What approach should be taken when creating a PMO charter? Any recommendations regarding format as well as what areas/topics should be covered and to what level of detail? Appreciate any/all feedback. Saving Changes...
Mark MullalyPresident| Interthink Consulting IncorporatedToronto, Ontario, Canada
Walter:
The purpose of a PMO Charter is to define the operational parameters of the PMO. As such, it is going to look much more like a business plan then it is a project plan.
The key thing to emphasize is that when establishing a PMO, there are two fundamental dimensions to be addressed:
The activities that will be undertaken in implementing the PMO.
The on-going operational/functional role of the PMO once it has been implemented.
While both of these should be defined in the charter, the first point will be defined at a fairly high level (with individual project plans being developed for each one).
For the operational description, some points for consideration are:
Why is the project being created?
What are its key objectives?
What are the services/functions of the PMO?
What is the structure of the PMO, and the roles & responsibilities for each position?
What are the success criteria for the PMO?
How and when will success be evaluated?
I hope that provides some assistance. Coincidentally, my article next week and for the next couple of months will get into the steps of defining/establishing the PMO charter in much more detail, and we will also be publishing some examples/templates you can use.
In the meantime, please feel free to post any follow-up questions if you need clarification.
I know only too well the importance of PMO Charter. I recently joined a company where I am assigned to lead the IT-PMO. IT leaders had formed the IT-PMO sometime back, but never cared to create the charter. IT Supervisors primarily play role of both tech leads as well as IT project managers. The result is, even after a year, discussion goes on about the PMO role, if it is a responsibility IT Technical Managers should carry out as the extension of their responsibility, if IT-PMO is synonomous with the collective IT Tech/Project managers wisdom on PM, if IT-PMO supposed to only facilititate the problems being raised and reviewed by IT tech/project managers etc. etc. On strength of my previous Project Management background and PMP certification, I have demanded and requested to IT leaders that before we move any further on PMO, we must prepare the PMO charter which will communicate to everybody the business need for PMO, role, service offerings, success criteria etc etc. and then we move on to the implementation of PMO in light of the charter. Am I totally off-base? Any suggestion or recommendation? Saving Changes...
Kiran - you're right. I just started a contract for an organisation. I have seen the need for a PMO, and they're now moving along those lines. However, I'm sort of out of the loop on it as my work is to look at other areas. However, they're going ahead without a PMO charter, so have no real idea on what they want to achieve with it. Also they are not going to have dedicated resources on it, and the bods running it have no skill/experience in project mgt or PMO. Can't see it working in the current form. I've indicated what they need to do - charter etc, i.e. treat the set up of the PMO like a project, but it seems, to no avail. Ah well, I can only make suggestions and try!
Are there any sample "manager of project office" job descriptions out there? I'm working on PMO charter for IT department and will share as it evolves. Saving Changes...
I belong to a PMO Roundtable and we have been struggling with the charter and purpose of a PMO for quite some time. We have come up with some interesting findings, which might help when creating a charter:
Most important reason for the PMO: * To prevent project or business initiative failure * To increase PM capability * To ensure project consistency * To provide program management capability and standards * To manage Resource Management (either company-wide, division or department) * The PMO started because of Y2K and is still there * To be able to keep commitments...Need enterprise view of resource management, project portfolio, global view of all things * Started because projects were never ending, more accountability * To provide standardization of tools and processes * Started because of the number of projects with problems * Provide better PM leadership * Needed better corporate initiative alignment and project portfolio view across the company * Culture not ready for sophisticated tools * To help in selecting the right projects * To increase corporate project capability * To increase capacity * To achieve some purpose (and it just stayed around) * To help restructure the organization * Used to impose change
Last thing the PMO does that management would give up: * Cross-project issues tracking DB * Status reports * Providing standards * Stage gate reviews * The right to vote on costs * knowledge management * Relationship between project cost and ROI * What is the cost of NOT doing the project (Opportunity Cost) * It depends on who holds the purse strings
Priorities for the future of PMOs: * Benefits Realization * Real Risk Management * Estimation Management and education * Proving the value...every day * more value at less cost * Linking to the corporate strategy Saving Changes...
Ian SutherlandIan J Sutherland| Kellian ConsultingBroxbourne, Herts, United Kingdom
I have just joined an investment company to "relaunch" the corporate programme office.
I am working on all the topics I find covered here and agree it ends up looking more like a business plan ie I need to clarify the PMO proposition and ensure that it is "bought" by the business.
Whether this is a good or a bad thing I am inheriting a history and a set of existing views. My approach to this is to revalidate everything even if I do it by stealth ie I ask if I can check my understanding about certain aspects and for others I draw my own charts/diagrams/process charts to illustrate what "I think I heard you say".
I am now working on the launch package which will follows the following strategy...
1) senior management support for the scope, intent and style of the PMO ie its mandate, charter, terms of reference...whatever you want to call it.
2) broad launch to the change community in group presentations. Ideally I would work on the sponsors first, but where I am that is not as useful right now (they are one of my target improvement groups!). These will initially concentrate on the areas of common interest and agreement and acknowledge that there will be areas where details will differ between, for example, a premises project and an IT project.
In these group presentations I am planning to lay out 4 things
a) the mandate
b) the a clear description of the change framework so that there is a single vision
c) a process for developing the change framework. This will identify all the key processes, techniques and supporting references.
d) a business plan for the PMO which is based around a sequence of themes...structure and process, control and discipline then quality.
Supporting all this will be a Change Manual that encapsulates the 4 areas.
So far I cannot locate a model Change Manual so I guess I will be developing that myself. I will endeavour to share that here if anyone is interested.
I think this is enough for now.
Ian. Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Walter, regarding your post, "What approach should be taken when creating a PMO charter?", as their are different kinds of PMOs such as a Corporate PMO, an IT PMO, a business unit PMO, etc, the approach to be taken when creating a PMO charter can vary in terms of focus and content. Of course, a charter document itself is somewhat consistent in terms of structure. The approach that we took when we created our PMO charter was to establish a small number of very specific and measurable goals that served as the "reason for being" of the PMO. In our case, we chose four goals: 1) increase revenue, 2) reduce expense, 3) improve customer satisfaction, and 4) improve quality. Our PMO charter was focused exclusively on how the PMO supported those goals via specific objectives and measurable targets, plans, and strategies. We purposely stayed away from defining our PMO charter in terms of such things as improving project management, resource management, risk management, reporting, training, etc. We view these as business planning and program opportunities, but not the PMO charter or the strategic reason for having a PMO. We have a very detailed PMO project plan to set up the PMO and a very detailed business plan for the PMO, but we intentionally keep these separate, as support plans of record, not our PMO charter. Our CEO and CFO participated in the charter review and sign-off. I would recommend this approach for your consideration. This approach worked very well for us, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the only right approach or that it will work for you. Do be mindful, that many PM types are more apt to stay in their PM oriented comfort zone when creating the PMO charter. This can be a big mistake a lead the PMO down the path of focusing on the wrong issues. It can also prevent the PMO from proactively delivering value and being an integral enabler of the business as well as pertinent to your CEO. Hope this helps. -- Mark Perry, VP Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
Linda HillProgram Manager| MicrosoftRenton, Wa, United States
Is anyone willing to share examples of their PMO Charter? Saving Changes...
