What are the components of a PMO?

Posted on July 12, 2023

There are seven primary components of a PMO.

There are seven primary components to any PMO, which grow in capability and complexity as the PMO takes on more strategic responsibilities.

Processes, Standards, and Methodologies

A primary role is as developer and maintainer of the processes and methodologies pertaining to the management of projects. The PMO serves as a central library for these standards (including templates, forms, and checklists), and is home to experts on their deployment. The PMO also incorporates lessons learned on projects nearing completion into the project management methodology.

Project Managers

The PMO takes charge of the development of professional project managers. In the fully deployed PMO, project managers actually report to the PMO and are deployed to projects either as full-time managers or on a part-time basis. The PMO maintains a database of project managers, documenting their skill sets and experience. The PMO is a “demand management office” – a center for resource development and allocation, which acts to prevent resource bottlenecks from hindering organizational progress.

Training/Professional Development

The PMO is the center of focus for project manager and team training and development. It identifies competencies needed by high-performance project managers and executive awareness and team member participation. The PMO typically participates with a project management training vendor in tailoring standardized courses around the culture and methodologies that apply specifically to the organization.

Project Support

In a fully staffed PMO, the project support group is responsible for estimating and budgeting, including cost estimating and capital estimating. They develop plans and schedules and provide status updates, pulling data from time collection, timesheets, and the financial system to update the status against the plan. They perform variance analysis and are also critical to change control. Project support also keeps a project repository, maintains issues tracking, and handles progress reports.                                                                                 

Software Tools

The PMO centralizes the establishment and maintenance of project-related software tools, maintains project management software standards, and acquires project management software and supporting software. The project support group identifies software, facilitates or performs the integration and use of software, and maintains and monitors its performance.

Mentoring and Coaching

When another department in the enterprise wants to manage a project themselves, the PMO can provide expert assistance in the form of mentoring and coaching for the staff involved. This also provides an audit function for existing projects to determine how effectively the project management process is being utilized within the organization.

Portfolio Management

As a central clearinghouse for project information, the PMO is the owner of the portfolio management process, coordinating between project level and portfolio level to make sure that decision-makers have the best information in the most accessible formats. The investment decisions reflected in the portfolio form the blueprint for the work carried out by the project managers and teams within (or mentored by) the PMO.

Source: Crawford, J.K., et al. (2008). Seven Steps to Strategy Execution: Integrating Portfolios, Programs, Projects and People for Organizational Performance. Glen Mills, PA: Project Management Solutions, Inc.

 
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