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The Two Types of Project Management Office

January 20, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings, Project Management Office

The Two Types of Project Management Office
By Derry Simmel, PMP, MBA, FLMI

That’s my premise; there are only two types of PMOs - yours and not yours.

Why do I say this - Well, I have some ideas that have been percolating for a while. Not original ideas by any means, maybe it’s just me catching up. Here are some observations that have led me to this thinking.

There is no clear model or template for a PMO.

Try as we might with the innumerable descriptions of PMOs we can’t seem to come to an consensus – a quick web search shows these:

  • General PMO
  • Supportive PMO
  • Controlling PMO
  • Directive PMO
  • Insider PMO
  • Assisted PMO
  • Virtual PMO
  • Excellence PMO (center of Excellence)
  • Administrative PMO
  • Strategic PMO
  • Project Specific PMO
  • Organizational PMO
  • Special-purpose PMO

Well, you get the idea. Some overlap there, but everyone is doing something different.

So why is this? Are we all confused? Are we stupid? Perhaps we are looking at this wrong? I’m going with the latter.

In a recent PMO Symposium, the ideas and comments from the participants really made this gel for me:

  1. There isn’t a “right” PMO or a “perfect” PMO – the only type of PMO is your PMO. By that I mean simply that PMOs are unique - similar certainly, but unique none the less. That means that we can apply a framework, but not a template. We’ve been trying to apply a template and not a framework.

  2. The consensus of the participants at the Symposium was that you can build a PMO from basic building blocks, but you can’t pre-define the entire organization. We need to look at PMO capabilities and services as separate entities and not as components of a whole.

PMOs are modular structures, not pre-fabs.

What we need is a framework or skeleton that tells us how to put these components together in a way that works best for one and only one PMO - yours.

So, there are really only two types of PMOs – yours – and not yours.

Mr. Derry Simmel, PMP, MBA, FLMI

Derry Simmel has been in IT and project management for over 15 years. He has started 3 PMOs in the last 6 years, the latest of which is with a large project for the State of South Carolina. Derry has an MBA from University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina. He currently serves as the Vice-Chairman of Membership for PMI’s Project Management Office Special Interest Group and as the VP of Programs for the PMI Midlands Chapter. Derry maintains All about Project Management Offices, a professional blog covering all aspects of PMO.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 and is filed under Project Management Musings, Project Management Office. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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