What is the Project Management Office?
Not all organizations have a Project Management Office (PMO), although their projects are growing in number and scope. If your organization also wants to complete projects more successfully and efficiently, introducing a PMO is worthwhile. In our knowledge article, we have collected the most essential points that should be considered in the process.
One thing in advance: The PMO does not have to be and should not be another department that creates unnecessary bureaucracy. Instead, it makes processes more efficient, coordinates efforts and resources, and supports project managers. Only by having an overview of what is happening in the separate projects can the PMO reduce multi-project management’s pitfalls. But did you also know that you can externalize the PMO? Our article “PMO-as-a-Service” lays down the benefits of external consultancies taking over PMO responsibilities.
The primary goal of a PMO is to increase the efficiency, success, and overview of projects in the organization.
Possible tasks include planning individual projects and their work packages, providing required resources, resolving resource conflicts, and general monitoring and support of unique projects.
Depending on the needs of an organization, the PMO addresses the following topics:
Assistance, planning, and controlling
The PMO is often associated with the creation and updating of project plans and the setting up reports. A further task is the control of costs and the contract adherence of external partners.
Reporting on individual projects is especially important as it leads to an increase in overall transparency. PMO reporting also promotes the communication and information flow within the organization. However, the challenge lies in finding the right reporting mode, for example, through regular meetings or newsletter updates. Due to its tasks’ nature, the PMO ultimately supports project teams in administrative and operational matters.
Human Resources Development
Human resources development is broad a broad field. Still, within the PMO, it is primarily concerned with enriching project managers and employees with skills and knowledge from past projects. Since no two organizations are alike, lessons learned are not universally transferable. Maintaining the organizations’ own knowledge database of best practices and lessons learned is essential for the PMO. Furthermore, human resources development also includes employees’ targeted assignment to projects based on their competence and experience. The documentation of this also helps to carry out targeted training in order to provide the project members with the right tools.
Portfolio and resource management
Depending on the PMO’s role, the conception and prioritization of projects based on the corporate strategy is also part of its tasks. Here, the availability of resources is also a critical decision-maker. To use resources efficiently, the PMO must work across departments and have the necessary authority and acceptance. If bottlenecks do arise, the PMO’s job is to source the required capacities from external service providers, for example, through gig-work in projects.
Provision of resources
The PMO aims to make work easier for all project participants. For example, by providing definitions and templates as well as standardized methods and processes. Above all, an experienced project manager’s expertise is essential to provide tools tailored to the project’s needs.
Process compliance and quality assurance
As a dedicated project unit, the PMO should also fulfill the obligations of the audit. Compliance is particularly important in projects as one is working with external parties and is setting up new company structures.
In practice, however, there are many PMO approaches, depending on the organization's needs. Project, program, and portfolio management tasks are often intertwined.
We are happy to support you in managing or setting up a PM, which we tailor to your needs.
