Virtual PMO Concept

Many organizations believe in the concept of the Project Management Office but find it difficult to imagine in their situation.  Offshore resourcing, telecommuting and budget restrictions have sparked the creation of Virtual Teams. The term PMO brings to mind a central location; how can that be possible in a virtual world? The original PMO was organized as a largely administrative function. Small and medium sized businesses likely don’t have the project volume or complexity to warrant full time resource dedication to “project administration”.  Large companies can also be faced with this notion depending on which stage of operation they are in (growth or maintenance). 

First, we need to rethink the function of the Project Management Office.  Originally it was simply a repository for documentation and a facilitator for analytical functions.  The PMO has evolved into a business strategy, resource management and knowledge distribution centre.  Today, the PMO has strong connections to the finance department and corporate executive; it supports and defends corporate goals and principles.  

If you consider the new PMO model it is easier to imagine how it can work in any modern organization. Here’s how:  

• Requires smaller staff for administration and operations
• Leverages existing cross-functional and virtual teams
• Develops and reviews project standards, tools and templates
• Supports project startup process and is able to expand as needed to support major projects.
• Centralizes tracking and reporting functions, ensures information gets to the right people with the right level of detail in a consistent format.
• Has visibility at project, program and portfolio levels to ensure the right work is done – at the right time.
• Oversight allows for faster issue, risk and redundancy identification.  

To make the Virtual PMO concept work you must start with the following 3 things:

1. Executive support and Management involvement – words are not enough, all levels of the organization must see this in practice consistently.
2. Structural Support - Regular communication keeps the group engaged. Goals and policies must be published and regularly communicated to ensure the virtual group remains focused. Meetings must be structured and effective to ward of complacency and to maintain authority/respect.
3. Technical Support - Invest in collaboration tools to facilitate information gathering and sharing. Use social media and collaborative communications (online meetings) for fast, effective communication.  

A PMO, virtual or actual, can now be leveraged by any company to make projects more efficient and far less painful.  Cost efficiencies from a Virtual PMO setup are quickly realized through reduced project cycle time, reduced resource overhead and increased ability to provide more accurate project estimates. Who doesn’t need that?  

This entry was posted on 20. November 2009 at 04:25 and is filed under Virtual PMO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.