Organizational Risk & the PMO

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  PMO   Risk Management   Strategy   ProjectsAtWork  

The PMO may not have direct accountability for the execution of organizational risk processes, but it remains a key stakeholder, providing critical support in a number of areas that impact risk, including process ownership, faciliting change and influencing the project culture.

In recent articles we have looked at organizational risk in the context of portfolio, programs and projects.  We need to complete this area of organizational risk management by considering the office that may well have oversight for all of these project execution elements, the PMO. Regardless of the specific mandate and structure of a PMO, in the broadest sense at least part of its role is to provide support to project execution, including organizational risk management.

Here are three key areas where the PMO can and should support organizational risk management.

Process ownership

This is perhaps the simplest role and will occur when the PMO is the owner of the organization’s project execution methodology.  Just like other processes the PMO will ensure that the process is in place and maintained, that it aligns with other areas of organizational processes, and that it is reviewed on a regular basis. The PMO may also have a role to play in the updating and improving of the process, depending on where portfolio management sits within the organization. However, the PMO should…

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