few years, but you still have a lot of positive news to share. Pull out a few success stories and toot your own horn. Stakeholders are more willing to support new initiatives when they see your PMO was successful even during the darkest days. Team members will also be buoyed by recalling those challenging objectives they reached.

Outline the road ahead. Even if your PMO’s schedule isn’t as full as it used to be, it’s important for your team and its stakeholders to be looking forward. Be sure to send regular “what’s on the horizon” news blurbs, and send a quick update when new projects are added.

Clean up your lists. Make a break with what may have been a depressing past and update your distribution and communication lists. Delete anyone who’s no longer on the team and add new members. Update contact information for supporters, end users, and vendors as well. Remember to give some attention to your less formal communication channels, too—bulletin boards, department calendars and emergency contact lists should all be brought up to date.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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While your mind is on your own individual goals for the new year, why not also take the opportunity to look at where your PMO is and where you want to take it in the coming months? If you’re stuck for ideas, we’ve put together some resolutions you can use as a launch pad.

Improve communication. Even PMOs that are really good at communicating should make improvement a yearly goal. http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/02/be-a-better-communicator/ Talking with end users, providing stakeholders with progress reports, and maintaining good lines of communication within your team are all critical to project success.

Boost career development efforts. Now is not the time to let your project professionals grow stagnant—if you don’t give them a path toward greater opportunities, there’s a good chance your competitors will. Encourage team members to set goals that keep them motivated http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/10/setting-individual-goals-9-tips-for-success-2/ and facilitate mentoring relationships whenever possible http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/06/find-the-right-business-mentor/.

Increase ongoing education. As project workloads ramp up, training is one of the first things moved to the back burner http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/10/training-mistakes-most-pmos-make/. Instead, resolve this year to keep your team’s education on the priority list. Schedule classes early and be sure everyone on the team has the opportunity to learn something new.

Develop a more robust network. Reach out to fellow professionals before you need help.http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/02/be-a-better-communicator/ Your team will have better access to resources—including consultants, market research specialists, equipment suppliers, and potential new employees—and will also be more in tune with regional and industry trends.

Market your PMO. In many organizations, it’s no longer enough to be good project managers. Your ability to engage stakeholders and end users http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/09/more-tips-for-good-project-management-pr/ is increasingly important, and could influence everything from budget approval to staffing levels.

Commit to creativity. Your team’s ability to develop innovative solutions can help manage any problem http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/12/project-management-creative-problem-solving/. Implement some creativity-building activities and watch your team triumph over challenges.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Millennials may bring innovations and new thinking to your PMO (http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/10/managing-millennials/), but don’t underestimate the value of the Boomer-age professionals on your team. We’ve put together some tips to ensure your entire PMO benefits from the vast knowledge held by your most experienced professionals.

Identify your experts. First, determine which team members have the most critical—or difficult to attain—experience. Any information that generally takes years to gather and assimilate should be your first priority. Once you know where key pieces of knowledge reside within your PMO, you can put together a strategy to share that expertise with other members.

Be flexible. If you anticipate losing one or more team members to retirement in the near future, it’s time to determine if your PMO will have a knowledge gap as a result. Unless you’re able to substitute the expertise of another professional or utilize outside resources, you might consider retaining access to Boomers’ experience through consulting agreements or a part-time work arrangement.

Take advantage of mentoring opportunities. Don’t let the wealth of knowledge held by your PMO’s Boomers get away. Instead, pair up your less experienced team members with a senior-level professional and encourage them to share information. For best results, consider working with HR to develop a formal, structured mentoring program.

Schedule regular lunch-and-learns. Once every month or so, pull your team together for an informal knowledge-sharing session. No agendas are needed—instead, pick a topic and let one of your internal experts put together a handful of talking points. Rotate experts frequently, and facilitate as much Q & A time as you can.

Expand your networks. New PMs are still building their infrastructure of professional connections and may benefit from introductions to key people in your Boomers’ networks. Encourage joint attendance at professional events and networking functions.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Think your PMO could do a better job when offering ongoing education? You’re not alone—take a look at these common training mistakes that too many PMOs make.

Limiting participation to only senior or only junior staff. Some organizations don’t value their lower-level employees enough to invest in their training, while others feel that money spent on continuing education for their senior staff is a waste. Both opinions are wrong, of course. Implementing a thoughtful, comprehensive training plan will benefit workers of every experience level.

Sending everyone to training at year end. Your team is too busy to put time into ongoing education, but no one wants to lose the dollars they’ve been allotted. The result is that employees are left scrambling at the end of the year to fit in their expected training sessions. Unfortunately, it’s usually difficult to find appropriate training opportunities with such little time and planning, resulting in money being spent inefficiently. Try putting together a roadmap at the beginning of the year to maximize productivity and provide employees with training tailored to their job.

“Borrowing” from the training budget for other activities. Too often the PMO’s training budget becomes an emergency fund for other things (unexpected technology upgrades, poorly managed scope creep on a high-visibility project, etc.) and continuing education is left by the wayside. Avoid this scenario by viewing the training budget as sacrosanct—approved funds should be used for educational opportunities and nothing else.

Saving money by using internal experts as instructors. Your PMO undoubtedly has a deep pool of expertise, but you’re limiting your team’s exposure to influential thought leaders and innovative thinking if you don’t encourage them to broaden their horizons through training. Don’t eliminate internal mentoring and teaching completely, but be sure to incorporate outside expertise and new perspectives regularly.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Social engineering is more commonly associated with cyber security attacks, but it can also be used to manipulate your project team. And in some ways, PMOs may be more vulnerable to this kind of exploitation, largely because of the need to be in near-constant contact with end users, stakeholders, business partners, and other supporters. While you may have already talked with your team about managing confidential information (http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/11/5-tips-for-managing-confidential-information/), it’s important to remember that a number of less-obvious opportunities exist for external folks to pry sensitive information out of your team members. Below are a just a few examples of how social engineering can put your PMO in jeopardy.

You bump into a former coworker at a networking event and enjoy some garden-variety gossip about how things are going, including an upcoming project you’re excited about that’s sure to position your company for more sales next year. Uh oh, looks like you should have asked your friend about their new position first—they just told you they now work for a competitor that’s desperate to gain market share in your industry.

A vendor might be willing to give you a break on some new equipment if you can tell them where they need to be on price to make the sale. Think carefully before you divulge your budget numbers—you’re in danger of losing your ability to negotiate, plus you may find the “discount” price exactly matches the funds you have available.

Potential collaborators will naturally have a lot of questions for you, but hold off on revealing anything sensitive until non-disclosure agreements are signed. Even the most honorable associates could leave the bargaining table with highly damaging information if negotiations fall through—you don’t want to think about what could happen if the meeting was a ruse perpetrated by someone shady.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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It may seem as though there’s very little “collaboration” with an executive team—they say, you do. But in reality, your PMO and the executives have a two-way relationship. At any given time, the executive team might be your stakeholder, your project’s biggest supporter, the last stop for funding approval, and sometimes even your end user. Developing a good partnership between your PMO and the executives will help achieve objectives on both sides.

Why you need them: The executive team will have varying levels of influence depending on the company and the project. They may give final approval on project scopes and budgets, determine which group of stakeholders a project will serve, and even assign project teams or leaders. They might also be in a position to gain community support or legislative approval when it’s needed for your project to move forward.

DO keep the executives informed when managing a project that directly involves them. Find out if they want to receive communications directly or if an admin or other delegate will track your progress.

DO contact your executive team early if you anticipate needing approval or funding support on a project. Their schedules often book far in advance, and rushing through the process is unlikely to give you the result you want.

DO ask the executives for an updated strategic roadmap when developing your PMO’s annual budget and project workload. You want to be sure your efforts are in line with the company’s plans.

DON’T assume the executive team is interested in the minutiae of every project you’re managing. Unless they’ve asked for more detail, provide them with quick, high-level overviews.

DON’T use the executives as a last-ditch appeal board every time the normal project approval process gives you pushback. You’ll quickly wear out your welcome with this tactic.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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A range of software exists to make project management smoother and more efficient. But while general-use applications are readily available in most organizations (word processing, spreadsheets, and the like), gaining approval for PM-specific software can be a challenge. We’ve put together some suggestions to help you move software requests through the approval process successfully.

Build a business case. Too often, software is viewed as a must-have by PMOs but a nice-to-have by those in charge of approving the budget. It’s up to you to treat it as a resource and craft a solid business case for it. Provide thorough descriptions of the software and any hardware requirements it may have—the software’s value may be obvious to you, but a non-PM might need supporting documentation to make an informed decision.

Highlight error reduction. If the software will help eliminate errors or reduce the time to reconcile earlier errors, be sure to make a point of it. Errors can be costly in a number of ways—compromised worker safety, unnecessary expenditures, extended timelines, wasted or duplicated efforts, even missed business opportunities and reduced competitive advantages—and you should consider all them of when drafting your business case.

Show the return on your investment. Remember that ROI doesn’t have to be in dollars (though that’s the most common and easily understood method). Cost savings, headcount reduction/stabilization, reduced time to market—whatever the particular benefits your proposed software package will provide, put them into terms your senior staff can easily understand and relate to.

Coordinate with IT. In many organizations, the IT group must evaluate and approve software before it goes to the executives for a final OK. It’s best to involve IT early in the process, so they can address potential support, security, or infrastructure issues before they become impediments to approval.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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We’ve already talked about a few flavors of nightmare end users (http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/07/nightmare-end-users/ ) and now it’s time to look at some ways you can manage their behavior to keep your project moving forward.

1 – Publish the project’s objectives and timeline once everything is approved. End users may still invent new or revised objectives occasionally, but you’ll have a formal document to reference when they do.

2 – Identify a point person in each user group. Narrowing down the communication pathway to just one person per end user group often helps limit requests or complaints. Why? Because users who are chronically displeased are less inclined to voice concerns to the point person when they know that individual is only a messenger.

3 – Create a mechanism for questions and concerns. Pre-printed or online forms may be a good solution—they allow users to move concerns up the food chain without giving them a free-form platform for griping.

4 – Appoint a high-ranking complaint-taker. People are often reticent to complain to someone they feel is too high up in the organization to tolerate garden-variety grumbling. Legitimate concerns will still bubble to the surface.

5 – Notify vendors of potential usurpers. Especially in companies with informal cultures, end users may seize the opportunity to make requests directly to contractors. It’s critical that vendors and other business partners take direction from—and provide project information to—only authorized individuals.

6 – Contact the boss if users’ actions endanger your project’s success. If you’ve tried every other tactic and still have one or more end users whose interference is making the project impossible to manage, it really is OK to raise concerns with their boss or your senior staff. Use this as a last resort, but don’t let your success become a hostage to someone else.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Projects and their budgets are inextricably linked, and PMOs rely on Accounting to move money in, out, and around as project lifecycles progress. No matter if your project is large or small, if you’re outsourcing or doing the work in-house, or if your timeline is a few weeks or several years—you need Accounting to help you track and manage funds that have been approved, code expenses, implement charge backs, and investigate discrepancies that crop up along the way.

Why you need them: Your Accounting team is responsible for managing operating and capital expenses, and often handles things like cross-charging and linking expenses to their related contracts. They’re the foundation that ensures vendors are paid and money is available when it should be. PMOs might also rely on Accounting for help in submitting budgets and working with providers to reconcile billing or other errors.

DO use Accounting’s codes when processing invoices and purchase orders. It’s better to follow the right convention early than have to spend time finding and fixing errors later.

DO work with Accounting when developing budgets. They’re often responsible for setting up new capital accounts and expense line items, and will be able to offer input on formatting your budget submission correctly.

DO contact Accounting as soon as a discrepancy appears. They can help you investigate errors and issue revised budget or account statements if necessary.

DON’T expect Accounting to do your administrative work. Provide accurate account codes when processing invoices and ensure any documentation is signed by an authorized person.

DON’T leave paperwork until the last minute. Accounting often has time cutoffs for issuing checks or setting up new vendor accounts, and may also have strict reporting deadlines for financial compliance. Find out what your team can do to provide the information they need on time.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Difficult stakeholders (http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/06/learn-to-spot-these-4-nightmare-stakeholders/) can be problematic, but don’t underestimate the havoc that might ensue when a nightmare end user descends on your PMO. See if you can spot any of these angst-causing personalities from past (or present) projects. And if you’ve run into a nightmare end user, stay tuned—we’ll have an article later this month on how to handle them.

The target is always moving. Mid-project check-ins invariably reveal that the initial plan your team is using has morphed in this end user’s mind into something different. Either business needs have changed since kick-off (but no one told you), the end user forgot to tell you about a crucial need (just like they “forgot” to tell you last time, too), or your project team didn’t understand the original need. The excuse doesn’t matter, though—this type of end user is why the term “scope creep” was invented.

They’re there to “help.” Some end users are actually closet project management experts, or at least they think they are. They may try to act as a mouthpiece for the rest of the users, gathering information and blocking your efforts to canvass the group individually, or they might go so far as to waylay contractors in the hall to inquire about progress or make suggestions for changes. If you suspect an unauthorized “helper” is in your midst, be sure to put your team and vendors on alert—change orders or directives that don’t come through approved channels shouldn’t be blindly implemented.

Nothing is right. You know them. They’re the ones who lament that no project has ever been (or will ever be) successful. Objectives are never fully met, timelines are haphazard, and planning is a joke. Their negativity is annoying at best—at worst, their attitude can poison other end users and may even keep them from sharing key information, such as in-depth needs and concerns, because they don’t think full disclosure will do any good.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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