How your PMO can increase its business acceptance:

Before the launch and during the first months, the Project Management Office (PMO) need is often questioned by other departments. Acceptance is low since other departments can often only measure the PMO's performance in the long term.

In the short term, however, the PMO's performance can be measured qualitatively by interviewing those supported by the PMO. Interviews help increase the PMO's acceptance and better align the PMO's offering to the project managers' needs.

We, therefore, suggest PMO should ask the project teams the following questions to determine how they perceive the PMO's performance:

• Are you well informed by the PMO?
• Has cross-project communication improved?
• Does the PMO promote internal knowledge management?
• Does the PMO save time for you?
• Have you received useful project methods from the PMO?
• Does the coaching offered by the PMO meet your needs?
• Are you well informed about milestones and priorities?
• Did the PMO help you to identify risks?

These questions can establish a dialogue with the project teams, and in the best case, should show a significant improvement in communication and organization. The PMO helps to support project managers and project teams with appropriate project methods and software so that they have more capacity for operational tasks.

As the number of projects increases, many employees feel confident enough to lead one and just give it a try. Yet often with moderate success, at best. A PMO, therefore,  helps to establish structure and professionalism through defined processes and methods. The benefits of a PMO also include improved communication and more effective exchange of knowledge and information. The PMO, therefore, creates synergy effects and leads to the establishment of best practices and the reduction of errors in the long term.

A tip from us: It is vital to pay attention to the chemistry between project managers, project teams, the PMO leader, and the management. Only with mutual appreciation can these parties work together constructively; otherwise, the cooperation will suffer from hardening.

To staff the PMO, experienced project managers with good relationships are therefore quite suitable. However, often, external PMO managers are requested to act as "impartial" mediators under challenging situations.

In a nutshell, the PMO can be justified because it helps to employ the right people to get the right things done in the right manner.

Are you convinced of the benefits of a PMO? Let's discuss your needs and how we can help you.