Objective—Direct every operation toward a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective [1].
Objectives Define Purpose
Have you found the need for a PMO, or the value of your existing PMO is always in question? Fuzzy objectives could be the reason.
What is an objective? It is something toward which you direct work, a strategic position you want to attain, a purpose you must achieve, a result you must have, a product you need to produce, or a service you must perform [2]. It should add value to the project, program, and company while aligning with its goals [3]. Your PMO and the programs and projects within need clear objectives to help you and others understand its purpose.
So, what is the purpose of every PMO, simply stated? The PMO provides a framework supporting all stakeholders and project teams to help with project selection, provide governance, and improve the odds of consistent project success. If it does not do this, who needs it [3]? The objectives clarify how and what it will do to accomplish its primary directive.
Executives set the company’s strategic direction [3]. Their strategy provides the purpose, expectations, and goals to guide business pursuits. Interpreting and translating their direction into project implementation requires an astute PMO. The PMO translates the strategy into project business cases in portfolios and programs. It will identify key stakeholders, sponsors, project managers, and team resources. Executing on the business case and then managing against the strategy to deliver business value is at the core of a PMO. But how does it ensure clarity and consistency?
There are Tools for Defining Primary Objectives—The Mission Statement and the Vision Statement
In previous blog posts, we have covered much ground about establishing PMO and project management principles. Defining the PMO mission and vision to ensure that the PMO aligns with practical goals is the Objective principle in action.
The Mission Statement
The U.S. Army uses mission statements. They convey the intent of objectives and align them with its corporate mission statement and the U.S. government’s mission statement for its armed forces. Following their model, the PMO mission statement is an essential tool for conveying the intent of its objectives.
Why does the company need a PMO? Where will it bring value [4]? The mission statement answers these questions. It denotes added values that support and align with the company’s and sponsor’s mission and goals. Make it concise and decisive, articulating a realistic goal. For example:
The PMO executes business strategies for maximum returns on investment by directing project portfolio management. It will select the right projects, people, and timing to deliver the best value. It will provide transparency into project budgets, timelines, and ROI, for increased efficiency of 50% in communications and decision-making in the execution of projects within the portfolio [4].
The Vision Statement
Does your PMO have a vision, a short aspirational description of what your organization would like to achieve by forming a PMO? The vision statement is usually a single paragraph or handful of bullet points of carefully crafted words conveying what the service and culture of the PMO will look like over time [3].
Creating a well-thought-out vision statement can prevent the organization from driving forward with a PMO that is not a good fit. It is a sketch of the type of PMO that best supports and aligns with the company’s strategy. This sketch enables stakeholders to see how the PMO will align with their interests, too, which elevates everyone’s awareness of the benefits of having the PMO [3].
What is an example of a PMO vision statement?
The PMO provides a mature set of professional PMO services across the enterprise to implement, with improved success, projects that align with the company’s vision in partnership with project teams, stakeholders, and sponsors.
More Specific Objectives
Clearly defined objectives follow the principle of the commander’s intent. The Mission Statement and Vision Statements are an overview of the end goal of the PMO. And just as the PMO must define its objective via a mission statement, so must every project. Each project has its own, allowing the team to know and understand the intention of a successful project, irrespective of how they achieve those outcomes. In every project phase, the entire team should remember the goal.
If your PMO manages the Project Portfolio, then using an objective or intent statement is as much in play during project portfolio management (PPM). PPM aims to align projects or project ideas (proposals) against company strategic objectives. Achieving the portfolio’s intent is more complicated if the project’s goal stated in the proposal submission is vague since the intent should help PPM managers align and score projects against the company’s strategic goals.
Each PMO should set other objectives that will help facilitate the PMO’s mission and vision. Though some objectives should be common to all PMOs, others are custom to the strengths and weaknesses of each PMO, organization, and project team.
Perhaps your PMO chooses consistency as one objective. Then it would implement a framework to ensure that each project team populates reports, documents, and plans using common standards, which PMO-designed templates provide [3].
The PMO might strive to be practical, only doing something if it makes sense and adds value. It should challenge organization standards that make little sense or proposed projects that add insufficient value to the organization to warrant taking resources away from projects that do [3].
The above two cases are specific strategic objectives for carrying out other war principles, such as Surprise, Simplicity, and Economy of Force. They verify that the objective principle sets the course for the other eight, which set the course for the different subsets of principles. You will want to follow this blog series to learn more about the remaining eight war principles. The next post will cover the Offensive principle.
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References
[1] W. Butler, "Hist 1416 American Military History Butler, W. > Nine Principles of War," 16 February 2022. [Online]. Available: https://bartonline.instructure.com/courses/2269/pages/nine-principles-of-war.
[2] Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 6th ed., Newton Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, pp. 105, 106, 591
[3] PM Majik, The PMO Manual, online: www.pmmajik.com., 2015.
[4] L. V. Satinder Baweja, "Session#416, Baweja, Satinder-Designing a Project Management Office That Works: The Next Generation PMO, in PMI EMEA Congress 2019, Dublin, 2019.
[5] F. K. & S. Marks, "LEADERSHIP AND THE PRINCIPLES OF WAR APPLIED TO BUSINESS: TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN, 1, 1, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.thayerleadership.com/blog/2017/leadership-and-the-principles-of-war-applied-to-business.
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