Consider this military wit, and put it in the context of a PMO.
"There is an old—and misleading—bit of conventional military wisdom which holds that “amateurs study tactics, while professionals study logistics.”The truth is that amateurs study only tactics or logistics, while professionals study both simultaneously.
The most brilliant tactics ever devised are pointless when the supplies needed to execute them do not exist, while all the supplies in the world are useless when a commanding officer has no idea how to effectively employ them."
Quote from "Field Marshal: The Life and Death of Erwin Rommel"
by Daniel Allen Butler
Are you the professional or the amateur?
Consider what are "logistics" in the project domain:
- Supplies and materials, of course
- Utilities, communications, and facilities (you gotta sit somewhere)
- Tools and training
- Supporting activity from Finance and Accounting (they have the money!)
- Supporting activity from purchasing, inventory management, and receiving (they have the goods!)
- Supporting activities from the various "ilities"
If you can get that wagon train all connected and working for you, then of course there is the small matter of strategy:
- How strategic are you? Anything less than a year probably qualifies as tactics. Anything over three years and you should build in some tolerance for some business instability.
- What is the lay-line to your strategic goal, and of course, what is your goal?
- How much deviation from the lay-line can you tolerate for agile tactics (zig and zag along the lay-line)
- Can you be strategic on some elements of the 'balanced scorecard' and simultaneously tactical on others(*)?
Got all of the above together?
Good. Now(!) you can entertain tactical moves, knowing the support is there.
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(*) Balanced scorecard: Finance, Customer, Product, and Operating Efficiency
