The emerging trend is for organsations to have a Change Management Office. This sometime includes the PMO functionality and sometimes only focusses on change management. Has any one any experience in working with a CMO and what model works best? Saving Changes...
According to me, CMO will be present in a organization which has traditional organization structure (not project based organization). CMO takes care of the organization wide change, including the organization structure.
PMO will be present only in project based organization. PMO drives the project management practices in the project teams.
So CMO is completely different from PMO!
Best Regards,
Vivekanandan M Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Julie
Very interesting question and based on the way you interpret change management it will have two different answers.
CMO for organisational change management
In this case the CMO creates the business process and procedures for the new organisation form and will educate, train and prepare the user community for the change to come.
In this case there is little association with PMO other as to align timelines and agreeingon delivery dates.
CMO as change process in the project
Project/program driven organisations manage multiple initiatives in parallel. When the scope of one of the projects/programs change this might have an impact on one or more other projects. Before a change is approved the organisation wide impact needs to be evaluated and the necessary fundings defined and made available. In such a situation the PMO will be more and more focussed as a dependency management office and the main existence becomes defining the change impact area or suggesting alternatives to resuce the change impact area to reduce the costs.
In the latter case it might make sense to change the name to CMO
Looking at Change Management from a Project Management prospective. From my own experience and specifically in IT it was mandatory for all the Project Managers to raise a Change Request through an automated system for the Change Management Team to receive, review and approve. This was necessary to ensure that the change proposed did not impact on existing systems or other initiatives and to ensure it was viable to go ahead. The review\approve process was held once a week with all the Change Requests put forward that were discussed in detail with technical and business representatives that prioritised the changes to take place with a given timescale.
Regards
Vasoula Saving Changes...
Brent CahillNorth Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Julie,
I have had experience working with CMO functions in some of Australia's largest banks. Particularly from the perspective of the PMO. Also from handling change management as part of a PMO in smaller organisations.
Thus I consider having a CMO is a matter of size of the organisation. Without a doubt you require change focused individuals as you scale up, however these should remain as part of the PMO to smooth communication between the two functions and ensure that each are aware of risks as they arise within projects or from an enterprise perspective.
Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss.
Great feedback thanks.
As implementers of change via projects I see a synergy between that and the Organisational Change functions.
From my reading a CMO (for organisational change) should it be OCMO? has a two fold role in co-ordinating change across the organisation and setting the OCM standards and processes in a similar way that a PMO does for projects. Saving Changes...
Many organizations have a Change Control Board (CCB) or governing body managing and approving changes. In most cases, if you have a PMO in place; they are included in the CCB, but the CCB is a different focus as it looks more at the business side of things. I don't run across a CMO very often in my travels in the US or abroad. Many companies have a CCB or change Governance group too manage change at a higher level. Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
I do agree with John. There are not many companies with a cmo. PMO and ccb are more common Saving Changes...
Peter TaylorVP Global PMO and Keynote Speaker/Author| DayforceNewent, United Kingdom
I would say that my PMO incorporates the 'CMO' function rather than the other way around. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Our change control board schedules and oversees technical operational changes to the production environment. In other words, it's a technical forum to discuss the impact of changes. Projects have a change control process. I haven't come across many companies with a CMO - for it to be effective I would have thought the company would need to be sizeable. Is it just a new name for PMO? Saving Changes...
Randy WimmerIT Program / Portfolio Manager| Walgreens Boots AllianceChicago, Il, United States
Don't personally know of any companies with a formal CMO but know that many PMOs perform Change Management activites. The challenge with the term "Change Management" is that it can mean different things - could be related ITIL, End User Adoption, Portfolio Trade Off Analysis, etc.
If you have an interest in IT Portfolio Management I just created a LinkedIn group called "IT Portfolio Management Community of Practice". Please feel free to join. Saving Changes...
