Re-Align PMO Metrics

Re-alignment of metrics often happens during our review cycle, but it serves a different purpose.  Some re-alignment reflects advancements in our maturity…

[For example,] compliance with industry standards (e.g., PMBOK) was critical to achieving SAP project management maturity.   With the high numbers of SAP Project Managers certified in the internal PMI-based certification, the drive was now on acquiring the market-based PMP® Certification. The Internal Certification Success metric was replaced by a PMP Certification metric.

Some re-alignment refined measures as we gained confidence in the initiative’s momentum…

In addition, once we had confidence in the [PM Fundamentals] course itself, we became more interested in the coverage of  the project management community trained.  PM Training Coverage therefore replaced Training Satisfaction. 

Other re-alignments tightened definitions so that “success” in fulfilling the KPI really supported the business goal….

Finally, Customer References proved to be too flexibly defined.  Each customer reference now must have a written and published Success Story to be considered a reference.

Table refers to SAP PMO Metrics after review and re-alignment (note some company-confidential measures are excluded).

Perspective	Original Metric	Deleted/Modified	New Metrics	Notes
Financial	Project Profitability
Customer	Customer References, Internal Stakeholder Satisfaction	Customer References	Customer References (tangible Success Stories)	References that existed only in a database really had little value.  However, putting a success story (or stories) in our customers’ hands was direct evidence of improved PM.  We’ve gone from <5 to >40 project management references.
Employee	PM Training Satisfaction, Internal Certification Success	PM Training Satisfaction, Internal Certification Success	PM Training Coverage, PMP Certification Success	The new measures allowed us to look at the penetration of the initiative (or at least one key component).  Certification success also provided tangible proof-points in sales, marketing, or other customer-facing situations.
Project/ Process	Organizational PM Maturity, Project Budget Performance, Project Schedule Performance	Project Budget Performance	Project Controlling

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