"All Aboard the PPSO - Knowing the Value of Your PPSO and Getting Your Organisation on Board"
April 2008 - Aston Conference Centre
The April 2008 PPSOSIG event took place on the 10th April 2008 at the Aston University Conference Centre - attended by 70 delegates - all with an interest in PPSO's
> See the full agenda for the event (PDF)
The conference opened with John Zachar presenting on the different types of PPSO, this presentation enabled delegates to best identify their own PPSO, the role it performs and to set the scene before moving on to the benefits it provides to the organisation
> Presentation from John Zachar - Types of PPSO
Follow on from John, Graham Shreeve covered the area of business cases. After a brief interlude of exercise!, the delegates were given a thorough presentation on the approach to take when creating the PPSO business case.
> Presentation from Graham Shreeve on What is a Business Case
After lunch and a chance to meet the other delegates we returned to the workshop and an opportunity for the delegates to begin identifying the benefits of their PPSO. the workshop kicked off with each delegate identifying three benefits each. After a sweep around the audience we were able to identify seven key benefits - Prioritisation - Resources - Information - Guidance - Control - Reporting and Risk. Delegates headed to one of the benefits and formed a group to brainstorm and discuss the following:
“What are the benefits of the PPSO that you work in?”
Ø Time to explore, understand and highlight the key tangible benefits of your PPSO.
Ø How do others sell their PPSO concept to the organisation?
Ø What works in making a business case for PPSO/PMO services?
The benefits discussion / prompt card helped the session along with questions such as:
- What was the original justification for setting up your PPSO?
- What do the ‘purpose’ bits say in your job description?
- Can you help with your organisation’s greatest need? How?
- What have you been thanked for in the past?
> See the Prompt Card (could be used in a session back at the office with your PPSO colleagues)
Throughout the discussions - Chris Hobson from CITI - came along to challenge the benefits, asking the question "So What?"
Chris gave a brief insight to the eight main business benefits i.e., when putting together the PPSO business case these benefits should be incorporated into your thinking:
- Cost Avoidance (Chris hinted that alot of the PPSO benefits would fall into this category)
- New Revenue
- More Revenue
- Intellectual Property
- Strategic Alignment
- Competitve Advantage
- Competitive Response
- Management Information
Chris reinvigorated the groups - challenging the softer side of the benefits to become much more tangible and ultimately sellable in the business case.
> See the output from each group from the workshops
Chris then gave a presentation to the group about the stakeholders, as a member of the PPSO, knowing who your stakeholders are and
how to approach managing them can make a huge difference to the
success of the PPSO. This session looks at why are they important
to us, and why are we important to them, how to identify your
stakeholders and understand their objectives, looking for ways to
enhance your stakeholder relationships and creating a stakeholder
management plan
> See the presentation from Chris on Stakeholder Management
At the end of the day - Question Time - gave delegates the opportunity to put questions to the panel. Some great questions were raised giving delegates an opportunity to ask specific questions relating to their own circumstances.
Many thanks to all the delegates who attended this conference and contributed to the day. Hope to see you at the September conference.
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