Portfolio Management Office

The strategic PMO, sometimes called a Portfolio Management Office, or a Center of Excellence (COE) works at a very high level in two manners. First of all, it reports to and serves the CEO, and its steering committee is composed primarily of executive officers. Secondly, it defines high-level, relatively abstract strategies to be applied tactically at the program management and project management levels by lower-level PMOs.

The strategic PMO performs its reporting function for its senior executive officers. The strategic PMO provides aggregate information that allows executives to assess three things:

• Effectiveness in meeting strategic goals
• Return on investment (ROI) from project work
• Level of risk to the organization

Each Program Management Office oversees and coordinates all of the projects and operational activities within one program. The Program Management Office reports results to program stakeholders.

A Program Management Office may also function as a PMO, standardizing and supporting project work within the program, or it may leave this function to the project management office.

Each Project Management Office (PMO) works at the project level to standardize and support projects. There may be only one PMO, or there can be more than one Project Management Office. Each one would be similar in function, but would serve a different part of the organization under the guidance of the strategic PMO.

If a single organization is served by multiple PMOs, the PMOs must communicate effectively and coordinate their work. This is the topic of the next section.