Eileen RodenConsulting Director| House of PMO and PMO LearningSolihull, West Midlands, United Kingdom
I'm at another conference today and the term CMO has risen it's head again. Is there any real difference between a PMO and a CMO? Do we need to add another term into the mix just to confuse people? Saving Changes...
AKSHAY JAINPlanning Group Leader| YOKOGAWA, BahrainGwalior, Mp, India
What is full form of CMO? Saving Changes...
Eileen RodenConsulting Director| House of PMO and PMO LearningSolihull, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Change Management Office. Saving Changes...
Linda ZinnDirector, Enterprise Project Management Office| FlightSafety InternationalRutherford, Nj, United States
Depending on what your organization defines as change management they can be very different skill sets and responsibilities. When we did our initial SAP implementation we had a change management team who's responsibility was to prepare the organization for how process, policy, terminology, roles and responsibilities would change. It also included the system training team from a readiness for change perspective. So, it can be much broader than I would put in a PMOs responsiblity. If your organization has a lot of change going on it might be prudent to have both. Saving Changes...
A CMO's scope would often overlap the PMO's scope. This is because you need to manage organizational before, during and after proejcts. You also have organizational changes that are not related to projects. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
it is amazing how people still continue to invent new buzzwords to give some other people the possibility to get a new job (hehehehhe). Well, in the organization where I am working right now we have that business unit. And believe me, if the business unit is defined seriously, it is a critical partner for the PMO. Saving Changes...
AKSHAY JAINPlanning Group Leader| YOKOGAWA, BahrainGwalior, Mp, India
OK, Then CMO will be specific to handle change management but it is only a sub function of PMO. It depends if change management is very critical activity in any organization and it is worth to allocate dedicated resource for change management function then CMO can make sense. In many organizations it is worth to have dedicated resources/group for risk management, planning, resources etc. So it is solely business need if you want to develop any sub function of PMO as dedicated and focused group. Saving Changes...
CMO should cover the organization, it should be handling all organizational change. Change in the organization is started by upper management request. Most change would be done through a project, where the PMO would get involve. So a CMO would suggest to the upper management priority/sequence of change to be made.
Organization need to be of a certain size to have a PMO, and possibly bigger to have a CMO. Or they are in perpetual state of Change! Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Akshay you are saying something that is critical to understand. To create or not a new business unit will depends on the organizational strategy definition. So, in your organization, perhaps it has no sence to create an special business unit. But in other organizations it could be an strategic decission. I am with Vincent about the CMO coverage. But let me say, remember that when you define the strategy you will define functions and then you have to decide where those functions will be located. For example, if it deserve to be located into a new business unit. In the case I am working today that business unit manage change and communication. Saving Changes...
I agree with Sergio.
Both CMO and PMO is underrated in many industries and organizations. With my experience I believe we should not peg this two under each other nay way. They are two separate functional units/departments however, have a lot of interdependencies. CMO focuses on the people & process side of change whereas the PMO looks after the program side of the requirements. Collection of project progress data, setting up process documentation, governance broadly are the activities under PMO. CMO on the other hand works on the change visioning, leadership alignment on the change vision, conducting a change impact assessment, stakeholder mapping, persona identification, change readiness, communication & engagement, and adoption/sustainment activities. These are two very different kind of work but a successful project is one where the change management plan perfectly marries the project/program management paln. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
In my experience I have seen PMOs overseeing all projects and programs, but not CMOs overseeing all change. Change is very specific to a project and should support the people (stakeholder) side for this project, which differs from project to project.
That notwithstanding, organisational communication, culture and coaching may be supported by a unit, often it is part of the HR function.
Change management standards, processes, tools could be part of the PMO tool set. Saving Changes...
