PMOs Stress Value and Sponsorship at the PMO CoP Event

November 13, 2012 | by J. Kent Crawford

Change, agility, creativity ... all in a day's work for today's PMOs

It’s always exciting to be among top PMO leaders! Their energy is inspiring.

From the "outside the box" thinking of keynote speaker Roch Parayre, who proposed a role of "VP of Killing" for agile portfolio management, to the nitty-gritty workshops on metrics and value, the PMO Community of Practice is to be commened on creating a first-class event.

My half-day seminar, “The Executive Playbook: Five Keys to Strategy Execution” meshed well with the keynote by PMI CEO Mark Langley, in which he detailed the association’s strategy for communicating the value of project management to executives.  This continues to be a pressing need for PMO leaders, many of whom continue to struggle with weak senior management support.

As Susan Boyd, our Managing Director of Consulting Services told me, one central theme is an interest in tools for Portfolio Management.  While most every PMO has a PPM process, often it is not consistently applied.  PMOs struggle to balance the task of maturing their PM capabilities with managing many major initiatives at the same time. 

As we have noted on this blog previously, the new role for the PMO might be “Change Management Office", and speaker Terry Doerscher proposed a similar thought in his session.

Change, agility, creativity … and a focus on value. With this sort of energy in the PMO sphere, the future looks promising.Let us know how we can help you optimize your PMO's future!

[Editor’s Note: Check out Debbie Crawford’s blog post at PM College for her observations about the training needs and concerns of the Symposium attendees.]

About the Author

J. Kent Crawford

Kent Crawford is the founder and CEO of Project Management Solutions, Inc. (PM Solutions) and PM College. His experience spans more than twenty five years, where he has been responsible for the development of systems requirements and the functional design of integrated project management systems for a number of Fortune 500 organizations. He is the Former President and Chair of the Project Management Institute (PMI®). During his tenure in office, Mr. Crawford implemented innovative programs, which resulted in an astounding fifty percent membership growth for the Institute. His leadership in PMI has been widely recognized as a primary driver in PMI's success. Mr. Crawford is a recipient of the PMI Fellow Award, PMI's highest and most prestigious individual honor. A prolific speaker and advocate of the profession, he is also the award-winning author of The Strategic Project Office: A Guide to Improving Organizational Performance (for which he won a David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award from PMI), Optimizing Human Capital with a Strategic Project Office, Project Management Maturity Model: Providing a Proven Path to Project Management Excellence, and Project Management Roles & Responsibilities.

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