The use of a PMO- Is there one in place? Is it effective? How do they measure success? What are their challenges and how are they being addressed? Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Sunando ChaudhuriDirector - PMO & Governance| ModonDist: Burdwan, West Bengal, India
Hi Pauletta,
Personally I think the POM definitely have a place in the organization and tend to deliver value. I still think an EPMO presents more value than smaller PMOs within groups. I think they can create an effective bridge between Project teams and the Senior management.
Measuring success should ideally have to come after sometime. You can measure immediate sucecss if you move some of the work from your PMs to the PMO (admin stuff) and free up PMs to take up more work. This gives you a benefit right away. Having said that, ideally I would expect the benefit realisation to happen after a coupld of years. Also personally I think the success can be measured depending on how well the objectives are identified/ defined at the start.
The biggest challenge that I see for a PMO is the ownership. Unless directly placed under senior management and provided the right autority levels it can become a total failure. It is always a challenge to bring something new considering it becomes a change and as usual people start objecting to change initially. But I thin once people start seeing the value add, they will automatically buy into this.
Look forward to more comments on this..
Regards,
Sunando Saving Changes...
Stuart DixonProject Office Manager| Xl CatlinCrowbrough, United Kingdom
Paulette
This is quite a broad question, and the answer will depend on your organisation. However I think is probably as relevant to ask the question about PMs, or a finance department or a marketing department. If your first answer to any these questions is 'why do they even bother asking this', then you have a department which add value to the organisation.
For an overview on what a PMO should do, how to structure and how to win people over then I would suggest the P3O guidance from the OGC in the UK.
As for personally how do I measure success of my PMO? This is easy I talk to the people that the PMO offers service to, and ask them what they think. This then helps drive the service offering that the PMO delivers. This will then answer your question about what the challenges are, and how they are being addressed.
Saving Changes...
Marion CotterillIT Programme Manager| nib health fundNewcastle, Nsw, Australia
If a business has a separate IT and PMO business unit. Should the role of IT program managment reside within IT or PMO?
Over the last year our PMO has achieved a high profile in the business. Some of the success has been due to having a program manger role sitting between IT and the PMO. With thoughts to make this role permanent in the business , should the role reside in IT or the PMO? Saving Changes...
Michael ShirrellEnterprise Architect| SalesforceNoblesville, IN, United States
Marion,
I think your question speaks more the role of the PMO in your organization. Is the PMO responsible for project completion or is it responsible merely for policing project standards? If it is the former then I would believe that IT project management should be a role of the PMO. Of course the PM assigned would need more of a technical background but the details of the actual work is where SMEs become critical.
If your organization defines your PMO by the latter then the PM role should reside within the business units with oversight or guidance given by the PMO as to the standards, methodologies and measures.
As with any case, though, there is always the gray middle ground where we all exist. In my organization both the PMO and IT report to the same person. However, the PMO is a separate entity from IT and completes both normal business unit projects and IT projects (as I complete both cross-functional and IT projects). I rely on the SMEs within IT to fill in the information that I may not know but do actively manage their projects. We do not have a layer between myself and IT resources...that role, to me, seems redundant (dual-PMs). Saving Changes...
