Developing A Charter For The PMO

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.

  PMO  

Since assuming responsibility for gantthead's Program Management Office department, I have tried to raise some of the fundamental challenges and issues that face the typical PMO in an organizational context. While admittedly theoretical in some regards, the first few columns have endeavoured to lay the groundwork for a more involved discussion of developing PMOs. This column continues a multi-part series that addresses the practical steps and considerations in setting up a PMO in today's organizations.

In previous columns in this series, I have made the argument that the implementation of a PMO needs to be treated like any other project: the purpose and objectives must be defined, its implementation must be planned and the plan needs to be executed. In reality, however, there are two plans that must be created: the operational definition of the PMO, and the plan for implementing it. This month's column deals with the first dimension, which is captured in the PMO's charter.

The charter is, in effect, the organizational mandate for the PMO to exist. A charter defines the role, purpose and functions of the PMO. It articulates who the PMO's sponsors and customers are, the services that it offers and the staffing and support structures required to deliver those services. The charter is not the project plan for developing the PMO, but instead the statement of what the PMO will …

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