Introduction to Project Management Office: The What and The Types

The ultimate goal of every organization is always driven towards stable growth and sustainability.?As your organization grows, managers have fewer tools to control projects. Your team might work passionately, but without deliberate leadership to ensure the success of their projects, the entire office can disintegrate into kindergarten-level chaos. This is why we begin the month by introducing the project management office and its primary types as an important aspect of every business.?

The Project Management?Office, also known as the PMO, can be simply described as a centralized entity within a specific organization that is responsible for setting standards, maintaining discipline, providing a governing body, and enforcing the right set of accountability to project management and leadership in a clear, concise, and consistent way.

Project management is an art geared toward the objective of increasing the production of products or services.?Many confuse the PMO with the figure of the Project Manager, but they are different things.?The project office supersedes the project manager’s, as the manager is responsible for one or more specific projects, while the office is responsible for all projects in the company or for a specific area.

According to PMSolutions’ “State of the PMO” report, the percentage of organizations with a project management office (PMO) increased from 61 percent in 2007 to 71 percent IN 2017. And more recently, another survey by the?State of Project Management Survey 2020, UK: Wellingtone PPM, revealed that the number of PMOs within companies has continued to rise.?This means that the subject of PMO is so important that the success or failure of an organization could depend on how solid the project management plan is. If well planned, it can help you oversee multiple projects without overloading your staff.?

From the least support to the most support, we list the three paramount types of PMO below.

1.?The?Support PMO

This is that project office that has a more?consultative?and coaching-oriented profile.?Its main role is to make?recommendations?to project managers that are distributed within the organization, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each model, technique, or tool and suggesting the best path to be followed in each project.

?It is also the role of the supporting PMO to?organize project documentation?and ensure that information from past projects is used as lessons learned in future projects. A support PMO is usually implemented when the organization hasn’t bloomed to full in project management maturity, as its degree of control is lower compared to other types of PMO.?It is not advisable to create very strict controls in immature organizations, because this would only generate unnecessary frustration. First, it is necessary to “educate” project managers on best practices and, only then, begin to apply any type of audit.?As the PMO becomes more recognized within the company, it can act more effectively in controlling projects.

2.?The Control PMO

This is that project office that, in addition to supporting project managers in carrying out initiatives, also?assesses project compliance.?That is, it verifies that project managers and the entire project team are following the project?management models, tools, and processes established in the organization.?After training project managers, the controlling PMO really demands that the knowledge learned be applied in practice. For this, the control PMO uses?process audits, which allows identifying the points in the process that are not being completely followed.?This means that audits aren’t only used to expose people who are not complying with the rules, but the process as well. In fact, the notable benefit of audits is in generating?process reviews, tying up any “loose ends” or reducing some controls, as project managers increase their maturity in the processes.

Once there is more?standardization of processes?and uniformity in the way project managers do things, it is possible?to better measure the quality?with which projects are being delivered.?Another assignment of the Control PMO is to help?control the project portfolio, either by organizing and prioritizing initiatives or taking control of some projects for themselves.

3.?The Directive PMO

This is that project office that has an?even greater degree of control than even the control PMO.?The term “director” is not used loosely: this type of PMO is responsible for?directing the organization’s resources?to the projects.?The director?chooses which project managers will work on each project?and how much?money can be spenton each of the initiatives.

The directive PMO represents a?center of excellence in project management?and, like the consultative PMO, it also makes recommendations to project managers and is responsible for disseminating the project management methodology throughout the organization.?In addition, like the controlling PMO, the directive PMO also performs compliance audits to verify that processes are being followed.

In conclusion, a PMO without the right set-up will have minimal impact on the rest of your business.?The PMO team will become an island and might even slow down your project progress. iCentra provides consultancy services to create an interconnected PMO that adds a level of transparency across projects while giving managers all the functionality they need to maximize efficiency.

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