Project Manager Maturity – The Role of the PMO
The role of the PMO is multifaceted and is different for every organization. One of the biggest jobs, if not the biggest, is to improve the maturity level of the Project Managers within the Organization. Maturity is a sign of individual and organizational improvement and is a differentiator between individual Project Managers and their career advancement within the organization. Project Manager Maturity allows the PMO to provide a measure of each Project Manager to help decide which Project Manager is qualified to handle the size, scope and budget of the next project. It can also be used to differentiate Project Managers into classifications within the organization, i.e., Associate Project Manager, Project Manager, Sr. Project Manager and Program Manager. It is the job of the PMO to establish guidelines and assess each Project Manager. Further, the PMO must provide goals for each Project Manager to attain in order to move up in the organization or to manage larger and more complex projects. PMI has established a Maturity Model which helps the PMO by defining, at a high level, an outline of organizational maturity. It can and should be used as a building block for beginning this effort. Customizing this outline and making it work in the unique environment and culture is the hard part. Never be afraid to implement something and then make incremental improvements to make it work in your organization. It is definitely worth the effort to define the guidelines, establish the measurement tools, write the company procedures or PMO Manual and roll it out. Give it some time to percolate through the organization and then determine if a slight modification is needed to tune it and improve the process.
Hi Mark,
This is the first article I have read that states that the role of the PMO is different for every company (which is right). I have published an article on the role of the PMO before, but you understand from it that the role is standard for every organization, which is not the case. As you said, the role is different…
IF you have any practical experience across industries like Aerospace, Machine tool, Pharma, and Financial Services your will find that each industry has different PMO needs. THerefore every implementation will be different. One could be for setting policy and procedures while another is set up to manage Program and Project Managers and a third is just a part of the organization which has the responsibility to manage the tools used by PMs.
Needs and perceived benefit drive the implementation and longevity of a PMO. Don’t forget, without the support of Senior management and significant perceived ROI, no organization, i.e., a PMO, will be started or live very long in these economic times..
Hi Mark,
I’ve read your blog on this subject. What strikes me most, is the position a PMO is placed in an organisation according to your blog. It’s so different as how we (in the Netherlands) mostly see a PMO. A PMO is seen merely as a supportive office instead of what you describe. I agree, your description, is certainly the level a PMO should act on in large organisations. However, we’re not quit used to a mature PMO, but we’re working on it. There are some companies who already have a certain level of maturity in their PMO.
I’d also like to take the opportunity to invite you to post blogs on our PMO-Netherlands portal. This portal is a platform for all PMO related information regarding, tooling, methodologies, articles, discussions, jobopportunities and also blogs. The portal is mainly in Dutch, but the blogs, articles, trends etc, are mainly English.
Are you interested in posting blogs on our portal? (www.pmo-netherlands.nl)
Kind regards,
Shirley Vorster
http://nl.linkedin.com/pub/shirley-vorster/6/13a/15
Hi Shirley,
I will be a pleasure to contribute to your blog. We post a PMO specific entry 1 time a month, and would love to extend its reach.
Thanks for your interest!
Hi again to Paola, and to your readers….
From my experience teaching several hundred PMs toward their PMP certification, we have had class discussions where the students share about the varying roles of the PMOs in their companies. The PMOs my students have described all fall into 3 buckets:
a) PMOs offering assistance to the company’s PMs, such as training, templates, & guidance
b) PMOs “owning” the company’s projects and providing oversight over the projects & PMs
c) The PMs as part of the PMOs — some of my students work in companies where all the PMs managing all the company’s projects all report in to the PMO as “their department.”
But even though there are these 3 basic types, my students also talk about “blends” of the above,
unique to their organization.
Yes, yes, yes! This is a great description of the status quo, and the fact that PMOs have both ways to go on the path to be embraced, understood, and implemented, as well as be embedded as a pivotal piece of the organizational structure and business decisions.
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I’ve found most PMO’s fall into Jeff 3 buckets, but I have not too many cases where those PMOs mature from bucket 1 to bucket 3. The ones I have worked with directly with never got beyond the second bucket as by the time you get there, executive support has wandered off. Hopefully some of you have had more long term support.
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