What is a PMO?

I was asked by a respected colleague recently to explain what a Project Management Office (PMO) is. The question took me by surprise. Honestly, I assumed that most people in business have had exposure to project management office organizations somewhere in their career. For me this served as a gentle reminder that as IT professionals, we need to be careful about the use of acronyms and about how much people in business know about how IT should work.

Here is how I described the PMO:

1. Determine which projects should be worked on. There are always more project ideas that there are people or resources to do them in most companies. It is important to look at each request to ensure that it makes sense to pursue. A key PMO function answers the following questions; What is the purpose of the project?, Why is it needed?, How will it help the firm (e.g. increase revenues, lower costs, meet regulatory requirement, resolve a competitive issue).
2. A PMO runs projects – typically a project manager is assigned to run a project. They are responsible for the project scope, project budget, and project plans. They make sure that stakeholders know the status of their project (e.g. Is it on track?, Is it on budget, Are there issues, etc).
3. A PMO has staff that gather requirements – The is most often the job of a business analyst. They are charged with gathering and documenting end-user business requirements and they make sure application developers, database analysts, and IT operations staff know what the business requirements are. They serve as the liaison between the business and IT.
4. The PMO staff makes sure that solutions are tested and made ready for end-users. They also ensure that the roll out of new solutions are managed throughout the organization (e.g. training, software distribution and installation, help desk preparation, etc).

This, of course, is a simplified view of a PMO and the services provided. I think my friend understood this conceptually, but still has lingering questions about the value of a PMO. I find that when people don’t have expertise with project managers (much less PMO’s) the best way to show value is to pick a key project and assign an experienced project manager and showcase their work. I have seen this work many times…I have also seen firms adapt the concept of a PMO for corporate (non-IT) initiatives after seeing the value it brings.

IT organizations are ultimately measured on a few key areas: IT services availability, understanding the business, and project execution. A well run PMO can greatly enhance IT’s image and reputation within firms - thus truly leveraging IT to drive bottom line results.