The Project and Program Management Function (PMO) 95
American Management Association
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Actually, we also o er, I’m going to call it like a—the Fire Hose Proj-
ect Management Class for Executives. We call it “Just Enough Proj-
ect Management,” so we o er that, so that we’re hitting all the levels.
From an executive’s perspective, “What are some of the things I need
to be looking for in order to help project managers run projects for my
organizations? What are some of the areas I can assist?” We actually
give them a laminated card with the phases of a project, and it’s all
PMI- compliant. What are the phases? And then what are the questions
they should be asking when they’re in a speci c phase?
Similarly, Cathy described how her organization rolled out training for
project members:
We have a certain group that provides training, that we’ve contracted,
that has actually—you can take how to run projects from a pure state,
and then you can also put the Consumerco pieces into that training.
And that’s what this particular organization was able to do. The head
of the training was able to make that connection with them and to
have it customized so that not only did you get the theory, but you
actually got a lot of the practical sides of the pieces that we require
here at Consumerco.
Personal Experience as Project Manager
Almost half the PMO leaders (40 percent) reported that they either had
learned from past project experiences themselves or had sta members
who drew on their own experiences as former project managers within
the same organization. These personal experiences as project managers
within the organization were perceived to have shaped their thinking
about areas that needed improvement. Harold talked about how he drew
on his previous experience as a project manager within his organization
to develop ideas for improvement, saying, “Part of getting this job was I
took a lot of my experiences as a PM and said, here’s the things we need
to work at from a PM’s perspective.” Debra explained how one member
of her sta had similarly drawn on his experience as a project manager to
document lessons learned in order to improve future projects: