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The Best of Project Management Offices

A selection of professional insights from the Blog archive

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Since 2008 our project management professionals have been sharing knowledge,

experience and learning with online readers via the Project Manager Blog.

Their collective wisdom provides a wealth of how to, top tips and best practice advice,

for project managers, teams and businesses.

To make their writings more accessible we’ve created a series of “Best of” project

management topics available free to download and share.

Here is a collection of excerpts and insights from blog posts that define and discuss the

pros and cons of establishing a project management office.

Enjoy

Jason Westland CEO

ProjectManager.com

What is a Project Management Office? ...................................................................................................... 3

When is it Time to Create a Project Management Office? ......................................................................... 5

The PMO: Enabler or Inhibitor? .................................................................................................................. 8

4 Ways to Make Sure Your New PMO is Not an Ugly Baby....................................................................... 10

The Perfect PMO Project Management Meeting ...................................................................................... 12

30 Day Free Software Trial ........................................................................................................................ 15

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What is a Project Management Office?

A Project Management Office (PMO) is a department or group of people that defines

and maintains the standards related to project management, within an organization. As

an extension of defining and maintaining these standards, a project management office

is more importantly, responsible for the successful execution and implementation of

projects that fall under their jurisdiction.

Four Core Services of a PMO

Knowing that a PMO is an anti-willy-nilly device, what are the primary services that a

PMO offers to an organization? Below are a few:

1. Standardization of Reporting – Most companies that grow quickly also grow in silos.

Everyone is so caught up and justifiably concerned with what is happening under their

own jurisdiction, they put reports and metrics in place that they can use to effectively

monitor the progress of their departments.

This works great for them because they know what these reports mean. Marketing has a

certain definition of ‘complete’. Engineering has another definition for ‘in progress’. The

Quality Assurance team has another definition for what ‘rework’ means. The problem is

that there is not one set of consistent definitions or reports across the enterprise.

This is OK in the short-term when a company may be small and people keep in constant

communication with each other. But, as a company grows and team members become

more disconnected this can become a nagging problem that continues to devolve and

get worse.

This is especially true when upper management has to sort through disparate,

disconnected, and sometimes flawed information to make proper decisions.

A primary function of a Project Management is to standardize the entire reporting

process. This means identifying the best of the best of all the departments that are

involved, coming to an agreement on common definitions, and then them implementing

easy to use, easy to access, and easy to understand reports across the entire

organization.

2. Standardization of Processes – A second core service for any that ask the question

“what is a pmo” has to do with developing a set of standard processes for projects to be

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managed within the company. The same problem with reporting in a silo-ed

environment described above can creep into a company’s approach with processes.

Inconsistent reporting is bad, but inconsistent processes are even worse.

One department may feel that it’s perfectly fine to have

the same person who worked on a particular deliverable

to sign off and say that it passes a quality check. Another

department may gasp in horror if they heard of such a

thing. There are no consistent processes in place where

someone can feel 100% confident that what holds true

for one deliverable holds true for all deliverables.

This is where a PMO’s services come into play. A PMO is in the unique position of

transcending organizational boundaries and coming up with a set of processes that work

across all departments. Is it easy? No. It’s hard to assimilate and aggregate what one

department does and tie it into what another department does so work can seamlessly

move from one group to the next. Is it worth it? Absolutely!

3. Project Portfolio Management – What is a PMO and when do you need one? When

you are not sure of what’s going on within the company and you do not have a clear

understanding of priorities.

Every salesperson that sells a project to a client is going to believe that their project is a

priority. They will beg, borrow, and steal to make sure the proper resources are working

on their project that they committed to the client. That’s their job.

The problem is that there are 6 other salespeople who are out selling and feel that their

project is top priority. You know that there are only so many resources in the company

and that the conflicting demands placed upon them is sure to burn them out. This is

where “willy-nilly” can really become evident.

The service provided by a good PMO is the ability to prioritize projects that are truly the

most important and allocate resources accordingly. These may be projects that are

strategic to a company’s future growth, or they may be projects that are necessary to

make this month’s payroll.

Every circumstance is going to be different, but it takes this objective group found in the

PMO to manage and prioritize a company’s portfolio of projects.

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4. Management of the Project Support Team – A PMO is the central repository of all

things related to project management. This includes the resources that allow

professional project management to occur.

The final core service a PMO serves is to manage the project support team. This will

most likely include Project Coordinators, Project Managers, PMP Certified Project

Managers, potentially Program Managers and possibly even Business Analysts.

It is with this central group of people that projects, reporting, and processes can be

effectively managed to get the most done.

When is it Time to Create a Project Management Office?

There’s no particular size, revenue, or makeup of a company that would indicate that

it’s time to start a project management office. However, the following symptoms may

be signs that you want to look into setting up this valuable department.

There are a number of benefits that come from implementing a PMO structure within a

company. But a PMO is not something that is typically started right out of the gate,

especially within a smaller company. A project management office is something that will

typically be introduced into a company once it has reached a certain size. However, the

principles of a project management office can be applied across companies of any size

as they get a jump start on creating the systems and processes needed to successfully

run their projects as they grow.

The following article will discuss some of the benefits of a PMO as well as some of the

tell-tale signs suggesting it might be time to establish a PMO. There are a number of

benefits that come to a company as soon as they implement an enterprise-wide project

management office:

1. Create and Implement Consistent Systems and Processes

One of the most noticeable benefits of a project management office is their ability to

create and implement consistent systems and processes. Companies will become

successful for a number of reasons. They have a great product, they have great

salespeople, they are innovative, or a combination of other factors will lead to their

success. With this success comes growth, and with growth comes growing pains.

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There’s a certain mindset that occurs as a company is growing exponentially. I once

heard a colleague of a fast growing company express the sentiment that “any decision

that moves the company forward is the right decision”. The spirit of what he was saying

was that you can’t take time to slow down in a fast growing company and methodically

analyze every possible solution to a decision that needs to be made. Rather, people

need to make decisions on-the-spot and in real time in order to keep things moving.

This works great in theory. However, long-term, what it introduces is very inconsistent,

unpredictable, and sometimes unreliable ways of getting the work out the door,

whatever that work may be. Once a company has reached this point of confusion, it’s a

great relief to those who are affected to have an objective third party (also known as a

PMO) come in and smooth things out.

The members of the project management office will identify the systems and processes

that are working, get rid of those that aren’t, and fill in any missing gaps.

2. An Objective Source of Truth

We’re not talking about people deliberately lying here, but rather providing their

“version of the truth”. For example, a department may know they missed the date of a

deliverable. But, they also know that by the time the next status meeting comes around

they will be able to catch up and choose not to report it is a potential risk. Then, an

emergency happens, this deliverable never gets finished, and now the project is in crisis

mode.

A project management office provides visibility into such an occurrence and heads off

the negative consequences. If the deliverable was not complete on the date needed and

a clear (and near) end date was not forthcoming, this would have been reported as a

potential risk. This would have given the project sponsor or company executives the

ability to do something about it so it didn’t get out of control.

3. Introduces Economies of Scale

A project management office also reduces or eliminates duplicated efforts and wasted

resources. If someone doesn’t have an overarching view of the activity that is happening

within a company, similar projects and initiatives can start to appear in multiple

locations when there really is no need. One solution would suffice, but the people that

are working on the other solutions are not aware that there’s already a solution. A

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project management office can stop this duplication of efforts by employing online

project management software to coordinate amongst various departments.

The above are just some of the benefits you’ll realize once a project management office

is implemented successfully. But, how do you know when it’s time to go down this

path?

Work is not Getting Out the Door: Due to the success of the company and what you

offer, there are log-jams and slowdowns that are creating bottlenecks across the

company. This is drastically slowing work down, creating rework, and introducing all of

the subsequent problems that occur because of this type of mismanagement.

It Feels like Every Project is the First Time you’ve Done Something Like This: Even

though you may have done a particular type of project time and time again (for

example, your company may create websites that require some amount of

customization for a client) it feels like this is the first time

you’ve ever done this type of project. People are tripping

over each other, necessary questions are not asked until it’s

too late, or deliverables sit on a shelf somewhere, not getting

worked on, while the department that should be doing the

work is sitting on its hands. If it becomes a comedy of errors

to get a project out the door, then it may be time to set up a

project management office.

There is not a Single Group that Knows What’s Going on Across the Company:

Everybody has bits and pieces of where things stand, or they may have their own very

myopic view of the world…but nobody knows how everything ties together… and this is

starting to create problems. Deliverables that are passed from one department to the

next may not be configured in the proper way, or they be missing key elements of what

was originally agreed upon re delivery. It may be time to put a project management

office in place to provide that general overview.

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The PMO: Enabler or Inhibitor?

There are two very different views of what a Project Management Office does for a

company. One perspective is that it’s worse than the plague. Others may feel it’s the

best thing since sliced bread. How it’s viewed in your organization has much to do with

how well it is run. We’ll consider the pros and cons of setting up a PMO and how you

can make it the best thing since sliced bread.

The Downsides of Implementing a PMO

There are certain downsides to implementing a PMO in any company. For example:

The PMO Could Slow Things Down –

The essence of a project management

office is to clear a consistent and

predictable path for all projects to

follow, as well as establish certain

approvals and checkpoints that must be

adhered to if a project is to move

forward.

The PMO Forces Change – Somebody or

some group has to change their ways if they want to come into line with how

projects are going to be run by a PMO. In the earlier example, where a company had

Development, IT, and Client Services, each department had implemented their own

best practices. There were also things that each team was doing absolutely wrong.

The PMO Can Be Used as a Weapon – I wouldn’t have believed it unless I had seen it

with my own two eyes, but the PMO can be used as a weapon.

The Upside of Implementing a PMO

The benefits of implementing a PMO far outweigh any negative aspects. For example:

The PMO Introduces Consistency – Everyone in the company has to speak the same

project management language. They all know how a project should be run and what it

means that a project is in the initiation phase or in the closure phase. They understand

there are certain steps that must be taken in order for a project to come to completion.

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The benefit of consistency is especially evident at weekly PMO meetings. One of the

hardest things to capture and communicate as a project manager is the definition of

‘done.’ A development resource may believe that their part of a project is done, but

since it hasn’t been verified by QA to actually work as expected, you, and more

importantly the end user, don’t consider it done. This is one example of how getting

everyone on the same page using consistent terminology makes everyone’s job easier.

The PMO Introduces Predictability – One of the things I like to hear when I’m doing my

job as a project manager is “I knew you were going to say that,” or “I knew you would

ask for that, so here’s the answer.” Predictability is one of the biggest favors you can

give your resources. No one wants an unpredictable or erratic captain steering the boat.

A properly implemented PMO takes this to the next level. Everyone on the project

knows what needs to be done next. Since your team has been trained to implement the

process, they aren’t surprised by what you ask for.

The PMO Introduces Objective Accountability – An individual department that runs its

own project could fall into the category of the fox watching the hen house. They would

never deliberately cover anything up, but it’s human nature for them to want to put

their best foot forward.

It’s easy to err on the side of optimism when asked how things are going on a project.

“Just fine,” the project manager may tell the executive. The part he left off was “…as

soon as we figure out why this one feature is not working.”A PMO transcends individual

departments. There’s no need to understate, overstate, minimize, or maximize project

status. They objectively report out on just the facts.

Consistency, predictability and accountability are not just best practices. They are

benefits of implementing a PMO, and in and of themselves are key to ensuring the new

office is an enabler, not an inhibitor.

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4 Ways to Make Sure Your New PMO is Not an Ugly Baby

An astute executive recognizes this fact and starts having conversations about setting up

a Project Management Office. This will provide for a hub of activity related to all

projects going on within the organization and the ability to manage project risk.

These may be client projects, hardware upgrades, infrastructure projects, and even

projects within other departments such as Marketing or Finance. He talks about the

economies of scale that can be realized, the consistency of processes across all

departments and a real-time view into project risk, resource allocation, and expense

management throughout the entire company.

The rest of upper management is 100% on board with his recommendation and YOU

have been selected to head up the PMO. The good news is that it offers you more

CHALLENGES and the ability to move forward with the company. It also gives you more

EXPOSURE to upper management and allows you to leave a positive imprint on those

areas you touch. The bad news is that you have never done anything like this before!

Where do you even start?

A PMO in its infancy can go down two paths real quick. Just like a real baby, some

people will “oooh and ahhh” when they see the new baby and comment on how cute

she is. Others however, may say that’s the ugliest baby they have ever seen! While

there may be no control over how people will react to a real-live baby, you do have

some control over how people would react to the infant PMO you are setting up.

1. Start Slowly

Don’t come in with your guns a-blazin’. “There’s a new sheriff in town and things are

gonna’ change around here” will get you absolutely nowhere. You know there are

changes that need to be made and that there are better ways to do things. You know

the risk management strategy of the company leaves a lot to be desired.

You can start putting your list together and prioritizing, but if you come in and right out

of the gate make wholesale changes that negatively impact a lot of people then your

days are numbered. Worse yet, the PMO will seem very ‘ugly’ to those who are meeting

it for the first time and will undoubtedly react accordingly. It’s not that you can’t or

won’t make change. You must and you will make change, however, do so after talking to

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the major stakeholders that will be affected, get their buy-in and introduce the change

for all the right reasons and not just because “you told them so”.

2. Work Behind the Scenes

You and the project managers formerly from the other departments should carve out a

couple of hours per week to address the global issues that are affecting everyone.

Identify the answers to the questions above and then start working on joint solutions.

Is there something in particular that frustrates resources from all departments?

Are there unnecessary steps, or approvals, or processes in place that can be

simplified?

Is project risk management being handled the proper way?

Is there something that is currently not being done that if it was done would make

everyone’s lives easier?

Send your team out to talk to the people that are affected and have them come back

with their recommendations. Then, document and come up with as simple and elegant

a solution to each problem area as possible.

3. Introduce Processes Seamlessly and Effortlessly

It’s a given that you will be holding a weekly PMO meeting with functional managers

and executives that either want visibility into what is going on in the company or are the

ones that provide visibility. This is when you discuss project status, new work, project

risks and other matters related to the PMO. At the end of the weekly meeting, introduce

a new process that will make everyone’s work lives easier. Identify the bottlenecks,

collaborate with those who it negatively impacts, comes up with a solution and spend

five minutes rolling it out at your next weekly PMO meeting.

4. Show Benefits Early On

Now that you’ve had a couple of PMO meetings to your

credit and implemented some pretty decent processes, you

can speak to the benefits this is bringing to the company.

Perhaps there has been less confusion, fewer questions,

faster completions, lower costs and heightened risk

management. You will quickly be able to identify, capture,

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and speak to those benefits encouraging everyone to keep providing their input and

feedback while at the same time following a consistent and repeatable process.

The Perfect PMO Project Management Meeting

Is there such a thing as a perfect PMO Project Management meeting? Some may feel

that a good PMO Project Management meeting, let alone, a perfect PMO meeting are as

elusive as the Fountain of Youth or the Holy Grail. I am here to tell you today that they

are real and do exist! I have seen them with my own two eyes. This article will focus on

how this meeting can be set up, what the agenda should look like, and what should and

should not take place at this meeting.

The Perfect PMO Management Meeting

Every Thursday morning (in my opinion, the perfect time for a weekly PMO Project

Management meeting) key managers in this company would meet. Over time, the

agenda we used was honed to the following four topics:

New Best Practices Review (up to 10 minutes)

New Project Review (up to 20 minutes)

High Risk Assessment (up to 20 minutes)

Deployment Schedule Review (up to 10 minutes)

The Topics

The following provides further detail for each topic. I would expect that with slight

modifications in each area, this could be used in businesses that are not in the IT field as

well.

The New Best Practices Review would consist of best practices that had been

implemented over the previous week. These were based upon Lessons Learned from

projects that were in their Closing phase. This could be anywhere from a new

approval process or workflow, to a different way in working with Clients. There

would be minimal discussion as the details had been vetted out prior to the weekly

PMO Project Management meeting and this was presented as “this is how we will

now be operating”. This may not sound like the most exciting topic, but it was always

presented with the intent of how can we make everyone’s lives easier working

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together. People had provided their input into these systems and processes that

were being introduced and this was just the culmination of their efforts.

The New Project Review allowed anyone that wanted to introduce a project to the

PMO to submit a 1- page summary that provided a brief description of the project,

the business objectives that were supported and the benefit this new project would

bring to the organization. It was then open for brief discussion or questions and the

project was either approved to move forward (for example…paying Client work),

turned down on the spot, or put out for further research to be revisited the following

week. The beauty of this arrangement was that everyone in the company knew

about the ability to introduce a project in this way. They would work through their

respective department heads and prepare the necessary documentation. If the

project was justified from an ROI perspective or had merit for its strategic

importance, it would be approved to work on. It also prevented a lot of unnecessary

or wasteful pet projects starting up outside of the PMO arrangement and kept the

company resources focused on the right things.

The High Risk Assessment portion of the meeting utilized a high-level milestone

report that showed the Red, Yellow, Green status of all projects within the

organization broken down by business unit. There was zero time spent on anything

that was going as planned due to the fact that professional project managers were

managing the work. This portion of the meeting focused on exception management

and only projects that were in trouble were discussed. Decisions were made on these

projects, obstacles were cleared and risks were mitigated.

The Deployment Schedule Review. This was the final part of the meeting. Since this

was a software development company that worked with business users, the

deployments would be done over the weekends. A schedule was provided for the

upcoming deployments that were up to 1-month out, with a particular focus on the

upcoming weekend. This included any code that was being deployed, hardware

upgrades or maintenance or anything else that would possibly touch the Production

system. This, in turn, provided for a great opportunity for every departmental

manager to know what was coming and prepare their teams for the work that was in

the queue.

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The Attendees

A key component to making this successful is having the right people in attendance. You

need to have Project Managers, Functional Managers and Executives that could make

the decisions on the spot in attendance. How do you know if you have the right people

involved? If you find yourself during this meeting saying “we have to check with…” then

you don’t have the right people there. You need the decision makers who can focus on

the issues at hand and get them resolved quickly.

Week-in and week-out, the company can step up its level of

professionalism, review and approve new projects, mitigate

risk and get everyone on the same page…all in about 1 hour

per week. Really? Just one hour per week? It does sound a bit

unbelievable to cover all this ground in one hour.

Truth being told, the early project management office

meetings were not this way. Everyone was still trying to figure

out the format, what was important, what wasn’t and who

needed to attend. Early meetings could run as long as 2-3

hours as these issues were being resolved. In a matter of just a few weeks you will start

seeing a big difference. And within months your PMO project management meeting will

be running like clockwork.

What Not To Cover at the PMO Project Management Meeting

As counterintuitive as it may sound, you will want to stay away from solving complicated

problems at this weekly meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to identify issues, make

decisions, and clear pathways. If there is a problem or an issue that you see is going to

take a long time to discuss, then set up a time to follow up on that particular item with

just the people needed. You can then dig into the details and take all the time necessary

to find the best solution.

Otherwise, you will find that your PMO meeting will quickly go off the tracks. As the

moderator of this meeting it’s up to you to identify these trouble spots and set up the

follow-up meetings afterward. What it requires on your part is a solid agenda, discipline

to keep things moving, and follow-up. You’ll soon enjoy the forward momentum and

traction that such a meeting will introduce to your company.

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