The Project Management Office

Stephen R Depoesteve.depoe@gmail.com

What Form to Take?

Generally the Project Management Office takes on some combination of 5 Roles:

• Administrative Support• Providing Project Management Consulting and

Mentoring• Developing and Maintaining Project Management

Methodologies and Standards• Providing Project Management Training• Providing the Staff who can run projects

Administrative Support

PMO’s providing Administrative Support provide the following functions:

• Schedule Maintenance• Time Sheet Maintenance• Report Production• Maintain War and Research Rooms• Archiving Data• Report Consolidation• Project Workbook Maintenance• Software Maintenance

Consulting & Mentoring

PMO’s that provide Consulting & Mentoring are involved in the following:

• Proposal Support

• Start-up Assistance

• Just-In-Time Response

• Risk Assessments

• Project Recovery

• Mentoring to Senior Management

Maintaining Methods & Standards

PMO’s involved in Methods & Standards are active in the following areas:

• Implementing Standards for Procedures such as:– Bid-Preparation– Project Selection– WBS Construction– Change Management Methods– Risk Assessment Procedures

• Document Standards• Best Practices

Providing Training

Training can be Provided in the following areas, by or through the PMO:

• Software Skills• Project Management Skills• Special Topics• General Business ManagementTraining can be delivered by the PMO itself

or through Outside Vendors

Experienced PM Staffing

The PMO can provide Experience in:

• Establishing PM Requirements

• Providing PM’s for specific projects

• Identifying Skill Sets

• Assessing PM Skill Sets

• Hiring the right people at the right time

What skills are needed?

• To provide Administrative Support requires administrative and clerical skills for each project. One person can administer multiple projects.

• To provide the other 4 support areas requires Project Management Professionals with varying degrees of experience.

Where do we go from here?

• Decide what form or function you wish the PMO to take on. What mix of the five areas you wish the PMO to assume.

• Decide if you have these skill sets in house– If you do, you will need to “draft” a number of

these people into the PMO– If not you need to determine how many initially

you need and acquire these numbers

AND?

• Do you need to co-ordinate your efforts with other areas, like IT?

• Can you incorporate elements of Six Sigma and even Lean or Theories of Constraints into your PMO?

• Lastly you need to elevate the status and importance of Project Management and the Project Management Office to a level that signifies it’s importance based on the mix of responsibilities

Anything Else?

• You need to determine if the PMO will be Corporate funded or self funding.

• You need to determine how the PMO will be staffed - centralized or decentralized

• You need to establish standards and procedures to follow based on the form the PMO will take

• You need to establish the organization reporting structure