PMO FAQs: Frequently Avoided Questions About PMOs
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Organizations exist in all shapes and sizes, which means there is a wide range of project management needs to be fulfilled by standards, processes and best practices. In order to cope with that challenge, some organizations implement project management offices (PMOs).
PMI’s Pulse of the Profession: PMO Frameworks describes types of PMOs and their characteristics. Moreover, there are plenty of books and research on this topic (see Brian Hobbs and Peter Taylor, for example). However, despite PMO’s good references, detailed implementation and well-intentioned frameworks, organizations continue to question the value of these offices.
I recently came across four multinational organizations that killed their PMOs entirely. Although I believe these decisions did more harm than good, it is unquestionable that PMOs have to reinvent themselves. That’s why I compiled a list Frequently Avoided Questions that should be answered with honesty right from the start:
- Does your organization really need a PMO?
- What is the unique value proposition of your PMO?
- Do you have a business model for your PMO?
- Who are the clients of your PMO?
- How are you going to measure the impact of your PMO?
Answering these questions is not an easy task. In order to answer, “Yes, we need a PMO,” you have to understand organizational strategy, structure and culture.
- Strategy
- Structure
- Project-oriented organizations are more suitable to PMOs because support functions are designed to improve projects’ performance. Matrix organizations pose different challenges to PMOs because there is a need to balance operations and projects. Functional organizations are not PMO-friendly due to silos and specialization.
- Culture
- Change management is critical in PMO implementations. Some organizational cultures would simply target a PMO as an “anomalous cell” to be purged. If that’s the case, don’t even try to implement a PMO.
If you understand the organizational contexts of strategy, structure and culture and your answer is still, “Yes, we need a PMO,” it is time to define what type of PMO (questions 2, 3 and 4) to create. Performance measurements and KPIs are part of answering question 5. After working through those questions, we can finally craft and execute a plan.
But I get ahead of myself: I’ll address these topics in my next few blog posts. Don’t miss them! And please, leave your comments and suggestions below.
And by the way: Visit PMI’s Knowledge Shelf to learn more about PMOs.
Posted
by
Mario Trentim
on: October 26, 2015 01:02 PM |
Permalink
Comments (14)
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PARAG KANDEKAR
VP Operations| SoftNice Inc
Allentown, Pa, United States
I have seen there is misunderstanding about PMO. PMO has more strategic and guiding role as compared to some one who keep on Auditing and seek for Reporting. I have seen few organization where PMO is group of people who has all authorities and they keep of seeking various reports which makes the work more difficult rather than helping.
PMO should be group where we can look upto for getting solutions to your problems.
Rajinder Parti
Project Manager PhD PMP| Lonza Biologics Inc.
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Excellent article. I also agree with Parag that PMO should be playing a strategic role rather than providing support only in terms of record keeping.
PMO is not needed in functional organizations. People perceive it as something wasteful and interfering. Any thoughts?
Andreia Reis
PMO Coordenator| Adimax Indústria e Comércio de Alimentos
Mairinque, São Paulo, Brazil
Thank you for Sharing!, very useful article, In my opinion is more convenient have PMO in Traditional Companies that are using hierarchical functional structure or weak matrix in which the Product Manager have little or no authority
I have doubt concerning if the development of skills the Professional of PMO is more complex than the Manager of PMO.
Yours faithfully
Hi Mario, Good thoughts. PMO being part of shaping the vision, driving strategy, proving meaning, etc. are all laudable objectives. At the same time, we should remember that an organization is a complex system. Any entity that tries to embed itself into such a system should consider potential conflicts of interest with other components. I think some PMOs fail not because of not delivering value but because of inability to integrate into the "larger system" and its often contradictory goals. Prabhaker Panditi
Mario Trentim
CEO| PMO Global Alliance
Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dear Parag, thanks for your comments. In my opinion, there are different types of PMOs and we have to choose one according to our needs. Some organisations have a bunch of smaller projects that would benefit from a support PMO in the operations level. Other companies might need more maturity on governance and portfolio management with strategic direction, which would imply a different type of PMO. The tricks of the trade here are that every PMO needs a mission statement, a "concept of operations", that will guide its business model and implementation.
Mario Trentim
CEO| PMO Global Alliance
Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dear Rajinder, it is difficult to answer your question. In reality, PMOs add overhead to the organisation. That's why we have to clearly evaluate the costs and benefits of a PMO. Many companies implemented PMOs as a kind of "fashion" without seriously analysing if the structure chosen was best-suited for organisational context and needs. This is the reason I wanted to uncover the five Frequently Avoided Questions in this post.
Mario Trentim
CEO| PMO Global Alliance
Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dear Andreia, depending on the PMO's "value proposition", it will add more features to address the needs of a wide range of stakeholders. In my next post, I am going to provide an example based on the Business Model Generation to define and implement a PMO. Once you know the PMO's mission and Main Activities, you can plan for key resources and partnerships to help you in delivering the value proposition.
Mario Trentim
CEO| PMO Global Alliance
Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dear Panditi, I agree with you. That's why change management is a sensitive topic regarding PMO implementation. The PMO Implementation is a project and I usually tackle it through a stakeholder-centered approach, explained here: http://trent.im/stakeholders_webinar
Sergio Luis Conte
Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Good to read this article. Congratulations. I hope that people who will start a PMO take into account that. Trying to add something what you mention can be put in terms of business architecture. And to analyze the business architecture to determine the impact to implement a PMO you can use the Tom Peter´s Seven S model which contains all the variables you mentioned (plus others 4) which as you mention will help to answer the critical questions you mentioned above. Once again please let me say Congratulations for the article.
I like the heading Frequently Avoided Questions...
Mario Trentim
CEO| PMO Global Alliance
Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Thanks, Sergio! I agree with you. Organisations have to think more strategically about PMOs. Unfortunately, most of them doesn't take the time. That's why we have so many failed PMO implementations.
Mark Geres
Director| PM by Design Canada, Inc.
Cantley, Quebec, Canada
Notable too is Mark Mullay's PMO charter. It is not the project plan for developing the PMO, but instead the statement of what the PMO will do once it is developed.
Table of Contents
1 PMO Statement Of Purpose
1.1 Mandate
1.2 Background
1.3 Organizational Context
2 Customers & Stakeholders
2.1 Customers
2.1 Stakeholders
3 Services Offerings
3.1 Overview
3.2 For Each Service
4 PMO Structure
4.1 PMO Structure Chart
4.2 Roles, Responsibilities, Accountabilities and Authorities
5 PMO Success Profile
5.1 Critical Success Factors
5.2 Measures Of Success
http://www.projectmanagement.com/deliverables/136028/Program-Management-Office-Charter
Mark Geres
Director| PM by Design Canada, Inc.
Cantley, Quebec, Canada
Is your PMO avoiding or falling prey to common pitfalls that can lead to failure?
Find out in this white paper. Top 10 PMO Worst Practices: Pitfalls to Avoid
Gartner Research estimates that Project Management Offices (PMO) have a failure rate of 50% or more on their first try. Changepoint has engaged with thousands of enterprise customers to help ensure they are successful with their PMO organizations from the outset and avoid the common pitfalls that lead to failure. Based on our experience, we've compiled the top 10 PMO worst practices that we've seen and advice on how to avoid them.
http://changepoint.com/en-us/resources/white-papers/wp_ppm-10-pmo-worst-practices-pitfalls-to-avoid.aspx
Mario Trentim
CEO| PMO Global Alliance
Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Thanks for your thoughts, Mark.
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