Governing PMO

The word PMO is an acronym for Project Management Office. Members of the PMO often view themselves as protectors and supporters of a practice. PMO members offer assistance in implementing and spread agile project management across the organization. PMO has a tremendous influence on the people involved in a Scrum transition.

An Agile PMO have the following responsibilities,

Develop a training program:

By implementing Scrum methods, teams of an organization can reap good benefits. Some team members may be unfamiliar with Scrum methodology, it is the responsibility of PMO to ensure that all the team members get familiarized with Scrum methods. PMO members have to design and build a training program for the team members. They can also take the assistance of subject matter experts and trainers to deliver the training, or they themselves can conduct training sessions if possible.

Provide coaching:

PMO members also can provide coaching to the team members. If the team consists too many members then they can split the team into small groups and provide coaching for the team members. These coaching sessions are good for the team members, as they are trained by subject matter experts or persons who have an in-depth knowledge about the subject and personal attention is given to all the team members.

Select and train coaches:

PMO members can also pick few members from the existing team and provide them training in Scrum methods, and make them Scrum coaches. These coaches usually retain their current jobs, but are given additional responsibilities, such as spending up to five hours per week helping a specific team.

Assist with reporting:

Organizations which have a PMO, usually conduct meetings every week or generate a weekly report on the status of each project.

Assist in establishing and collecting metrics:

PMO members have to concentrate on Scrum teams as they are more leery about the metric programs in comparison to traditional teams.

Reduce waste:

The PMO should aggressively help the team to eliminate all unnecessary activities and artifacts from its process. An agile PMO should avoid introducing documents, meetings, approvals, and so on unless absolutely necessary. It should also help teams look for things that they are doing that might not be adding value.

Metrics

Metrics mean different things to different people, organizations, and cultures. However, the underlying focus of measurement is whether or not software actually exists, and is demonstrably suitable for its intended purpose. A measure can be a quantity, a proportion, or a qualitative comparison of any kind.

Quantity:

"There are 90 open defect reports on the application as of today.” Proportion:

"This week there are 10 percent fewer open defect reports than last week.”

Qualitative comparison:

"The new version of the software is easier to use than the old version."

Automation:

Automation around integration, build, and testing is advocated in the agile approach because it is one of the best ways to encourage agility.

Key metrics/reporting some key Agile Metrics include:

• Burndowns

• Velocity Trend

• Burn Ups

The points mentioned above will help us to measure the success of each sprint.