Viewing Posts by Peter Taylor
PMOs Shouldn't Forget the Project Manager
A project management office (PMO) usually follows one of three styles:
We aim to avoid direct ownership of projects except in specific cases, such as when the project is located where local project capability is low or the project has gone badly wrong. In this latter case, we aim to "own" the project for as short a time as possible and always develop a transition plan back to the original project manager if possible. The PMO should generally not be considered the "mother of all project managers." Rather, it should be seen as the body that helps develop the best project managers -- the ones who are facing stakeholders on a day-to-day basis, the ones experiencing the meeting of theory and practice. A PMO can:
Let's not forget the project manager. |
PMOs Aren't Just for Project Managers
Categories:
PMOs
Categories: PMOs
| The project management office (PMO) is one of the fastest-growing concepts in project management today, but it's not the only answer. The PMO was born to aid the project manager. Surely then, the PMO (and, as a direct result, you) would benefit if there were a parallel organization for the technical managers, consultants, architects, design specialists, gurus of the world of application configuration and so on. The PMO is not and should not be an isolated body talking only to the project managers. It should be one of many business units leading the delivery of company strategy. Align the PMO to a single technical body, no matter what it is, and then align the two through a common process or methodology. Think about your own in-house project methodology for a moment. Is it just for project managers or does it extend to integrate the technical tasks? Does it recognize the non-project management roles and responsibilities? Does it involve the technical deliveries and control mechanisms? It should. If you have a common method, have you trained each team in a way that they both respect and understand each other's skills and duties? Have you done so in a way that ensures that the highest level of communication? You should. When your business assesses the value, benefit and simply whether a new project should go ahead at all, it won't just be the project manager's view that gets the budget approved, will it? So align the technical gurus and the project gurus as one to ensure that the lowest risk and highest ROI projects are commissioned. Perhaps the future is the perfect pairing of a PMO with a TMO -- a technical management office. It may be that the TMO is formed as a separate entity but closely works alongside the existing PMO -- or even that the PMO embraces and includes the TMO function. The specifics of how a PMO or TMO relationship would take shape depend on what's best for your own organization, but perhaps it is the future. What do you think? |
Should PMOs Come With an Expiration Date?
Categories:
PMOs
Categories: PMOs
| Projects and programs aren't for life. So as the home for project managers, projects and programs, should we not consider the project management office (PMO) in the same light? |
