How GCHQ transformed itself

Our programme management office’s (PMO’s) transformation journey has not been a smooth one. Is any significant transformation smooth, for that matter, especially when it’s as much about people and culture as it is about systems and technology? As such, we wanted to share with you the highlights of our transformation, which led to us winning PMO of the Year at the 2019 APM Awards.

For many years, we had a PMO that operated in a very traditional way – and that worked for us. It met our business needs and the team fulfilled its role, but it was starting to feel out of kilter with new ways of working. In 2017, under pressure to increase efficiency amid changes to our portfolio, the PMO was given a mandate to do things differently – and it needed to. To put it into context, our corporate portfolio is complex, covering everything from the delivery of cutting-edge technology through to facilities and estates.

PMO+ is born

Two years ago, more than 50 per cent of our portfolio had already moved to using more agile delivery approaches, across a community of around 400 people (project managers and project control officers). New skills and ways of working were emerging, we were seeing an increase in collaboration with our partners across the UK and we had a mission to deliver at an ever-increasing pace. We also had to transform the PMO at the same time as continuing to operate it.

The design of the new PMO was shared with the business early on, and business engagement was a key part of the process. It was important to manage expectations, to get buy-in and for our communities and customers to start thinking of this as something new. Coupled with a 24-month Transformation Roadmap, a kind of ‘People’s Charter’ to establish values and behaviours, the service was given a new name. PMO+ was born.

That new identity heralded new purpose and a new beginning. The key strategic benefits of the transformation were to achieve savings and increase value; provide more effective PMO services; maintain operational grip, consistency and reputation; increase delivery management productivity; and innovate and influence.

However, rebranding is all well and good, but you have to back up your claims with action. One of the first key changes to the PMO was becoming an ‘outcome-based service’ with a clear service menu. This meant creating clear parameters within which the PMO+ would operate, ensuring that low-value administrative tasks, such as arranging catering, booking meeting rooms and organising visitor passes, were no longer performed by the project control officers (PCOs). That enabled them to focus instead on supporting areas such as finance, delivery reporting and risk management.

Painful perseverance

Implementing this so-called ‘Stop List’ caused a lot of pain, but we persevered. It was amazing to see how much time was saved with this approach. Under our old way of working, a PCO would be allocated to a project manager to support them in the delivery of their project(s). Under the new PMO+, we organise ourselves differently. Six teams were created, each supporting a collection of themes within the portfolio. This was the start of a more efficient approach, moving away from single points of failure to creating variety through the work, with a broader set of deliveries to work across. This in turn meant we were able to create more fulfilling roles for our PCOs. We mapped their skills, created development plans and, in consultation with our wider P3M team, created joined-up career pathways into project management.

Maintaining operational grip, consistency and reputation hasn’t been without its challenges. As an organisation, we tend to beat ourselves up about this type of activity, but actually we do a pretty good job. We have found that using more agile ways of working has meant that we don’t have as much delivery reporting data as we may have had in the past. This is something that we are tackling head-on, bringing together the PMO, the corporate portfolio and the senior project management community to define the standards needed to meet the business requirements. This takes time, and it has been a big cultural challenge to find the right balance, but we are getting there. Supporting finance reporting takes up more time than we would like, so again, we have worked with stakeholders in finance to agree a Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed (RACI) method for how we manage this.

It’s all about delivery

Finding ways in which the PMO could be niche and add value was part of the ‘Approaches to Delivery’ aspect of the roadmap, enabling an increase of delivery management productivity. As an organisation, we had already developed modelling around the most appropriate delivery approach to take, depending on a set of key factors. This aspect was about enabling the PMO to facilitate these sessions, as well as developing a body of knowledge that everyone across the organisation could tap into and establishing a number of delivery approach coaches, who are deployed to delivery areas across the business to support them in embracing new ways of working. This complements the organisation’s agile coaching network and other related communities that have grown in recent years.

Innovation has been at the heart of the transformation of our PMO. We have developed a knowledge-sharing portal for PMO+, as well as for the business as a whole. This holds all the information about the PMO that a user or customer could wish to know. We have also developed other tools to support day-to-day processes, including managing finance, making it all a lot easier and more consistent for the PCOs. We have not only been innovative in our design of the overall service and some of our tools – we have also ensured that we have adapted along the way.

A steering group and an oversight board were established early on to assure the overall delivery and ensure strategic alignment of the new PMO+, but the day-to-day delivery was managed through six-weekly planning increments with fortnightly sprints. At every planning increment, we shared our progress, learned lessons, assessed risk, prioritised resources and coupled that with our knowledge. We then planned the next six weeks, agreeing goals for each transformation outcome. It worked brilliantly – both for the team on the ground and the strategic groups overseeing the change – as we were able to pivot and change direction as needed.

Still transforming

You will hopefully have got a sense from this that it hasn’t all been plain sailing. As I noted at the beginning, change that impacts both culture and people never is. If we asked ourselves “How successful has it been?”, the answer would probably be “reasonably”. Some of it has proved hard – really hard. Working through some of the tool implementation came with huge stakeholder engagement challenges. For example, we had hoped to make more progress with our digital transformation in the reporting space, but it struggled to mobilise in the way we had envisaged. This is where we had to pivot and rethink our approach, asking ourselves whether we had been a little too ambitious at the outset. So, no, not all of the benefits were realised as planned, but some additional benefits have been gained along the way.

Our journey didn’t stop at the end of the roadmap. We have continued to evolve and change, and we’ve recognised that we can’t do the next stage in isolation. We are partnering with the rest of the P3M community more than ever, because we need each other to move forward with our respective transformations (which actually goes right across the corporate portfolio). The journey is far from over and we aren’t standing still – there is plenty more to do! And, ironically, the coronavirus pandemic and all the disruption it has caused might just help us along with some of this.

Top tips for PMO transformation

From our experience, if you’re thinking about embracing a new approach for your PMO, you might want to consider these points first:

Having the right sponsorship for your change is key; it made all the difference for us. We were supported, valued and championed.
Your PMO community needs to understand why you are changing – as do their customers. It still won’t be easy for them, but it will help.
Expectations need to be managed at every stage. As with any change project, we were too ambitious, but that ambition drove us and, without it, we wouldn’t have achieved what we have today. Be bold and be brave.
Invest appropriately in business change. Never underestimate its value.