15 important values a PMO delivers
By: Laurent Schoenaers
Tags: Portfolio Management, Project Management, Pmo

A lot is written and talked about PMO’s, but how is it that there are still PMO’s that are not functioning properly? To get an answer to this question, you have to question when a PMO functions well and which value they bring to the organization.

A PMO can bring value in a lot of different areas, in this series of blogposts we focused on 15 PMO values we value highly.

Some numbers

Did you know 31% of projects do not meet their goals and business intent? Companies fail or fall short of their potential not because of bad strategies, but because of a failure to implement good ones.

Did you know 41% of projects go over budget? Organizations in Europe waste an average of $131 million for every $1 billion spent on projects due to poor project performance.

Research on the impact of PMO’s shows :

✅ 43% improvement in aligning projects with organization’s objectives

✅ 27% improvement in customer satisfaction

✅ 33% improvement in projects delivered under budget

✅ 25% improvement in productivity

✅ 25% decrease in failed projects

A PMO must bring immediate value to the table

A PMO can be found on several levels in the organization. A PMO can support a single project, support an entire program or even be set up at organizational level to support all portfolios, programs and projects. Not taking into account at which level the PMO functions, it only functions well if it adds value. That value consists mainly of 15 important value aspects.

These values should support the PMO in supporting the organization in:

✅ doing the projects right

✅ doing the right projects

Standardization ensures consistent quality

👉 Optimize the start-up and closing of projects by adding standardization and quality-enhancing measures.

The way a project is started or closed can be made less dependent on the project manager assigned to the project, which guarantees a constant quality that is crucial for the success of a project. Integral planning for a dynamic project organization

👉 Provide integral planning and estimation across all projects.

Projects are almost never static after the start: scope changes, resources change, planning needs to be adjusted… By making a distinct connection between all projects, the impact on projects becomes clear when other projects start to shift. This is essential within programs and portfolios. Support in stakeholder management and communication

👉 Improve structured stakeholder management and support in drawing up quality communication plans.

Every project manager must be a great stakeholder manager and communicator. Practice shows that not every project manager is equally good at this, so projects show varying results. The PMO can provide the necessary support and provide the organization with standards. Actual follow-up of a business case

👉 The business case of a project, that’s what we do it for in the end.

So why is it often only drawn up at the beginning of the project and not managed afterwards? Who does the follow-up of the benefits when the project is completed and the benefits often only need to be realized in the line organization? Integral and centrally organized resource and capacity management

👉 An important phenomenon in organizations is the lack of insight into which resources, when and for how long work on which projects.

A good PMO assists in providing insights into resource utilization and helps to solve bottlenecks. Optimizing, standardizing, managing and distributing insightful dashboards

👉 Nowadays every organization has templates for every process, but filling them out often leaves much to be desired.

The PMO can support this and integrate them at portfolio or program level in clear and uncluttered management dashboards. Central issue management

👉 What are the most important issues? Who ensures that the alarm bells go off on time if the issues are not adequately or timely resolved?

The PMO can facilitate this by setting up central issue management. These issues can also be used at portfolio/program level to enable high level issue management. Financial management

👉 Financial overviews at a glance.

Budget monitoring can be standardized by the PMO so that a standard budget structure is created across all projects, based on this the costs per project can be reported. Standardization and support in information and configuration management

👉 Have you ever been looking for project documents, to no avail?

A PMO can offer standardization in the storage of important project artefacts, for example, creating a SharePoint (Online) repository for each project with a standard project structure. Pre-agreed naming and configuration management guidelines ensure that these documents are properly managed during and after the project. Facility and administrative support for the project organization

👉 Administrative support is an important support, which is often set up first within a PMO.

Organizing meetings, taking care of agenda, minutes, requests for access passes, authorizations, etc. Unfortunately many PMO’s get stuck on this aspect because the PMO is often only seen as supportive and this is the most obvious (and easy to organize) support. Centrally estimating risks

👉 Support central risk management.

By triggering the project manager at fixed points in time to carry out or update his risk inventory, and support him in doing so, the PMO can add quality to the active management of project risks. Also, these risks can be used at portfolio / program level to facilitate high level risk management. Manage changes centrally

👉 Support central change management.

Just as for issues and risks, it is valuable to centrally monitor the changes across the projects. In this way the PMO promotes the importance of active change management. Ensuring the quality of projects

👉 Support quality Assurance.

The PMO can support Quality Assurance issues in the projects. Depending on the staffing of a PMO, one can even go so far as to carry out audits to ensure quality within the projects. Support in transferring projects to the line organization

👉 Transition Management is sometimes forgotten in the project.

Transition Management is sometimes forgotten in projects. The PMO supports the project in transferring the project to the line organization. Think of organizing knowledge transfer sessions or keeping track of documentation to be delivered. Mastering and adding knowledge to a project organization

👉 The PMO is the central knowledge management contact point for the organization in the field of project management.

Lessons learned, project management methodology knowledge, offering training, providing examples of similar projects… These are just a few examples where the PMO in the field of project management knowledge can add value to projects.

You don’t easily come across PMO’s that have implemented all the value aspects mentioned above and in the other blogposts in this series.

If you’re curious about how mature your PMO is, I invite you to fill in the Online PMO Maturity Assessment, which will take you no longer than 10 minutes to complete and provide you with an insightful report on how mature your PMO is and what value aspects you can work on within your organization.

This content is taken from a series of three blogposts I’ve written in the past weeks: