People get all wrapped around the axle about how to implement PPFM. Most of the methodologies have very structured prescriptions for doing this, not only at different "levels of maturity" but also detailed steps within a level.
For the most part, reality doesn't work that way.
Implementing PPFM in an organization for the first time (or worse, for the nth time) requires culture change, and it is quite a substantial one. That's true even if the organization has at least the required degree of maturity to begin contemplating such an effort in the first place. See Kik Piney's not-so-comedic article on the Anti-Maturity Model.
Think of PPFM as a nice steaming bowl of yummy spaghetti with equally yummy sauce that will, if mishandled, make some spectacularly messy and probably permanent stains on your best business suit. Obviously it must be handled with care.
Given enough time yo could probably come up with an optimal way to eat this delicious mess. The third strand from the middle is the one hanging everything up, if you can just get to that one ... your lunch companions are not going to wait for this sort of nonsense. So you stick your fork in there, twiddle it, and get what you can. It may not be ideal, but it works well enough to keep everyone satisfied and the bowl gets eaten in a reasonably timely and tidy manner.
PPFM is like that. Because of the interconnectedness of the iron triangle, any positive traction on managing scope, schedule or cost is going to have an immediate effect on the other two legs, and likely will impact the other PM areas also.
Are we having difficulty getting people to define the scope of their projects? Move on, move on! Get them to agree to making a list of the projects and committing to some due dates. As the due dates get loser, the project teams will suddenly develop intense interest in the meaning of "done", and in order to avoid such misunderstandings in future the PMO will be required to write down that X is all that was agreed to.
"Stupid PMO, why didn't they think of that before? Making us look bad." Stupid like a fox. Now the PMO is "forced" to implement proactive status reporting, scope management, schedule management, and quality management. All the things people said there was no way they were going to do that. Keep applying the Spaghetti Axiom - don't try to force people to eat the whole bowl, just pick a few things that will be productive and accepted, and will have a lot of knock-on effects. Sooner or later, and much sooner than anyone would have thought possible, you'll be at maturity level 2 or 3.
The Spaghetti Axiom: eat it or wear it.
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