Adanced PMO

Advanced PMO

A standard PMO becomes an advanced PMO by addressing three questions:

• How can we improve our current services?
• What new services would benefit the organization?
• How is the organization changing, and how can we change to keep up with those changes and continue providing value?

A standard PMO that does not ask these questions is in danger of failing from its own success. As the standards the PMO developed become well known, there is less need for training, mentoring, and other supportive services. As project managers use the methodology and standards well, project reviews simply confirm success, and don't show a need for major project rescues. If this continues, the PMO may, at some point, cost more to run than it adds to the organization's bottom line.

To prevent this, the PMO grows and changes, finding new ways to add value to the organization. Key elements of this improvement are the steps of the PMO improvement stage of the PMO life cycle:

• Measuring PMO effectiveness through an assessment process
• Improving PMO effectiveness by improving existing services and adding new services
• Measuring the project management maturity level of the entire organization
• Improving the project management maturity level of the entire organization.

PMO managers and staff members working to bring a PMO to the advanced level will benefit from exploring these advanced topics in the learning section:

• PMO Maturity
• PM Maturity

Although the maturity of a PMO that develops over time is largely independent of the level of authority with which the PMO operates, the two can come together as an organization develops an advanced PMO. An advanced PMO is effective because it is able to provide continuous improvement to an organization's culture and way of doing projects. This is only possible if the PMO has the support of the organization's senior executives. It is only worth doing if it adds strategic value to the organization by ensuring that projects meet strategic objectives. As a result, an organization with a single PMO will probably see that, as the PMO matures to the advanced levels, it becomes a strategic PMO, also called a Center of Excellence (COE). If it specifically works to ensure success of strategic objectives through project implementation, then it is also a Portfolio Management Office. If it takes on these activities exclusively, then the organization may develop a lower-level PMO and grow to be an organization with multiple PMOs.

The next page introduces the PMO life cycle, the practical, step-by-step process of launching, running, and improving a PMO.