Project Management

A Five-Phase Approach to Launching a PMO

From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.

About this Blog

RSS

View Posts By:

Cameron McGaughy
Lynda Bourne
Kevin Korterud
Conrado Morlan
Peter Tarhanidis
Mario Trentim
Jen Skrabak
David Wakeman
Wanda Curlee
Christian Bisson
Ramiro Rodrigues
Soma Bhattacharya
Emily Luijbregts
Sree Rao
Yasmina Khelifi
Marat Oyvetsky
Lenka Pincot
Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres
cyndee miller

Past Contributors:

Rex Holmlin
Vivek Prakash
Dan Goldfischer
Linda Agyapong
Jim De Piante
Siti Hajar Abdul Hamid
Bernadine Douglas
Michael Hatfield
Deanna Landers
Kelley Hunsberger
Taralyn Frasqueri-Molina
Alfonso Bucero Torres
Marian Haus
Shobhna Raghupathy
Peter Taylor
Joanna Newman
Saira Karim
Jess Tayel
Lung-Hung Chou
Rebecca Braglio
Roberto Toledo
Geoff Mattie

Recent Posts

5 Strategies Equipping 2025 PM Success

Minimize the Loss: Keeping the Scrum Team Motivated

Can You Be Too Passionate?

Beyond the Basics: Essential Topics to Address When Forming a Scrum Team

How to Create Effective Exit Criteria

Categories

2020, Adult Development, Agile, Agile, Agile, agile, Agile management, Agile management, Agile;Community;Talent management, Artificial Intelligence, Backlog, Basics, Benefits Realization, Best Practices, BIM, business acumen, Business Analysis, Business Analysis, Business Case, Business Intelligence, Business Transformation, Calculating Project Value, Canvas, Career Development, Career Development, Career Help, Career Help, Career Help, Career Help, Careers, Careers, Careers, Careers, Categories: Career Help, Change Management, Cloud Computing, Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration, Communication, Communication, Communication, Communication, Communication, Complexity, Conflict, Conflict Management, Consulting, Continuous Learning, Continuous Learning, Continuous Learning, Continuous Learning, Continuous Learning, Cost, COVID-19, Crises, Crisis Management, critical success factors, Cultural Awareness, Culture, Decision Making, Design Thinking, Digital Project Management, Digital Transformation, digital transformation, Digitalisation, Disruption, Diversity, Documentation, Earned Value Management, Education, EEWH, Enterprise Risk Management, Escalation management, Estimating, Ethics, execution, Expectations Management, Facilitation, feasibility studies, Future, Future of Project Management, Generational PM, Global Diversity, Governance, Government, green building, Growth, Horizontal Development, Human Aspects of PM, Human Aspects of PM, Human Aspects of PM, Human Aspects of PM, Human Aspects of PM, Human Resources, Inclusion, Innovation, Intelligent Building, International, International Development, Internet of Things (IOT), Internet of Things (IoT), IOT, IT Project Management, IT Strategy, Knowledge, Leadership, Leadership, Leadership, Leadership, Leadership, lean construction, LEED, Lessons Learned, Lessons learned;Retrospective, Managing for Stakeholders, managing stakeholders as clients, Mentoring, Mentoring, Mentoring, Mentoring, Mentoring, Methodology, Metrics, Micromanagement, Microsoft Project PPM, Motivation, Negotiation, Neuroscience, neuroscience, New Practitioners, Nontraditional Project Management, OKR, Online Learning, opportunity, Organizational Culture, Organizational Project Management, Pandemic, People, People management, Planing, planning, PM & the Economy, PM History, PM Think About It, PMBOK Guide, PMI, PMI EMEA 2018, PMI EMEA Congress 2017, PMI EMEA Congress 2019, PMI Global Conference 2017, PMI Global Conference 2018, PMI Global Conference 2019, PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America, PMI Global Congress 2011 - EMEA, PMI Global Congress 2011 - North America, PMI Global Congress 2012 - EMEA, PMI Global Congress 2012 - North America, PMI Global Congress 2013 - EMEA, PMI Global Congress 2013 - North America, PMI Global Congress 2014 - EMEA, PMI Global Congress 2014 - North America, PMI GLobal Congress EMEA 2018, PMI PMO Symposium 2012, PMI PMO Symposium 2013, PMI PMO Symposium 2015, PMI PMO Symposium 2016, PMI PMO Symposium 2017, PMI PMO Symposium 2018, PMI Pulse of the Profession, PMO, pmo, PMO Project Management Office, portfolio, Portfolio Management, portfolio management, Portfolios (PPM), presentations, Priorities, Probability, Problem Structuring Methods, Process, Procurement, profess, Program Management, Programs (PMO), project, Project Delivery, Project Dependencies, Project Failure, project failure, Project Leadership, Project Management, project management, project management office, Project Planning, project planning, Project Requirements, Project Success, Ransomware, Reflections on the PM Life, Remote, Remote Work, Requirements Management, Research Conference 2010, Researching the Value of Project Management, Resiliency, Risk, Risk Management, Risk management, risk management, ROI, Roundtable, Salary Survey, Scheduling, Scope, Scrum, search, SelfLeadership, SelfLeadership, SelfLeadership, SelfLeadership, SelfLeadership, Servant Leadership, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Knowledge, Social Responsibility, Sponsorship, Stakeholder, Stakeholder Management, stakeholder management, Strategy, swot, Talent Management, Talent Management, Talent Management, Talent Management, Talent Management, Talent Management Leadership SelfLeadership Collaboration Communication, Taskforce, Team Building, Teams, Teams in Agile, Teams in Agile, teamwork, Tech, Technical Debt, Technology, TED Talks, The Project Economy, Time, Timeline, Tools, tools, Transformation, transformation, Transition, Trust, Value, Vertical Development, Volunteering, Volunteering #Leadership #SelfLeadership, Volunteering Sharing Knowledge Leadership SelfLeadership Collaboration Trust, VUCA, Women in PM, Women in Project Management

Date



By Mario Trentim

I recently delivered a webinar at ProjectManagement.com on how to effectively define a project management office’s business model, functions and structure (watch the recording here).

In that presentation, I wanted to start a discussion on different modern approaches to defining and implementing PMOs. Today, I’m going to share some thoughts and examples on how to do that in practice.

A step-by-step process to define and implement a PMO helps to build buy-in. The following five phases lay out a learning process in which stakeholders are identified and engaged to discuss and develop a PMO model that best suits their organizational needs.

 

Phase 1: Assessment

Understand the organizational context and assess current project management practices and maturity levels. The as-is situation involves processes mapping and the use of maturity models, such as OPM3®.

 

Phase 2: Definition

Once the current situation (as is) is described in detail, explore the future desired situation (to be). The Business Model Generation helps in defining the ideal solution for a desired PMO model. The gap analysis between current and desired situations will guide the implementation plan.

This phase also includes defining the following aspects of the PMO:

Mandate: mission and vision

Business model: customers and value proposition

Structure and functions: processes, resources and partnerships

 

Phase 3: Implementation

This is not easy. It involves a lot of change management and stakeholder management. A phased approach to the implementation is recommended, especially for large endeavors.

You might want to implement a pilot PMO in a region or department before rolling it out to the entire organization. The implementation work packages will depend on the PMO definition. Deliverables might include: training, software, processes, methodology, templates and more.

 

Phase 4: Continuous Improvement

The PMO is an entity that must deliver business value. Its mission is not to help individual projects thrive but to boost the entire organization’s performance through best practices and governance.

As the organization changes and matures, so does the PMO. It should be a flexible and adaptable structure to accommodate new project management challenges ahead.

A continuous improvement plan may include a maturity-growing roadmap and regular assessment of PMO functions and KPIs to guarantee that it is always reinventing itself before it turns out to be obsolete.

 

Phase 5: Closeout

The closeout phase should include a celebration of the PMO results, emphasizing its mandate, to engage stakeholders and keep buy-in. 

The main lesson: always involve and engage stakeholders properly. Keep in mind that a PMO is an organizational structure that should create value, distribute value and capture value. The Business Model Generation helps to identify what value is for the stakeholders (customer segments/value proposition), which drives the PMO functions and structure.

It all starts with these frequently avoided questions about PMOs. Once you answer those questions, you can go to the next step: using the business model generation.

PMO Model Generation TRENTIM

Example of a PMO Business Model

 

Of course, you may have other ideas for PMO business models. What are your PMO’s customers? Value proposition? Functions? Share your comments, thoughts and suggestions below.

 

Posted by Mario Trentim on: March 26, 2016 11:16 AM | Permalink

Comments (4)

Please login or join to subscribe to this item
avatar
Prabhaker Panditi Head of Agile | Global Bank in UAE Hyderabad, Telangana, India
@Mario: Good post. PMO Business Model is excellent. In what ways would you redesign the model for an Agile environment? See, for example, an elaborate discussion about this at http://www.emergn.com/the-agile-pmo/

avatar
Suresh MK Director of PM/PMO| Ernst and Young Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Crisp and well written. what was not clear to me is how Business model generation leads to Ideal PMO model.

avatar
Mario Trentim CEO| PMO Global Alliance Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Hello Prabhaker, thanks for your comment! The Business Model Generation is very flexible and it can be adapted to all environments. Actually, it is a learning process focused on discovering stakeholders' needs to define the PMO's mandate, functions and structure. Regards, Mario.

avatar
Mario Trentim CEO| PMO Global Alliance Sao Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dear Suresh, please take a look at other articles and the webinar below:

http://www.projectmanagement.com/blog/Voices-on-Project-Management/15440/
http://www.projectmanagement.com/blog/Voices-on-Project-Management/17418/
https://trentim.com.br/en/english-pmo-trends-whats-the-future-ahead/
http://www.projectmanagement.com/webinars/318364/How-to-Effectively-Define-a-PMO-Business-Model--Structure-and-Functions

The ideal PMO model should be tailored to your organisational needs. The Business Model Generation is a learning process to guide you in this definition. As a matter of fact, a PMO is an organisational structure that provides services to other funcional areas and business units. In that sense, implementing a PMO is somewhat like creating a new company or a new business unit. That's why BMG is so helpful.

I am going to write another article with different PMO Models using BMG. The idea is that a different BMG canvas can be defined in a collaborative process. It should be validated. It should be measured and reviewed as needed.

Best regards,
Mario

Please Login/Register to leave a comment.

ADVERTISEMENTS
ADVERTISEMENT

Sponsors