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In larger organizations, you can find the Project Management Office (PMO). This department is very often seen as simply an administrative unit performing only the function of assistance or control. When there is a need to reduce operational costs, it is not uncommon for the Project Management Office to be one of those to which the eyes turn to. So how to make it so that the PMO performs not only the functions described according to the world wide methodology, but also creates value? Lets start from the basics: What is the Project management office? The PMO is a department consist of specialists with project management and project management processes, tools and governance applied in the organization knowledge. Often these people are part of the project team and work with project managers to ensure that the project complies with the project management process and the requirements for them. How could PMO create a value to organization? If you would ask the project managers the question, the answer would be very simple "if the employees of the Project Management Office, performed certain project work." Yes, sometimes in certain organizations, the PMO plays a certain role as an assistant for project manager, as it helps to cope with a wide variety of project tasks. In some organizations, the Project Management Office is divided into several parts: employees who maintain the project portfolio and employees who work on projects and are called project coordinators. How does the PMO create value for the organization? According to the last example given, there are two ways of how PMO can create value to the organization: project portfolio management: maintenance of the roadmap and linking it to of the entire strategic goals of the organization. I.e. the PMO creates the most value when it ensures that people of the organization work on projects that create direct benefits to achieve the strategic goals of the organization and are able to represent them to the leadership of the organization direct work in the project team, controlling the project budget, helping the project manager to prepare for project steering group meetings, etc. The least value from the Project Management Office is visible if this unit only plays the role of process owner of the project management, but does not deep dive into what is happening in the projects and whether the projects create the value planned in the business plan.

Many of us have heard the organization's strategy, the organization's vision, the strategic goals of the organization, the development and implementation of the organization's strategy, the strategic direction of the organization, the short-term and long-term strategy of the organization, and so on. However, do we know what strategy management is about and what benefits the organization benefits from it? Strategy management - what is it? Strategic management is in a certain sense a process during which there is: a) definition of the company's strategy or, in other words, the strategic goals of the organization, i.e. what the organization wants to become in a certain period of time, and how the agreed goals will be pursued – an implementation plan is prepared, b) the plan is implemented and c) monitoring and control is carried out on how well the agreed strategic goals are achieved. What is the benefit of strategy management for the organization? The benefits of strategic management can be found in a variety of ways if strategic management is a well-implemented practice in an organization. Here are some of them: if the strategic goals of the organization are specific and clear, this allows people in the organization to understand where the direction is being made in a certain period of time. It is important that the strategic goals of the organization do not sound like slogans. Slogans are motivated for people, strategic goals are for determining the desired results provides an opportunity for the entire organization to focus on what is important, that is, to perform those actions that are necessary to achieve the goals of the organization and to be able to say no to those actions that do not create any value for the achievement of strategic goals correct implementation of strategic management and clearly communicated strategic goals of the organization help people to maintain motivation in working and achieving the agreed strategic goals. If the direction of the organization is not clear, then most often people feel lost, because they do not understand what they have to do one or another job for from the side of the practice of strategic management, monitoring and control are an important part: the correct implementation of this part of the process provides an opportunity to measure in a certain period of time whether and how quickly the achievement of the organization's goals is approaching, and if the results are not as expected, we can take steps to adjust the course of action

Project management pays attention to what are the steps, which must be taken when making changes. In project management, there is talk of managing the benefits received, but most often it is treated as a process that takes place after the end of the project. Therefore there is one simple question do all projects create benefits in the organization? What are possible benefits that can be gained from the project? Every project is executed because of some sort of reason. These are possible reasons of why project can be initiated: due to state requirements, failure to comply with them, possible fines or suspension of activities due to the growth of the customer base, i.e. a solution with a competitive advantage is being introduced, which will encourage customers to choose this organization due to the effectiveness - the organization wants to automate the existing processes and thereby save on human manual labor due to enablement of other features: not necessarily, the project means that it will produce some new product or service, this may mean that the project will enable the organization to implement new products due to possibility to have competitive advantage in the employee market: perhaps the project will implement something that is very attractive to employees and this can be an advantage for the organization when trying to attract new talent Do all projects create benefits for the organization? Yes, all projects create benefits. Look at the list in the first paragraph: all the listed points name cases when, if the project is not implemented, the organization may lose something: from the possibility of being an attractive employer to the possibility of losing the right to conduct activities if the necessary changes are not introduced. It is important to mention that the benefits of a project can be varied: qualitative and quantitative, but in almost all cases it is possible to count the quantitative benefits of a project, although this is sometimes not easy - for this reason, we can hear a lot of justifications why the project does not have the estimated benefits.

Some people, when they hear the words project management, immediately start to squeal and think that this is an additional bureaucracy that leads to the creation of document templates, creates many decision-making forums. All this, in their opinion, takes a long time and does not create much value, because project managers need to focus on achieving the results of the project, and not waste time on paperwork. Maybe yes, sometimes project management can be a difficult process, but what benefits can be expected from this practice? Let's start with what project management is anyway? Project management is a practice that we actually apply in many areas of life and events, but we don't always think about it. Project management is about how to implement certain changes using methods and steps. What exactly is a project? In a general sense, the project is something unique, not repetitive. This is an action that has a beginning and an end, at the end of which a new product, service or result is obtained. This is a generic definition of a project. In many organizations it is possible to find additional criteria that slightly more concretize what for them and what size changes are called projects. Having discussed the basics, let's talk about what benefits we could get from project management in the organization? For each person and organization, the benefits can be very different, it all depends on what goals they pursue. The following are the main benefits of project management: structured implementation of change: project management allows people not to miss the steps that we sometimes forget due to the noise around us, but which are of great importance for the successful implementation of the change transparency: project management practices provide an opportunity to understand what projects are taking place in the organization and how they are doing organization risk management: each change in itself has various threats and benefits that can influence the organization in various ways. Project management practice, ensures that the project team assesses and works with the threats arising from the project knowledge management: documentation is very important in project management (it is important that it is not too much of it) - it ensures that the most important decisions and changes are described, in case people in the organization change, knowledge remains

Stakeholders play a very important role in project management. Who are the stakeholders? How should I work with them? How can stakeholders influence your project? These and more questions are coming to my mind, when i am thinking about stakeholder management. What is stakeholder? Project management is associated with relationship management. Why? Because a lot of project issues depend on how the project manager works with stakeholders. Who are the stakeholders? Stakeholders in a project are a group of people who are interested in the success or failure of a project. These are not just people who can make decisions, but also those who can form an opinion on whether the project is needed for the organization or not. How to decide who are your stakeholders? When you want to understand who this group of people is, with whom you should work and communicate in order for the project to be successful, it is important to understand: what the project is about - what kind of change it wants to implement what are the benefits that project will bring and who will gain them who will be impacted: maybe project will implement new processes which people will have to adapt to or maybe it will affect the size of the organization, ect. who is interested so that project would happen - not necessarily it is benefit gainers does the project contribute to the achievement of strategic goals, or is it the implementation of the goals of one department will the project have an impact and be visible outside the organization's walls, say the results of the project will be felt by the company's customers How to work with stakeholders? This is an extremely difficult question. There is no single direct answer. There are a number of methodologies that are recommended in order to sort stakeholders by their influence, power on the project. However, it all depends on what kind of relationship you have with different groups of stakeholders. How you feel about them and how you can determine for what reasons these people want or don't want to support the project. Once you have identified the main stakeholder groups, the easiest way, but demanding and time-consuming, is to meet with each of them and discuss expectations and fears. Pay special attention to people who are not supportive and have more frequent meetings with them, trying to talk and address their fears for which they do not support the project.

You've probably heard of business agility. However, many wonders what it is and with what it is eaten. What processes or events can positively or negatively affect how flexible a business can be? This time I'm not going to talk about what kind of environment a business operates in, which has a lot of significance, but this time would like to focus, on how different governance models can influence how flexibly an organization can respond to changes or the need for change. What is business agility? Business agility is about how the company is able to respond to the changing internal and external environment. It's about whether an organization has processes and tools in place to ensure flexibility that helps, not stops the organization from moving forward. What can prevent business from being flexible? One of the processes that can stop an organization from responding to a changing environment is how decisions are made. How many steps everybody needs to make to get the decision done. How many different signoffs you need to collect to move the decision forward. How to ensure that the decision-making mechanism is not a showstopper for the organization being agile? one of the most important elements is the clear establishment of the boundaries of the decision-making of each person. This element is one of the most common distractions, for these reasons it is very common for people to be afraid and distrustful of themselves that they can make a decision and they turn to higher managers, whom it sometimes takes time to catch. Mandate description seems very easy to implement, but in no organization I have seen clearly described powers, for this reason decisions always take longer than necessary. another important aspect is how many different forums each change needs to go through. And whether the decision-making mandates are clearly defined and segregated, between different decision-making groups. Here it is very important to ensure that different decision-making forums are not created in order to ask the same questions, but rather to represent a specific area: risks for understanding and acceptance of risks arising from the decision, finance for financing, etc. cadence when decision-making forums meet must be very clear and the calendar accessible to any employee. It is important to self-assess every year whether the previous frequency of decision-making forums is sufficient, or whether you should gather more often only for shorter meetings or for rarer but longer meetings. finally, one of the most important parts is the possibility of making a mistake. This part responds to the first point - are people, although allowed to make a decision, not afraid to make it, because they can be severely punished?

Project management touches on a number of different areas and, of course, a lot of attention is paid to decision-making where stakeholder management is also an integral part. How are decisions made on projects? What to look out for so that decisions are made as easily as possible and do not slow down the progress of the project? These and more questions are very important to take into account in order to ensure the success of the project. How does decision making work in project management? It all depends on the organization and how many projects are taking place in the organization, whether they are dependent on each other, etc. The simplest decision-making body for project management is the project steering group. It is very important that this project decision-making team has the correct composition, since its decisions will determine how well the project will fare throughout its course. Who are the stakeholders that should be part of project steering group? There should be stakeholders that have full decision power and impact to the project included in project steering group, so project would have best possible chances to succeed. Stakeholders that should be considered part of steering group could be divided into ę groups: those, who have decision power on whether project should be financed and for how much those, who have the power on making the decision to allocate or not the staff those, who will be heavily impacted by the project What kind of decisions project steering group can make? Very often, golden rule is forgotten that project steering group can make decisions only within the limits of a project, that is, only within the framework of a fixed budget, agreed duration and a defined scope. All decisions that are related to the extension and sometimes shortening of the project duration, if this means that the scope of the project is changing, or changes related to the project budget and an increase or decrease in volume, are not taken by the members of the project steering group. In such situations, the project steering groups plays only an advisory role and the final decision is made by the organization's higher decision forums, which have the visibility of how one or another change in the project will affect the organization and other projects taking place in the organization.

You're building a team and thinking about what's the right lineup to choose? What kind of people to invite in order to have the right balance in the team between all skills and knowledge? A lot of theories talk about the fact that the team should consist of different people in order to maintain a healthy balance, after all, if there are only stubborn people in the whole team, but with different skills and experience, nothing will come of it, because there will be no way to get to common decisions, because they will stick to their opinions. This is what i would propose to pay attention, while forming the team: team members share the same values and attitudes to work: if there are people in the team who do not feel passionate for work and come to work only 8 hours, with time it will begin to annoy those who put their hearts on the tasks they perform the team should understand its common goal very clearly as a team and it is very important if the team has to achieve team goals so that there are as few egocentric people as possible in it, because they very often focus on their own goals and not on the team, this can create a bad atmosphere there is a healthy balance between men and women in the team: I have once worked only in a women and only male team, such teams broadcast completely different energies, so to this day I think that it is very important to have a mix it is very useful to have people of different age groups in a team, because if everyone has the same values, but different experiences, it only diversifies the life of the team and gives you the opportunity to learn from each other and get experiences

I have been living with this idea for a long time that work and time for myself are two separate things. People who used to say, after all, their work is a hobby, seemed to me a little strange. After all, according to the studies conducted, only 10% - 20% of people in the world like their work. Is it really that 8 hours at work a completely different space and in many ways it's not a very fun time? And I am not talking about the balance of life and work, but more about how we see ourselves during our personal time and as working time. Previously, I had two separate phones: one for work, the other for personal time. This made it easier for me to draw a line about who I am - at work, and who I am - not at work. It worked great for years, but it seemed that one person I am at home and another at work. It was very stressful, because if there were days when you need to work longer, you felt that you betray the other part of yourself and work not for yourself, but for others. It even seemed to me that what I was doing in the professional field was not mine at all, it's just that fate brought me here, I didn't figure it out myself. In my heart, I love fashion, dancing, but not project management. Now, when I remember that, it makes me laugh, after all, where we are now, we are for some reason, they can be varied: we want to gain, some special knowledge and skills, we want to earn the first million, or maybe expand the social circle, maybe we work in that organization, because it is cool. We all have our own motivation for why we are where we are. And the sooner we understand that motivator, why we are in one organization or another, the easier it will be to combine work and personal time, and to be ourselves, without feeling bad, that we have to get up the next day and go to work. P.S. one of the best pragmatic ways of how to integrate both worlds with one to another is to manage all you work and personal roles and responsibilities in one planner, notebook or whatever else you are using to plan your daily activities.

Recruitment is one of the most important stages when choosing someone who should join the team. Recruitment result will depend on whether you are lucky or not. Many organizations use different ways in which people are selected. Here are some thoughts on what helps me make the right choice. As soon as I started working with the team, people recruitment was a real pleasure for me. I wouldn't stand still, before I went to the conversations and could ask to all sorts of things. I couldn't say that now, so I started analyzing how to find best people so that as few recruitments cycles would need to be run as possible. At the very beginning, I went with ready-made questionnaires, very standard and, if sincerely, boring questions. I focused on experience and personal abilities were just a very good addition, but not the most important indicator. Though through time, i understood couple things: it is important to pay attention to persons personal abilities. While making a decision 80% should be personality not a professional skills. Because it may happen that person has many badges in regards to professional experience, but wrong attitude and not willing to work at all before going to interviews decide, what are the most important personal skills: self-organized, has sense of ownership, honest, positive, ect. it is important to rank all these soft skills from the most important to least, so that decision would be easier trust your gut - sometimes you can feel whether person is good fit for the team during the first minutes of the interview try to not take pre - ready list of questions, allow the conversation grow naturally. If conversation is not clicking, most probably this is not a right addition to the team if you have a international team, never program yourself that now you need a person from specific team as you want to keep right balance. It may result that you will invite a person who is not the best fit if person will have a peer, that will work as if it would be a virtual team, involve that person into recruitment process and give an opportunity to have a heart to heart conversation with a candidate. This way you will be more sure, that candidate will understand better of what to expect in the new role, because at the end of the day final decision is made by the candidate. if after one week you do not remember few candidates, most probably they are not the good fit Finally, there are many other ways how to choose the best candidate to your team, these are the ways that worked for me through the years of experience.

I am currently working on developing project management practices in one organization. I am in the diagnostic stage when I am trying to understand how different departments carry out different projects. For most who are not used to the project management methodology, the question arises: and what is the project anyway? A project, according to the definition used in the world, is an action that creates something unique: a new unique service, product or a unique result. Each project has a clear beginning and end. But does this mean that every slightest change, even in existing processes, must be considered a project and people should follow the practice of project management? If we were to follow the definition given, than yes, every action that is not repetitive and creates new result should be treated as a project. However, applying project management practices to each of the slightest changes can result in an increase in costs due to the resulting process steps that should be taken by anyone who wants to implement the change. On the one hand, applying the practice of project management for every change would help to structure all changes taking place in the organization, large or small. In addition this would help to introduce more transparency - what actually is happening in different parts of the organization and would help to grow the maturity of project management, since all employees would have the opportunity to master and apply project management practices. However, from a pragmatic point of view, as I mentioned above, applying project management can extend the duration of the implementation of changes, which would lead to higher costs, since various routines applied in project management would have to be carried out. For this reason, when developing a project management practice in an organization and trying to define what a project is, it is important to define additional criteria that help determine whether this is a project or just a small change that does not require project management practices to be followed. The most common criteria are: cost of a change amount of stakeholders amount of people that will be impacted by the change team size that would be working on the change team composition, i.e. whether team consists of internal or external people amount of process / applications or products impacted by the change impact to key functions, processes or products of the organization These are more other criteria can be applied, while trying to identify which changes could be called projects and follow project management practice.

When we talk about the introduction of new processes and especially those that do not exist, when each different department does its own way, there are few things that are very important to think about before starting to draw process diagrams. When the moment comes that you need to introduce new practices in the organization, there are some very important steps that should be thought about before you start drawing different steps in the process: when you understand what kind of people will be affected by this change, then the best thing to do is to approach these teams and initiate diagnostics phase by investigating how they perform the functions for which you want to implement a new process. Why is it needed? This is important in order, to understand what practices are currently being applied, to try to adapt the planned process so that as little impact as possible is on people, and most importantly, so that people would feel part of the decision-making, i.e. that they have had the opportunity to speak out. once the diagnosis is complete and the draft of the process is prepared, it is important to return to the same people who were engaged in diagnostics and discuss the proposal for the process. But the discussion must be based on what insights you gained during the diagnosis from each team. Why is this important? This suggests that you have heard them and tried, or have taken into account the proposals that have been made. when process draft is discussed with all stakeholders, it must, of course, be confirmed in accordance with the procedures in force in the organization. after official confirmation, it is natural to run training for people, release communication through a wide variety of channels. Before performing communication and during diagnostics, it is important to understand who the "influencers" are in the organization, focus on these people and use them in communication, so that you would get as much buy - in as possible in regards to newly established process. after the launch of the process and training, it is often forgotten that monitoring of the process is necessary, because it is normal when certain situations were unforeseen. For monitoring a clear communication channel (or contacts of a particular person) should be shared, so that people would not feel left alone in case of any questions. There are other steps to be mentioned, but here I name those, from my point of view, are most important in reflecting on and evaluating the duration of process implementation and people that need to be involved.