The PMO has shifted its approach from "Shock and Awe" to "Winning Hearts and Minds" in order to be more flexible and provide value during difficult economic times. It redrew its battle plan by evaluating projects from an enterprise perspective, assessing risk, and focusing on financial justification and benefit realization. This involved building alliances, adopting an agile "FastTrack Model", and growing a project management culture through education and quick wins. The new approach aims to deliver projects faster and better align projects with business objectives.

1. The PMO
From Shock and Awe
to
Winning Hearts and Minds
Eric J. Brown, EVP & CIO
NCI Building Systems

2. Agenda
• Setting the Stage
• Shock and Awe
• Shift Happens
• Redraw the Battle Plan
• Winning Hearts and Minds
• End Game

3. Setting the Stage:
NCI Building Systems

4. Setting the Stage:
NCI Building Systems
• Second largest consumer of steel in the US behind the
Automotive Industry
• Revenue of 2B
• EBITDA of 200M
• 43 Manufacturing Plants in US & Mexico
• Produce over 1M tons of finished goods
• All manufactures in India combined produce 650,000 tons

5. Shock and Awe:
PMO…The Early Days at NCI
• Industry stats: Only 28% of projects
started ever reach their time / cost / quality
targets*
– 32% - Inadequate project management and
improper use of PM tools
– 20% - Lack of communication
– 17% - Lack of understanding of scope
• Knew from past experience – no PMO
meant NCI would suffer same casualty
rate
• SOX – compliance required PMO
guidance
* Standish Group Chaos Report

6. Shock and Awe:
Pre-PMO… NCI Fit the Stereotype

7. Shock and Awe:
PMO…The Early Days
PMI Methodology
Requirements Gathering
PMBOK Processes
Resource Management Scope Control

8. Shock and Awe:
PMO Competency
Strategic Alignment
Business Maturity Stage Five:
Center of Excellence
Process Support Stage Four:  Direction and
Advanced PMO influence for
Stage Three: enterprise project
Process Control  Focuses on
Standard PMO management
integrating
Project Oversight business  Manage continuous
Stage Two:  Improved PM objectives into the
Basic PMO capabilities and improvement and
PM environment cross-department
Stage One: maturity
Project Office  Provides standard  Applies common collaboration to
and repeatable PM  Introduce project practices to achieve strategic
 Independent project methodology for all reporting tools projects and business goals
offices and project projects and collaboration business; a
managers techniques “projectized”  Continues to build
 Develops common organization relationships with
 Applies project tools for all projects  Interface between stakeholders,
 Can be a separate customers and
management the business, business unit
techniques  Emphasizes the executives and vendors
foundation of a project teams  State of the art
 No program level viable PM PM practices and  Oversight and
authority environment  Full set of PMO tools control to other
functions in use PMO units
 Advanced staffing
* The Complete Project Management Office Handbook

9. Shock and Awe:
Getting Ahead of Your Supply Line
If you are riding ahead of the herd, take a
look back every now and then to make
sure it’s still there
- Will Rogers

10. Shift Happens:
Great Depression….. Again?

11. Shift Happens:
New Orders: Keep the Lights On
• 60% Market drop in Non-Res Construction Starts
• Revenue from 2B to under 1B
• EBITDA from 200M to 16M
• Shutdown 25% of our Manufacturing Plants
• Reduced workforce by 50%

12. Shift Happens:
Why Do I Need PMO?
• Autonomous decisions being made
• PMO adaptation and flexibility
becomes key
• A new mindset was introduced
– Value proposition
– Strategic alignment
– Value-Driven ROI
– Elimination of low value projects
• Enterprise perspective of the PMO
function is part of the answer

13. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Think Different
The significant problems we have cannot
be solved at the same level of thinking
with which we created them
– Albert Einstein

14. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Cut the Rations in Half, Double the Work
• Evaluate financial impact
• View projects from enterprise
perspective
• Assess risk
• Avoid conventional text book
project approach

15. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Tools & Techniques
Project Request Form Business Value / ROI Project Dashboard
Risk Assessment Model Project Life Cycle PMOLC / SDLC
High High
High Medium
Tier 1
Medium High
Co
High Low
t
ac
mp
p
Im
le
Tier 2
xit
Medium Medium
y
Low High
Medium Low
Tier 3
Low Medium
Tier 4
Low Low
Risk Level

16. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Project Request Form

17. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Executive Management
• Getting executive management to
the table
• Look at it from their perspective
• Understand what they’re going to
ask
• Find a way to make it work in your
size company
• Use a project dashboard that’s
clear and concise

18. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Project Dashboard

19. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Risk Assessment
• Project tier drives
level of project
management
• Depth of
• Impact and deliverables,
complexity drive amount of testing,
the risk level Internal Audit
• Risk level results participation
in Tier 1 – Tier 4
project

20. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Financials – Cost Estimates
• Determine if the project is capital
or expense
• Major cost categories:
– Software / hardware
– Consulting services
– Employee labor
– Expenses
• Often overlooked cost categories:
– Training
– SOP 98
– Capital interest
– Sales tax
– Maintenance

21. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Financials - Justification
• Use the financial experts in your
company
• NPV, IRR, ROI, Payback period;
what else do you need to know?
• Every project now demands
financial justification
• Benefit categories from the project
request now come into play

22. Redraw the Battle Plan:
Benefit Realization & Metrics
• Compare planned to actual costs
• Show project completion statistics
• Build metrics history and use for action

23. Winning Hearts and Minds:
Building Alliances
• Alliances can be the key to continued success
• Working with IT, Accounting, Audit can have its rewards
• Gaining understanding of each other’s objectives can help
move everyone’s projects forward

24. Winning Hearts and Minds:
FastTrack Model
Deliver It
Scope It
Do It
Request It
• Streamlined approach
• Agile response to the business
• Uses the project request process
• Reduces the quantity of deliverables
• Timeline is generally 1-3 months
• Goal: To deliver smaller, quick-win
projects faster

25. Winning Hearts and Minds:
Focus on Listening
Understand the job your customer is trying
to do. Don’t try and understand your
customer
– Clayton M. Christensen

26. Winning Hearts and Minds:
Growing the Culture
• Choose quick win projects to
show success
• Educate your peers
• Understand the maverick /
cowboy mentality and how to
help
• Wear multiple hats

27. End Game:
Elevator Speech
• Today’s economy demands
higher performance and results
• Get senior management involved
• Tailor the approach to your
company
• Adopt a methodology…but plan to
be flexible

28. Questions
Eric J. Brown
EVP, CIO and Co-Author of:
“The Effective CIO”, Taylor and
Francis, January 2009
ebrown@ncigroup.com