Dear Arjun,
Regarding "Like other technologies & IT disciplines ( like BI/DW) are PMO's also domain focused?" PMOs can be and usually are domain focused. Different knowledge related to the domain can span a wide variety of areas such as:
- Business use case knowledge
- Applications knowledge
- Technical knowledge
- Policies, controls, and measurements
- Compliance requirements
Regarding "What role IT can play for being a differentiator apart from the standard PMO tools of common processes, goverance board, templates, etc?" IT can play a wide variety of roles, but first let's not assume that the PMO is within IT. If you are referring to an IT PMO, then yes, that would be within IT. And an IT PMO can be a differentiator in a number of ways limited only by its imagination. Some IT PMOs provide are adminsitrative in nature, others deliver projects, and there are those that seek to be a key enabler for the firm to achieve best in class status amongst its competitive peers.
Regarding "Are PMO's being outsourced?" In the context of IT outsourcing, yes, IT PMOs have been and can be outsourced too as part of the outsourcing contract and SLA. But as for outsourcing the PMO only, that is a bit more uncommon. While there are a number of vendors that market their offerings as PMO outsourcing, usually these offerings are project management consulting offerings in the form of billable project management consultants along with a PMO project management best practice framework. Most people would view this more as PMO consuting services rather than PMO outsourcing.
Great post. I hope we hear and learn from others. Regards,
Mark Perry
VP of Customer Care
BOT International
