There was a survey in the April edition of Project Manager Today which reported that only 17% of respondents of a survey thought that their PMO was 'very effective' in addressing key business challenges within an organisation. In effect the value of the PMO still needs to be sold and some just see it as an added overhead; a poor relation to other support functions such as Finance or HR.
Furthermore, only 8% of the respondents believed that their PMO was successful as compared to the remaining 92% (who thought their PMO was not successful) for the following reasons:
1.Lack of executive support
2.Lack of defined goals and responsibilities
3.Lack of dedicated facilities , equipment and infrastructure
4.Lack of corporate goal alignment
From personal observations I would say that these findings are about right.
One would expect the PMO to have the same level of standing as the Finance Office or HR but it doesn't.
So my question to people is what is the value of a PMO without mincing words? Just honest straight talk... Saving Changes...
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Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Anon,
Great post. In the spirit of your request to not mince words, here is my straight talk. When PMOs are business driven, that is they are created to meet a business need, they are driven by measurable goals and objectives, and their focus is on achieving those objectives, they are successful. When PMOs are not business driven, rather driven by someone's idea of what a PMO should be and do or what that person wants to do, then the PMO takes on a life form of its own, pursues actions that may be self-serving, and in many cases defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory.
IMHO, the PMO should never be sold to the organization, nor need to be sold to the organization. When a PMO is driven by business need, the value is self-evident and measurable per the goals and objectives of the PMO. When a PMO is not driven by business need, but by other motivations and desires, that is when you end up with the "we need to sell the PMO" discussion.
And regarding surveys that show a majority of PMOs as ineffective, no doubt some PMOs are, but often these surveys are poorly designed. For example in the survey that you mentioned, what does "addressing key business challenges within an organization" really mean to the respondent? And when the respondent replies "very effective", what does that mean? Many of these surveys seem to suggest that every PMO must be an ultra strategic PMO, with executive visibility and visitation, and a high degree of alignment between business strategy and projects. While all of this is appropriate for the strategic PMO and to an extent the enterprise PMO, not every PMO is a strategic or enterprise PMO. A far better survey question would be, "how effective is your PMO in achieving its goals?" Or, "how effective is your PMO strategy?" For example, a strategic PMO may have a completely different set of goals and strategies than an EPMO, IT PMO, engineering PMO, geographic PMO, business unit PMO, etc.
Anon, this is really a good post. I hope we hear and learn from others. Saving Changes...
Gentlemen,
Thank you for good reading! I agree with Mark: PMOs that exist because of a need that has come from the organization, are most likely as efficient as they intended to be and will be able to grow and develop to follow the business. I think that the PMO term and function is "in trend" and as such, many organizations will feel that they have to establish a PMO without investigating the need for it or even worse, inventing a need and thus giving itself a need to sell the PMO to the organization. Any function in an organization must have a purpose to fulfill - a mission - and without this, has no right to exist. Saving Changes...
"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time--a tremendous whack."
