Defining The Services Of The PMO: The Customers' View

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  

As I have assumed 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.

So far in this series I have discussed an overall planning framework for defining and establishing a PMO, including defining a mandate and defining the PMO Charter. This article in the series defines in more detail the process that needs to be followed in defining the services of the PMO. The service offerings are the critical lynch-pin of the PMO Charter, and clearly define what support customers of the PMO can expect to receive on an ongoing basis once the PMO is fully implemented.

There are many services that a PMO might offer, depending upon the mandate that has been established for it. Moreover, how these services are offered will be unique to each organization. There is no single model--no "PMO in a box"--that a company can buy today in response to the urge to build a PMO. There is no single definition of what a PMO even is. But there are certain archetypes that …

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