Defining The PMO Continuum: Walking The Razor's Edge

Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.

 

The title of this column seems appropriate on a number of levels: For many Project and Program Management Offices in existence today, there is a delicate balance that they must find in the services they provide and the interventions they make. At the same time, there is so much passion--and such a diversity of opinions as to just what a PMO should do--that I'm probably opening myself up for a huge reaction, both positive and vituperative, in response to this column.

The razor's edge along which every PMO must balance is the one between support and control. The point where any one PMO falls on a continuum between these two points varies from organization to organization. Moreover, I would argue that--while it should be stable--it gets nudged back and forth on a daily basis as the PMO struggles to respond to pressures from various factions and stakeholder groups within the company.

To draw a broad brush-stroke stereotype for a moment, senior management will typically take a very strong position that the PMO should be a source of control over projects, while the project managers (and very often their customers as well) will argue that the PMO should--if it must exist at all--be limited to support, and preferably the least amount possible.

As with any stereotype, there are extremes and there are also examples that just won't hold up. That doesn't mean stereotypes aren't …

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