Understanding PMO Maturity in Your Organization
Last week StrategicFront partnered with Sciforma to host a 1-hour webinar, in which we talked about a proven approach for assessing and maturing PMO in your organization.
Here are some highlights of the webinar, as well as the slides and the full recording.
What is a PMO?
A Project Management Office (PMO) is an essential component that enables the successful delivery of key initiatives for a department, unit or organization, and hence, enables its overall future success. An effective PMO should manage expectations, drive the right behaviours and, ensure the right level of communication and accountability.
A PMO is…
- a centralized structure that eases and expedites the delivery of projects through good project management discipline and the application of appropriate governance
- an entity that holds a holistic view of all projects and understands the business imperatives behind each initiative
- an information channel to make key functional units, and all stakeholders aware of their roles and responsibilities
- responsible for creating and communicating the overall project dashboard
A PMO is NOT…
- intended to be an added level of unnecessary bureaucracy or overhead
- doing the work but rather facilitating the execution in an integrated and consistent fashion
- a roadblock to business growth
- a manager of day-to-day business activities
A Viable PMO Should Provide Value
- Contribute to business growth – inject project management discipline from strategy formulation through benefits realization
- Reduce business risk – flexible, end-to-end project management process that balances rigor with overhead, with simple-to-use tools to plan, manage, track and report all project activities
- Keep management informed – provide regular updates to the leadership / executive team and contribute to ongoing executive reporting as it pertains to the status of execution
- Deliver successful projects – provide project management best practice discipline to guide and drive project delivery and realise desired benefits
- Serve as PM expert – set the standard, provide the tools / templates, be the resident advocate and model for good Project Management practice while mentoring, guiding and training
5 Steps to Improve PMO Maturity
- Know the PMO functions/departments being assessed and plan the assessment project
- Get the people aligned and conduct a Kickoff to get everyone on the same page
- Conduct the assessment and know where your PMO Maturity Level is today
- Determine the desired level of PMO maturity based on organizational strategic goals
- Develop a Roadmap to achieve the desired PMO maturity level