Your PMO Isn't Changing Fast Enough

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  

I talk to a lot of PMO staff, PMO leaders and organizational managers who have PMOs report to them. The structures and approaches of those PMOs vary greatly, as do the challenges they face and the ways that they try to overcome those challenges. But there is one aspect of PMOs that seems to be common across all industries, structures, operating models and maturity levels: the idea that PMO is somehow different from the rest of the business.

Let me give you an example. In a recent conversation with a PMO leader, I was asked for advice on how to improve the way that the business interacts with the PMO. This leader was concerned that he and his team weren’t receiving information about changes in the strategic priorities quickly enough, and that as a result the project teams were struggling to keep up with shifting needs.

The problem is common enough, but the way that this PMO head was speaking made it clear that he didn’t see his function as part of “the business.” He felt he was downstream of that function and reliant on the business to complete its work before communicating with the PMO.

I think this is a real problem. PMOs are a part of the business—every department is part of the business, and if you don’t take accountability for working together to find the right solution, then you are simply adding to the problem. Even if the PMO …

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