I've worked at companies with both and with neither, and I've seen overlap between the two. In my experience, the steering committee was making decisions about priority and budget, while the PMO was concerned with assigning PMs, project status, making sure PMs had the support they needed, and providing guidelines and best practices for projects. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
A steering committee is a high-level group whose job is to provide governance and direction to a certain project or segment of the organization,
A PMO, could be supporting, directing or strategic. Depending on the purpose and function of the PMO, sometimes steering committees are part of the PMO or PMO representatives are part of steering committees for projects. It all depends on the organizational structure. Saving Changes...
A PMO could be focused on a single program or project if it is considered strategic enough. However, usually in such cases, that function is not involved with steering but rather with providing support. In such cases, the PMO is a temporary entity.
Most of the PMOs I have worked with tend to operate at a higher level than a single project or program and will live beyond the life of any one project or program whereas a steering committee will tend to be formed for the life of a project or program.
A true steering committee is there to help the leadership of the project steer the project in the right direction and often is made up of a cross-functional set of senior leaders.
So a PMO might be a peer-level body to a steering committee, or a separate organization/division/department function.
Kiron
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1 reply by Latha Thamma reddi
Apr 19, 2023 4:52 PM
Latha Thamma reddi
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I agree with kiron, Thanks for sharing nice anwers
PMO is usually a fixed office dedicated to administrating projects, either in as directing, controlling or supporting project issues.
A steering committee, for another part, is generally a temporal management group dedicated to providing strategy, leadership, and governance to a single sector or project. Saving Changes...
Hi, in my experience: steering committee is a group of stakeholders to make decisions on escalations ; mostly interested in status
The PMO is a group of your peers. While they might be helpful in solving issues on a project this is not the responsibility of the PMO group. Saving Changes...
Latha Thamma reddiSr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC TechnologyMckinney, Tx, United States
PMO is responsible for providing project management support to project teams, while a steering committee provides strategic direction and oversight to the project. Both structures are essential for successful project delivery, but they serve different functions and have different areas of focus. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Adam,
there are many flavors of both.
You received already a good amount of great advice here.
Let me add the perspective that a steering committee always is a governing body for one or more projects, making decisions and providing support from the organization (say:indirect).
A PMO may be governing in special cases (directive PMO), but often is providing direct support to projects, in resources, tools, knowledge etc. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Both are totally different things. Steering Committee has to be created for each program/project to solve escalation issues. PMO is a business unit that will create, between other things, governance models for programs and projects. Saving Changes...
Hasan YavuzProgram Manager (SC)| Middle East Technical UniversityAnkara, Türkiye
steering committee behaves like a sponsor but pmo produces the products or works Saving Changes...
Latha Thamma reddiSr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC TechnologyMckinney, Tx, United States
Mar 21, 2023 5:00 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Adam -
A PMO could be focused on a single program or project if it is considered strategic enough. However, usually in such cases, that function is not involved with steering but rather with providing support. In such cases, the PMO is a temporary entity.
Most of the PMOs I have worked with tend to operate at a higher level than a single project or program and will live beyond the life of any one project or program whereas a steering committee will tend to be formed for the life of a project or program.
A true steering committee is there to help the leadership of the project steer the project in the right direction and often is made up of a cross-functional set of senior leaders.
So a PMO might be a peer-level body to a steering committee, or a separate organization/division/department function.
Kiron
I agree with kiron, Thanks for sharing nice anwers Saving Changes...
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