Gregory HedgesBusiness Consultant| Self EmployedAdkins, Tx, United States
We are a growing PMO. Upper management feels the PMO needs a director. The team feels a portfolio manager is a better fit. Any advice? Saving Changes...
Sorry for the stupid-sounding question, but what's the difference exactly? Because the way I see it, there might be no point in arguing over a job title if the day-to-day activities end up being the same. Any chance you could post the roles and responsabilities of both the PMO Director and the Portfolio Manager, so everyone can see where they differ? Saving Changes...
Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
Gregory, it seems like you have posted the same question twice in two places - "Project Leadership" and "Project Management Central".
Regarding your question, I agree with Julien. We should actually look at the job scope and description. Job title can be very misleading sometimes. It is what we do that counts and not how we are being addressed. Saving Changes...
Bernard GorePortfolio, Programme & Project Professional| NZ PoliceWellington, New Zealand
In reality these roles can cover the same areas. If the principal role is to manage the portfolio of projects - manage the process of how these get assessed and which ones are accepted to progress, and how they are prioritised, then that is clearly a portfolio role, but often a PMO manager will do this as part of their role.
If the role includes a lot of defining and educating on methodology and process, providing governance, provided project support etc then that is more a PMO manager role. Saving Changes...
Philippe CaoProject Engineer| Eaton CorporationToronto, Ontario, Canada
I also agree with Julien: It depends on the job description. Let's just consider 3 examples (among many others):
Example #1: A PMO was set up for the construction of a house. There are 3 Project Managers working closely together : PM-Civil, PM-Electrical, PM-Mechanical. They report to the Program Manager who is also the head of this PMO. The Program Manager is involved in the day-to-day tasks of the 3 projects (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical) because the 3 disciplines are very closely related.
Example #2: A PMO was set up for the construction of 3 buildings. The 3 buildings are different in style, independent and unrelated. Building#1 is for residential (Condos); Building#2 is for institutional (School); Building#3 is for commercial (Shopping Center). There is a PM for each building and the 3 PM's do not work together. The PMO is run by a PMO Director or PMO Officer. The PMO Director is not involved in projects. He is only there to manage the human side of the projects and the common resources (same office, office equipment, lunch room, lunch service, medical doctor, security guards, etc).
Example #3: A big company has 4 PMO's at 4 corners of the US: PMO-NW, PMO-NE, PMO-SW, PMO-SE. Each PMO is responsible for its region and is managed by a Program Manager, so there are 4 Program Managers in total and they do not work together. They report to a Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) based in Ohio (head office) and run by a Portfolio Manager. Saving Changes...
