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Creating a Viable Project Management Office
January 6, 2010 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings, Project Management Office
Creating a Viable Project Management Office
By Owen Head
Like most acronyms in business, PMO has so many definitions associated with it, that it may be hard to find two people who would agree on one. Wikipedia defines the PMO as, “the department or group that defines and maintains the standards of process, generally related to project management, within the organization”.
We expand PMO to “Project Management Office” (or Organization) and define it as “the organization responsible for excellence in project performance”. Using that definition, the PMO could be organized in any number of different ways, but the goal for each remains the same.
The primary reason for the PMO to exist at all, is to establish a consistent and improving level of performance in both project management and product quality (as it refers to the product of the project).
The result is a PM function that can demonstrate that it is “in control of performance”. Let’s further detail what the two performance areas cover.
In terms of project management, the PMO is focused on the management performance of the PM team. Specifically, how well the project was managed with respect to plan versus actual outcome comparisons surrounding scope, schedule, and budget.
In terms of product quality, the PMO is focused on how well the final product of the project conforms to specifications, how it meets customer expectations, and how much rework/error correction is required following delivery. The PMO should also seek to assess and improve general customer satisfaction and to identify specific areas of performance improvement/degradation over time.
Understanding this mandate, the question then becomes, how do best in class organizations fulfill it successfully? The answer is straight forward, tried, and true (but very challenging none-the-less).
Compliance with well defined and comprehensive management standards is the generally accepted method for establishing a consistent and improving level of performance for any organization. As a result, the PMO could be described as a quality assurance organization (QA refers to process, not test).
PMO management standards are defined and managed through a Quality Management System (QMS). The QMS is comprised by written policies and procedures that govern key project management activities, as well as standards improvement and compliance efforts.
Of course, PMO management may also be responsible for a number of general management roles like team resourcing, resource management, organizational planning, budgetary, etc…, but none of those responsibilities are unique to the mandate of the PMO. That said, a number of these other management activities will also be governed by written standards where it is determined that they have an impact on project management/product quality performance.
I believe it’s safe to say that there is no single PMO (or any other function for that matter) anywhere in the world that is widely considered to be “best in class”, that didn’t get there through strict compliance to formal standards as described above. It would follow then, that the path to best in class (or best possible) performance for any PMO, is well defined.
That said, there is comparatively little focus on PMO quality systems within the PM profession at large. The predominant focus amongst global PM professional services providers in the marketplace is on the management of a single project and PM training/certification. As a result, there are relatively few consulting organizations out there with the advanced management and quality system skills needed to assist PMO leadership in the formation of a viable PMO. PMO leaders are left to guess at what is needed and how to go about closing the gap.
It’s a real problem for PMO leaders because the already significant time and cost associated with establishing an effective PMO can balloon very quickly under poor guidance. When costs skyrocket or results are too slow in coming, executives become disillusioned and look for a way out. That can add up to a missed opportunity for everyone and the death of the PMO as a practice.
Owen Head has over nineteen years of technical Program and Project Management experience in ISO/TL 9000 compliant organizations. He has built a number of PM Office practices from ground up, and managed more than 70 technical, business process, and change management programs and projects, in all areas of IT and Telecom development and support. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and has been certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Owen is the Managing Director of PMOSoft, LLC, a company dedicated to PM Office performance maturity, through fast and affordable maturity management system (MMS) solutions. For more information, please visit http://www.pmosoft.com or our blog http://pmosoft.wordpress.com.
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1 person has left a comment
Good point.
I agree that there is no single structure to the PMO organization. The structure should be chosen according to the mandate we want to give our PMO- centralize or not- the customers it handle- internal or external – and the main functions the PMO will take care – training, control, consulting, and knowledge gathering for example.
Gilad
http://giladlsh.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/pmo-centralized-or-not/