Has Your PMO Lived Up to Its Promise?

Stephanie is a project process specialist, trainer and mentor. She is the Lead Consultant at Jaeger Consultants Ltd in Nairobi. Stephanie specializes in the human aspect of project management and leadership, and encourages discussion and feedback. She also writes regular blogs on jaeger-consultants.com.

  PMO  

A few years ago, there was a believe in senior management circles in my region that a PMO would resolve all project management issues. Companies were attempting to set up PMOs in a hurry.

However, many of these PMOs no longer exist, or no longer exist in the previous form. Having set up several PMOs in various companies and having worked in those set up by others, it’s time to reflect on this.

What kind of PMOs are there?
For a company to decide to set up a project management office, there must be a business value envisioned. This means that senior management envisions some benefit that will help the company move forward or improve. For you to be able to set up a PMO, this business value needs to be defined.

But it’s not just what they envision. Remember: Your senior managers are not necessarily subject matter experts for PMO matters. Usually when you present the different PMO types and their benefits, they will want it all—which is not really possible to implement since it will create a conflict of interest.

I usually start out by documenting user stories. I talk with the different internal stakeholders on all levels, check if there are any legal compliance requirements, and then document the stories in their own words. But this article is not about how to set up a PMO; it’s a reflection on whether PMOs have been successful. So just as a …

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