What Color Is Your PMO’s Parachute?

Over the last week, I’ve seen several threads calling out PMOs as 'a waste of time' or “needless red tape”. While there’s plenty of blame to go around regarding ineffectual PMOs, I think a lot of the negative commentary is missing an important point: There is no single model for a PMO that will work for every organization.

The book “What Color is Your Parachute” is a classic guide for job seekers that provides questionnaires and checklists that allow readers to identify their strengths, interests, and values to find the career that will be most fulfilling to them.

Organizations starting their first PMO or wanting to re-charter it to better fit their needs, should conduct a comprehensive analysis to identify which functions they need the most from their PMO.

There are eight functions that PMOs can perform that span three domains:

Since these domains represent relative levels of PMO maturity and build on each other, we’ll start at the bottom and work our way up.

Support the Individual Projects

Allocate Project Resources

This function allocates resources to the project. Since IT resources tend to be the most constrained, it’s not unusual for PMOs to be the ‘keeper and controller of the IT resources’. Depending upon the project, this would also apply to resources outside of IT. It’s the PMO’s job to make sure that those resources are available to commit to the project at the necessary levels of participation.

Support Project Managers & Project Processes

Here’s where PMOs ensure that individual projects have the tools they need to do the job. Things like document templates, best practices, prior project artifacts, and collaboration platforms are provided to the project team for use in their projects. I think this is where most PMOs start.

Unfortunately, some don’t evolve past that point. It’s up to each organization to determine whether the PMO is responsible for enforcing standard methodologies, templates, and tools or if they are simply best practice advisors and coaches.

Support the Entire Portfolio

Perform Portfolio Management and Reporting

It’s here that monitoring and status reporting of all projects in the portfolio are performed. It’s critical that this reporting is relevant to management and the project’s stakeholders, and so it must include prioritized callouts for projects that are running late, over budget, or at risk of not meeting their objectives.

Ensure Suitable Governance, Risk, and Compliance

The GRC function ensures that accurate and consistent policies, controls, and measures exist and the extent to which they are enforced across the portfolio. Not all PMOs have the authority or political capital to enforce compliance, but publicly traded companies or those in heavily regulated industries such as healthcare, utilities, or securities trading must be sure their PMOs have the necessary enforcement powers.

Measure Project Resources Across Projects

Match resource availability with demand at the beginning of projects and identify underutilized and over-capacity resources on an ongoing basis. If required for critical projects, the PMO can determine which external resources are most cost-effective for the organization to source.

Support the Enterprise

Measure and Report Business Value

This is the holy grail for the most impactful PMOs. Before a project can start, highly specific, measurable business benefits are identified, such as % revenue growth, market share increase, reduced invoice processing time, headcount reduction, etc. At the end of the project (and for any time required afterward), the PMO is responsible for measuring the attainment of those business benefits and reporting back to executive management and the project’s stakeholders. This approach allows the organization to build institutional knowledge about which projects and project sponsors are best at achieving their goals.

Perform Enterprise Communication

Clear, relevant, and actionable communication is a key component of effective stakeholder engagement. By putting enterprise project communications in the hands of the PMO, you ensure they comply with company standards and stakeholders' expectations. Consolidating them from the PMO also minimizes business interruptions and provides a more holistic message.

Perform Stakeholder and Change Management

Since the PMO is responsible for measuring a project’s benefits, they are in the best position to monitor and maintain constructive relationships with all stakeholders to ensure the required changes actually occur. I think it’s also fair to say that most really great technical resources aren’t great advocates for business change. Locating change management within the PMO allows both project contributors and the PMO to focus on what they’re best at and increases the likelihood of successful project outcomes.

What do you think? Did we miss any functions for a PMO? Have you seen a really effective PMO? Let me know in the comments below.

Need help with making your PMO work for you? Conxin would love to make you the hero.