What is the value of a PMO?

David seems to have stirred up a bit of hornets’ nest with his piece about the negative value of the PMO, in project magazine. Having led a couple of PMOs and worked with many I can see the value in David’s arguments. A poorly run PMO can do little or nothing to support the delivery of successful projects in an organisation. They can be over obsessive about corporate reporting processes, following the process for the sake of the process and confuse accountability for the reporting of project progress. A well run PMO can provide support to project managers then they find makes a significant contribution to the successful delivery of the project, through providing the proper tools and skills to deliver the projects. This is especially true in organisation with lots of small and diverse projects which are not significant enough to invest in their own processes and system. However the PMO needs to remember it is there to improve project performance.

Advantages and disadvantages of a PMO

 

How the measure the value of a PMO?

How can we evaluate if the value of PMO exceeds its cost? Would the project managers pay for the PMO as part of the project costs? One way of evaluating the performance is to use them as an internal consultancy team, with targets to win support assignments from project managers. In this way they can generate income to invest in services systems, processes and training to offer the project managers. These project managers are only likely to buy the services that they perceive as adding real value.