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The PMO provides fee for service consulting to support individual units and campus-wide initiatives.
 

You can find a detailed description of each of our service offerings below, including sample deliverables. While each service is presented here as a discrete activity, many projects will involve more than one of these areas of expertise.

For more information, please contact PMO Assistant Director Jill Goldsmith at [email protected].

Strategic Planning, Initiative Envisioning, Project Scoping

Activities that help units to envision a new or different future state, then set priorities and focus energy and resources to transform those compelling dreams into actionable steps. This may include identifying strengths and opportunities, ensuring that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establishing agreements around intended outcomes, and assessing and adjusting the organization's direction in response to a changing environment. Effective strategic planning articulates not only where an organization is going and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is successful.

Who might use this service?
- Any unit wanting to plan for its long-term future
- Managers with big ideas that they want to turn into actionable items

Sample Deliverables
- Mission and vision statements
- Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats (SWOT) analysis
- Strategic plan
- Project priorities
- Definition of project scope


Business Process Redesign & Implementation / Kaizen Workshops

Business process improvement is an approach to addressing inefficient business processes, often across functional and departmental lines. Using time-tested tools and methods, we empower units to look critically at business processes they touch in order to elevate efficiency and quality. Process improvement begins with understanding and mapping a process’ current state. PMO staff then help stakeholders to identify efficiency issues, select metrics to gauge their severity, develop effective improvements, and design the process’ future state.

Kaizen workshops are intensive, multi-day, facilitated workshops in which cross-functional UCSF teams seek to systematically identify and implement improvements to a specific business process. In kaizen workshops, Lean certified PMO facilitators work closely with leadership and front line staff to clearly understand the process in question, develop actionable and effective metrics, identify sources of waste and frustration, design and prioritize improvement ideas, test and measure the results of those ideas, document standard procedures, rapidly implement improvements, and build continuous improvement activities into the process going forward.

Note: UCSF employees interested in conducting their own self-directed process improvement activities can click here to visit the self-service portion of UCSF's Continuous Improvement website.

Who might use this service?
- Units that have identified an inefficient or sub-optimal business process and would like to redesign for improved efficiency and ease of use
- Units who want to utilize UCSF’s business process improvement tools and methodology, but would like expert support for some or all of the project as their staff build skills in this area
- Managers seeking to improve business processes that are especially challenging, complex, or that cut across multiple departments and/or stakeholders

Sample Deliverables:
- Project charter
- Process maps
- Process metrics and associated targets
- Visual management tools (visibility walls, kanban systems, etc.)


Systems Implementation (from Software Selection through System Go-Live)

Technology implementations or upgrades include a unique set of steps in selecting and implementing a new or upgraded software system. This might include identifying technology wants, needs and requirements, identifying solution alternatives (both internal and external), using request-for-proposal to solicit bids, facilitating the vendor selection process, developing and managing projects to objectives, ensuring system testing and acceptance are complete, and anticipating and planning for communication, training and maintenance. An important consideration in the above process is ensuring the needs of the organization drive the technology solution and not the reverse--making stakeholder management and governance structures critical to success.

Who might use this service?
- A unit facing a purchase or system selection decision for which they lack relevant expertise
- A unit utilizing an outdated system who is considering changing to something more relevant

Sample Deliverables:
- Systems requirements
- Request for proposal (RFP)
- Vendor selection criteria and methodology
- Implemented system


Organization Alignment, Restructuring, Consolidation & Shared Services

Organizational Restructuring is a deliberately planned, organization-wide effort to increase effectiveness or efficiency, or otherwise enable the organization to achieve its strategic goals. Organizational development refers to the assessment and revision of organizational structures, relationships, procedures, and performance metrics, the effective implementation of team-building strategies, and the creation new service lines. It is the tool we use to create or respond to changes in an organization’s operating environment. Rather than determining how to improve the effectiveness of an individual employee, organizational development asks the question, “How can we get a team to produce better results as a whole?”

Who might use this service?
- Units whose workload has grown considerably and who need assistance in dealing with the increased demands on their staff and resources
- Units seeking to respond to a significant or unexpected change in their operating environment
- New managers wanting to make changes in the existing organization

Sample Deliverables:
- Organizational development plan
- Documented roles and responsibilities
- RACI chart


Project Management, Facilitation, Change Management & Lean Methods

As a component of delivering the above services, or as independent functions:

Project Management entails planning, organizing, motivating, documenting, and controlling resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals. PMO staff are able to implement a full suite of project management activities, from developing a project plan to supervising day-to-day project operations and status reporting.

Group Facilitation refers to the process of designing and running productive working sessions focused on delivering specific outcomes. This includes anticipating outcomes, designing interactive exercises that enlist group involvement and input, and creating an agenda. Applicable at any level of the organization, group facilitation supports group interaction toward a common purpose, whether it be making a decision, solving a problem, or brainstorming ideas in the process of creating a something new.

Change Management is an approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations to a desired future state in order to maximize acceptance of the changes involved. Change management includes activities such as training, department readiness, communication, and transition management, preparing staff to adopt new roles, documenting new procedures and processes, and setting clear steps for how to implement change at the individual level.

Lean Methods are a set of principles and tools that represent a management approach which respects people, reduces waste, and increases the value delivered by a given team or process. Lean methods focus on continuous improvement, and can be applied in virtually any context to improve communication, productivity, and engagement. The PMO team includes a number of certified Lean practitioners who incorporate Lean tools and concepts into their work with our clients.