What is your view on having a PMO in a week matrix or balanced matrix organization. How it can be useful?
In my experience they serves a very little help to projects and are not well defined. Saving Changes...
A lot depends on the purpose of the PMO, the "system" in which it is established and the overall organizational PM maturity.
Just because we have a weak or balanced matrix power structure does not imply lower PM maturity.
I've seen some highly successful PMOs in weak and balanced matrix organizations and some failed ones in strong matrix and even projectized organizations.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
A weak matrix often does have a low maturity and low reliance on project management. Then the justification for a PMO invest can be hard.
On the other hand, if you have a weak matrix and a sponsor recognizes the need to change this, a PMO can be setup to solve this problem. It is important then to identify the right benefits. It is not only to satisfy the sponsor's feeling. There is a perceived dis-benefit for line managers who get some of their powers removed. And there might be a benefit to project managers who feel they can make an impact by being more empowered. A good idea is to provide benefit to the CFO by reducing waste from troubled projects. And I found a well perceived benefit to executives by reducing their time share in escalations, and the number of surprise events per week. Saving Changes...
