Project Office Interchange
January 29, 2008

Focus: This Interchange helped those with project management responsibilities better define and enforce standards that will lead to greater project success in their organization.

How to Achieve “Buy-In” in Your Organization
-Put metrics behind individual names and make some accountability to those people.
-Show executive board how this is affecting the whole company or them personally, not what it does for individual groups.
-Have performance reviews include PM to keep the accountability.
-Helps to Identify risk earlier, have a business side sponsor.
-Take one project and put it through the whole process, and show the success to the executives.
-Be sure that the rewards and consequences are in line with the maturity level of your organization.
-It isn’t just about the BUY IN of the executives but also the commitment.
-When communicating to C-level management talk in simply business terms. Do not get to technical.

Implementing a Methodology

Key Points
-Somebody from your upper management is giving the team some accountability.
-Keep the methodology SIMPLE.
-Pick a methodology that fits your IT dept. and then a methodology for your PM. They both should be tailored to your customers.
-Getting the requirements is the most important thing in implementing a project.
-Have “champions” for your methodology so they can inform the rest of the teams when questions and concerns come up.
-Prioritize the problems that you are having “think tank” sessions work great.
-Standardization-buy in- determines success.
-Gather all the selling points.
-Be sure they are communicated over and over with the same message. Consistency is key and it takes a while for a methodology to mature within an organization.

Culture Issues
-One of the most important issues to deal with and also determines what type of methodology you choose.
-IT does not own business projects. The ownership should be on the business side.
-Encourage the business to bring in BA’s to help you get what you need from IT.
-Keep a log of successes and use it as encouragement.
-Try to link the business and IT by having BA’s from the business and an IT analyst from the IT side.
-Have a high-level integration checklist for both the business and the systems side.
-Always try to state the WHY you are doing something and what it means to them when you are trying to change a person’s mindset.

How to Motivate Your Team
-Tell people their accomplishments, even small ones.
-Allow people to be apart of the decision making process.
-Try to create a positive environment.
-Show your appreciation for the work that they do.
-Keep them informed and show them the value that they give to the company.
-Have consistency throughout the company.

Comments/Benefits:
Other’s Experiences/Validates existing methodology – Options and ideas to apply
Guest Expert/
Consistent Processes/Clear Expectations
Clear Communication/Business leaders understand benefits
Implement Methodology/Discussions - simplify
Best Practices
Governance/Understanding
Involvement/Promote Strategy
Change Management/Resourceful Information
Buy-In