Building a Sustainable and Responsible Program Management Office (PMO) for IT

Insights

by Alvin Landingin

With over 25 years of experience managing and leading over 400 transformative programs and projects for various organizations globally, Alvin Landingin shares his insights on how an ESG-aligned Program Management Office (PMO) within a CIO organization can drive full ESG maturity across an enterprise.

The world has dramatically changed since Milton Friedman, a Nobel-winning economist declared over 50 years ago that the sole social responsibility of companies is all about maximizing profits. Today, over 96% of the world’s largest companies have established ESG programs (KPMG, 2021) – underscoring how creating the most positive impact to the environment and society is as integral as profit generation in sustaining businesses.

In advancing their ESG agenda, companies recognize the pivotal role that technology plays in many areas – from the way it should be architected and implemented, to the wealth of innovative solutions it offers to address challenges in environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and corporate governance. Unfortunately, most companies are yet to fully bring together ESG and technology. About 70% of IT professionals who make technology purchasing decisions believe that their ESG program is yet to mature. (TechTarget, 2022)

The most practical approach for CIO organizations to address this issue is to start with the very function that enables it to transform its programs and projects into tangible business value. Such function is the Program Management Office (PMO) or, as the latest version of SAFe Scaled Agile aptly calls it, the Value Management Office (VMO).

A PMO that is built and operated on an ESG-aligned structure and culture enables and empowers not just ESG technology projects but the entire CIO organization to create ESG impact. After all, ESG is not about the individual ESG initiatives it creates but the collective environmental, social and governance impact of every technology or process decision made across the organization – whether it stems from a specific ESG initiative or not.

How then can PMOs within CIO organizations align with ESG while maximizing the value of their technology investments? With a holistic approach in creating the most positive impact across the enterprise, six focus areas are found most critical in building and sustaining a PMO function that positions ESG technology projects to success and, more importantly, embeds the themes of ESG across all technology projects and operations within CIO organizations.

INTENT: Evaluating and prioritizing projects with ESG in mind

When the PMO facilitates the evaluation and prioritization of projects with key stakeholders, they can review project objectives and metrics with the ESG lens as well to consistently support enterprise-wide ESG programs, and ultimately, inculcate among project stakeholders the strategic imperative of relentlessly upholding ESG values in every facets of their operations. The intent of an ERP implementation project, for example, can be articulated and analyzed in terms of its impact on the reduction of paper usage especially when a company prioritizes resource use and efficiency as a critical ESG metric.

The PMO can adopt the Green Project Management’s P5 Standards for Sustainability in Project Management in developing a goal framework to guide and optimize its process in assessing the intended impact of technology projects while aligning with their company’s ESG strategy and priorities.

METHODS: Managing with sustainable methodologies

To promote sustainable project management, the PMO can tailor its existing project management methods to be aligned with P5. Alternatively, it can adopt project management frameworks that already promote sustainability principles such as PriSM (Projects Integrating Sustainable Methods).

In addition, as the PMO continuously improves its methodologies, it can explore and act on ideas that specifically minimize the resources and timeframe it needs to manage projects from initiation to closing – consequently reducing team travels, device usage, computing consumption, among others. The PMO can employ value-stream mapping, root-cause analysis and other techniques to reduce process waste from their project management methods.

PEOPLE: Adopting diversity and inclusion

To integrate diverse perspectives in decision-making across all projects, the PMO can architect, staff and mobilize project teams with diversity and inclusion practices. Such practices are not limited to actions related to race, gender and gender preference. They also include bringing in insights from outside the company through external partners, vendors and communities that share the organization’s ESG values. The focus is not limited to establishing diverse teams but ultimately it is about creating an environment that promotes diverse perspectives that enable the PMO and the project teams to make the most sensible and ethical decisions even during complex and ambiguous situations.

The PMO can also enhance and optimize resource planning to ensure project assignments align with the strengths and interests of project team members while keeping them fully utilized and highly engaged.

ACTIVITIES: Transforming to an ESG-aligned PMO with precision

Transforming the PMO to a more environment-friendly and socially responsible function within the CIO organization requires thoughtful planning and employee support. All activities towards building an ESG-aligned PMO are then best organized in phases to improve overall manageability and risk mitigation across the entire transformation effort. Each activity in this transformation journey must be value-adding and streamlined to minimize disruption to the PMO, the project teams and their stakeholders.

CULTURE: Nurturing and strengthening an ESG culture

Building a sustainable and responsible PMO requires support not only from within the PMO team but across the CIO organization and the business stakeholders they serve. It is then critical to secure deep and visible commitment from both the company’s executive team and the CIO leadership team by integrating ESG considerations into the company’s business and technology strategies. Fully embedding ESG themes in project goal setting, project reporting, continuous improvement programs, training, performance management, and rewards systems can reinforce the right behaviors and mindset towards ESG within the CIO organization.

TECHNOLOGY: Enabling PMO with responsible technologies

The PMO can leverage technological innovations like Generative AI and modern collaboration solutions to improve its productivity, subsequently improving work-life balance and resource efficiency within the PMO team. It can also invest in providing on-going training to its teams on the responsible and ethical use of technology and its impact on ESG goals. Finally, as the PMO explores increased digital adoption as its role within the CIO organization evolves, it must prioritize technologies with a lower environment footprint and increased opportunities for system integration to simplify its overall operations.

In summary, the PMO plays a crucial role in unlocking the fullest power of technology as a catalyst to advancing the ESG priorities of an organization. The CIO organization is then compelled to enable and empower its PMO function with a comprehensive approach that integrates six critical elements: Intent, Methods, People, Activities, Culture and Technology. With a sustainable and responsible PMO function within the CIO organization, its company will be well positioned to fully realize its social responsibility of creating the most positive impact to the environment, society and corporate governance.