Methodology
Deliverables first, not task chains
Why this PMO's Steps database tracks outcomes a PM can report on, not a checklist of busywork.
Most schedules decompose into tasks — smaller and smaller chores that add up to a deliverable, but that a sponsor never actually asks about. This PMO's Steps database inverts that: a step is a deliverable in its own right, something a team commits to producing, not a chore on the way to producing it.
What changes in practice
A step has an owner, a status, and a definition of done that means something outside the project team. "Draft the migration runbook" is a step. "Open a doc and start typing" is not — it's how the step gets done, and nobody needs to track it separately.
Where it shows up
Step Schedule preps the database ahead of team 1:1s by carrying forward steps that applied to similar past projects — so a schedule never starts from a blank database. Planning Synthesis writes each team's confirmed deliverable as its own step row once planning sessions land on what's actually being built, then proposes milestones from the finished schedule.