The PMO Baking Challenge: The Right Recipe for Portfolio Success

Elizabeth is a freelance writer and project manager living and working in London. She runs The Otobos Group, a project communications consultancy specializing in project management.

  PMO  

We’ve just finished project management award season, and there were certainly some PMOs up for prizes that deserve longing looks. You know the type: the PMOs that just work. They run smoothly, deliver value, and seem to rise to the occasion every time. Others sink without a trace. I’ve heard the average life cycle of a PMO is seven years, so there is definitely a secret recipe for going the distance.

What if the PMO was an organizational kitchen? You have ingredients, tools, timing and (if you’re lucky) a supportive team of chefs. The challenge, as in any great bake off, is getting the mix right.

The ingredients: People, process, data and culture
I happen to have a professional baker in the family and she tells me that every successful bake begins with high-quality ingredients (especially butter). In PMO terms, that means:

• People who are empowered, curious, and collaborative
• Processes that are consistent yet flexible
• Data that’s trustworthy and used to make decisions, not only pretty dashboards
• Culture that values learning as much as delivery

If you’re missing any of these, the result will be meh. If we’re pushing the metaphor, a PMO with great templates but no human connection to support project teams is like a beautifully iced cake that tastes of nothing. But an enthusiastic group of humans trying hard with nothing …

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