In larger organizations, you can find the Project Management Office (PMO). This department is very often seen as simply an administrative unit performing only the function of assistance or control. When there is a need to reduce operational costs, it is not uncommon for the Project Management Office to be one of those to which the eyes turn to. So how to make it so that the PMO performs not only the functions described according to the world wide methodology, but also creates value?
Lets start from the basics: What is the Project management office?
The PMO is a department consist of specialists with project management and project management processes, tools and governance applied in the organization knowledge. Often these people are part of the project team and work with project managers to ensure that the project complies with the project management process and the requirements for them.
How could PMO create a value to organization?
If you would ask the project managers the question, the answer would be very simple "if the employees of the Project Management Office, performed certain project work." Yes, sometimes in certain organizations, the PMO plays a certain role as an assistant for project manager, as it helps to cope with a wide variety of project tasks. In some organizations, the Project Management Office is divided into several parts: employees who maintain the project portfolio and employees who work on projects and are called project coordinators. How does the PMO create value for the organization?
According to the last example given, there are two ways of how PMO can create value to the organization:
project portfolio management: maintenance of the roadmap and linking it to of the entire strategic goals of the organization. I.e. the PMO creates the most value when it ensures that people of the organization work on projects that create direct benefits to achieve the strategic goals of the organization and are able to represent them to the leadership of the organization
direct work in the project team, controlling the project budget, helping the project manager to prepare for project steering group meetings, etc.
The least value from the Project Management Office is visible if this unit only plays the role of process owner of the project management, but does not deep dive into what is happening in the projects and whether the projects create the value planned in the business plan.