Choosing Your PMO

You have a desire to implement a PMO in your organization.  Being a responsible executive, you decide to do some research.  There are many articles and even more solutions to be found.  It is easy to be overcome by information and options.  You will find many tools on the market, free and not-so-free that claim to be “the” solution. Suddenly you don’t know what to do anymore – information overload. 

Let’s get back to basics.   Think about what you want your PMO to achieve. 

• Provision of templates for project charter, financial analysis, procurement documents etc.
• Central archive for project documents
• Documented project methodology
• Provide project guidance and training
• Provide specialized resources to projects
• Align projects with business goals and strategies
• All of the above, some of the above or something completely different. 

The next step is to consider your current project maturity. Do you already have efficient templates and successful & consistent project practices or are you starting from square one? Square one can be defined as inconsistent application of project management processes, lack of templates and discipline.  The answer to this question will guide you in determining the complexity you are able to tolerate in your new PMO.   

Here are some more questions you must ask yourself before deciding on a PMO solution:

1. Can you afford the full time resources that are typical of a PMO?
2. How many projects typically run concurrently?
3. How complex are our projects – do they span days, weeks or months? How many business units are involved in each project?
4. What is the corporate culture and appetite for structure? 

Once you assess your needs closely and as objectively as possible, you can get back to researching the solutions.  Ask your Project Managers for guidance or approach a professional to guide you through the process.  Aim small to start; focus on quick wins and plan for a gradual and orderly progression in project and PMO maturity.  

The next blog(s) will build on this process. Bookmark this site and come back often for help with building your PMO. Feel free to leave comments / questions if you have specific questions about choosing your PMO structure.

This entry was posted on 30. November 2009 at 19:37 and is filed under PMO Set-up. 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.