Triangle Affair

Project Management Office A PMO is a group or department within a business, agency or enterprise that defines and maintains standards for project management

within the organization. The PMO strives to standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects.

Triangle Affair Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery and the PMO

BY Annie Muller

I

ts been called “Business Continuity.” Its been called “Disaster Recovery.” Its been called “Risk Management.”

They are not the same as Crisis Management. They simply belong at different points in a crisis timeline.

Ground zero is the point of crisis impact Business Continuity is what happens when a crisis impacts an organization and what needs to happen for business to continue right after the crisis hits.

Disaster Recovery is what happens when the crisis is stabilized and the recovery that follows, when everyone takes an inventory of what was lost, damaged and what can be salvaged.

Risk Management is about knowing or not knowing the risks, measuring risk tolerance and how the risks should be managed,

mitigated, deflected or avoided.

In this article the focus is on how the PMO can play a vital role in Crisis Management.

It can be the very hub of your command center and triage where all communication arteries flow. Key decisions are made during the entry point of a disaster to remediation, repair, and healthy recovery.

Let’s step back for a moment and think about assumptions, some golden guidelines, and why the PMO has value add in Crisis Management.

Danger Zone Assumptions First, it’s dangerous when an organization thinks that the IT or technology group has the master plan for crisis management. IT or technology has its own disaster recovery approach as a matter of practice and discipline of the profession. Those of you who work with technology know this.

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Crisis A crisis is any event that is, or expected to lead to, an unstable and dangerous situation.

First, it’s dangerous when an organization thinks that the IT or technology group has the master plan for crisis management.

The technology group does not have the grand master plan. It’s not a fixed or static definitive plan. It’s a moving target.

Second, arrogance or over confidence is a misplaced belief in crisis management. No one is indestructible. Mother nature wreaks havoc when we least expect it and when we are unprepared. We are reminded of this with many historical events all the way back to the fall of the Roman empire.

Thirdly, a crisis can be unpredictable in timing and magnitude. We can however plot out a probability scale based on historical data. Past performances is an indicator of future probability. It’s about numbers and more important a matter of survival. Do not under estimate preparedness. It is critical.

Crisis Management is about teamwork and the triangle dance.

Empower the PMO and the entire team towards a creative solution.

The sum of all is always greater than the sum of one. This is not the time to be arrogant or overly confident. It’s about the greater good. It’s not about a 100% avoidance, prevention, or prediction. Crisis management is about minimizing the damage and managing the risks.

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January - February 2013 · MODERN GOVERNMENT

Golden Guidelines of Crisis Management

chance to recharge.

These guidelines are not hard and fast rules. Adjust accordingly.

Identify, track and record the who, what, where, why and how of all controllable, uncontrollable, unknowns, and uncertainties every step of the way. This will help you fine tune your solutions as you go based on the situation and will allow you to undo execution if necessary. Parking lot the items you don’t know what to do with is helpful and might provide revelation later.

1. Have an emergency pack ready for the event or know your critical points that need to be protected or accessed. It’s kind of a rough sketch playbook for the crisis. You have all the parts, but some “assembly required”.

You can’t possibly know all the tools or pieces you need but whatever you have provides you the maximum ability to address issues to minimize impact and damage. Have a predefined approach to how you are going to execute what you need to. A long inflexible or complicated project plan will hinder you rather than help you, so go with small incremental changes. There will be times when you need to forego formal procedures and protocol. Whatever you choose, it has to be extremely efficient and adaptable. You can use Scrum or Six Sigma for example to guide your steps in any crisis.

Use whatever means is aligned to the overall organizational structure.

2. When the crisis hits establish a triage or command center.

Assemble the SMEs (subject matter experts). You will need to rotate resources to give people a

3. Assess damage immediately.

4. Give it some personal touch with breaks and handoffs.

Allow humor and jokes. Coffee and snacks go a long way.

This means use your people resources wisely. A crisis can be a 24 hour flurry of activities over a long period of time; days to weeks even months and years in some cases. Laughter and rest is needed when demands and stress levels are high.

5. Communication cannot be overdone. This is not the time for hidden agendas or blame.

It’s about working together to get to the goals you need to stabilize and recover from a crisis.

6. Have some redundancy to critical components of

Project Management

While many organizations have looked upon the PMO as cumbersome with loaded bureaucracy, an effective PMO is an art.

your business like a redundant data center or redundant manufacturing line.

2. They can move everyone in

7. Sometimes its not always

3. They are the buffer and liaison

about money or profit.

Acknowledge the efforts with a thank you or great job. People will go the extra mile if you acknowledge their efforts.

8. Encourage and listen to your team. You will be surprised with the ideas that come to the table. If you have a global team it is helpful to have someone bilingual to facilitate communication. It builds trust.

the right direction at the right time between groups that need buffering

4. They can be the M*A*S*H unit in your triage and command center. They mobilize and stabilize.

5. They can bring harmony to the table.

6. They remember the little

adapting to the situation.

things and the personal touch like coffee , donuts, snacks and needed breaks with humor, sleep and rotating the team smoothly.

10. Be of service to others. Help

7. They tend to keep track of the

9. Balance control, flexibility and

each other.

Where the PMO adds value While many organizations have looked upon the PMO as cumbersome with loaded bureaucracy, an effective PMO is an art. It’s a balancing act between hard facts, mathematics, science, and creative solutions, that is not always about the numbers or the science.

The PMO has value add in crisis management in many ways:

1. They can be your most trusted and objective advisors.

logs and statistics when it comes time to budget, forecast, and asking for funds.

8. They can provide post mortem lessons learned analysis valuable for the future of the organization

9. The PMO can be the keeper of tools and techniques to navigate uncharted territories. There’s a time to use or not use ITIL, ISO, IEEE, Six Sigma DMEDI or DMAIC, Agile, Scrum, Pert, ROI, Gantt charts or other measuring or analytical data tools you may have in your arsenal.

If you do not have an established or mature PMO, begin cross-

training and rotating your teams.

Identify who you can groom for different roles. Identify and establish some kind of strategy, but do not let it collect dust on a bookshelf. Put something in place, test it. In so doing, there’s a spirit of teamwork taking place behind the scenes. When the time comes they will step into the challenges and transition smoothly as the situation demands.

In the end, there is no cookie cutter approach to Crisis Management. Any organization will need to identify, establish, test, and continuously improve and change a crisis management strategy. (MG)