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PMO Components

Let's define PMO and Project Management further:

A project management office (PMO) is an organizational unit to centralize and coordinate the management of projects under its domain.  A PMO can also be referred to as a "program management office," "project office," or "program office."  A PMO oversees the management of projects, programs or a combination of both.  The projects supported or administered by the PMO may not be related other than by being managed together.  Some PMOs, however, do coordinate and manage related projects.  In many organizations, the projects are indeed grouped or are related in some manner based on the way the PMO will coordinate and manage those projects.  The PMO focuses on the coordinated planning, prioritization and execution of projects and subprojects that are tied to the parent organizations' or client's overall business objectives.

 

PMOs can operate on a continuum, from providing project management support functions in the form of training, software, standardized policies, and procedures, to actual direct management and responsibility for achieving the projects objectives.  A specific PMO can receive delegated authority to act as an integral stakeholder and a key decision maker during the initiation stage of each project, can have the authority to make recommendations, or can terminate projects to keep the business objectives consistent.  In addition, the PMO can be involved in the selections, management and redeployment if necessary of shared project personnel and where possible dedicated project personnel.

 

-PMBOK 5th Edition

 

 


In reality, and for practical purposes, having Project Managers and a functioning PMO accomplishes the following basic functions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Project reporting templates, and facilitate project reviews

  2. Monitoring and reporting on project budget & timelines

  3. Project methodology development & resource management

  4. Documentation templates: schedules, risk charts, contracts, charters, test plan

  5. Milestone tracking & Project management software ownership

  6. Escalation point for issues/risk & overall communication management

  7. Quality procedures and standards

  8. Project selection strategies & project policies

 

 

 A. Project Manager training curriculum

 B. Publish weekly/monthly newsletter about project mgt & accomplishments

 C. Issue awards for PM/analyst/group or the month or quarter

 D. Facilitate project closeout parties & other protocol items

 E. Assigns project mentors

BASIC PMO

ADVANCED PMO

Big Picture Planning Ensures Correct Implementations:

The key to keeping a project or PMO in an organization functioning correctly that adds benefit and does not become another idea that ends up slowing the company down- it is critical to spend proper time in the important areas of a project.  Many executives wonder why a project has been lumbering along for so long, and seemingly not able to get completed.  Often times, you see this where little if any time was properly spent in the initial phases of a project.  Simply put- no one thought things through in realistic way- they charged forward in a hurry not accounting for various risk.  It is these risks that come back to usually delay and haunt the project.

 

As you can see in the above graph, as time progresses in a project, there are more moving parts and levels of interaction from different parts of the organization.  If this is not estimated correctly in the scope or planning phase, you can expect a project that seemingly will "live" a long time, and by that time often too much is at stake- either cost or politically among senior executives/project sponsors.  It is easy to get excited how well things go on the outset of a project when it just starts, but many times managers neglects to realize the exponential complexity that occurs as the real execution phase begins.

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