The PMO (Project Management Office) is a project management department that carries out the control, monitoring and supervision of projects that develop in the organization. However, is there a need for an PMO function in all organizations where projects are carried out?
What are the main functions of the PMO?
PMO is a unit that performs a number of functions, one of the main ones being:
project management process control
growing the maturity of project management
project monitoring
quality control of project documentation and delivery
drawing up and maintaining an annual project plan
installing and maintaining project management tools
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How do you know when the PMO function is required in an organization?
With regard to the need for an PMO, I think it is very important to take into account several aspects:
what kind of environment the organization operates in: if the organization operates in a strongly controlled environment, the body that oversees all the changes taking place in it would be very useful
what is the internal environment of the organization: if there is a knowledge of project management in the organization, the processes are mature and people know how everything works - the PMO function may not be needed, but if it is the other way around, to ensure smooth project management - the PMO function would be inevitable
what is the structure of the organization: if there is a huge segregation of duties in the organization and each unit looks after only its own small bit of the area, most of the time PMO in such an organization helps to find the right owners when the implementation of change is required
what type of projects are most often carried out: if it is very common for various ongoing projects have a lot of dependencies on each other, then in this case someone needs to take care that these different project teams talk to each other and understand each other's dependencies