The PMO Project

  Estimating   PMO   ProjectsAtWork  

This is not another article on how to manage or define the benefits of a Program or Project Management Office (PMO). There are many excellent articles on this subject, many of which provide very valuable information that you can adopt or adapt to your specific needs. We want to focus on how one starts up a PMO from the perspective that it is a project in its own right.  

In our own experience and in feedback discussions we have had with many project management and PMO professionals, difficulties in establishing a PMO are frequently due to the fact that some of the key tenets of treating it like a project (e.g., focusing on senior management commitment) did not, in hindsight, receive the level of attention they warranted.

Let us first consider the two basic milestones in any project: ‘Start’ and ‘Finish’, and how they relate to establishing a PMO:  

  > The ‘Start’ occurs when the idea is in the early initiation or exploratory phase of the PMO. We’ll assume that it’s the point at which either you have been approached by C-level executives or you’re approaching them with the idea of a ‘PMO’, it has some merit and at least a verbal approval to continue obtaining information as to its viability.

  > The ‘Finish’ milestone is reached when the PMO is considered to be …

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