This post spends some time considering the role of the PMO manager.
If an organisation is serious about improving the project delivery capability through a PMO, it is very important that the right candidate is appointed to the role.
Unfortunately, as many organisations view the PMO as an administrative centre, they automatically assume that it does not need experienced resources with solid project management skills. This often leads to a PMO being staffed and led by junior resources with no or very little experience.
This causes a fundamental issue – lack of credibility to the project community. It will be very difficult for a PMO to implement tools, standards and try to engage and help the project teams, if the project teams know they have no experience. There will soon be discussions with stakeholders that the PMO is trying to implement bureaucratic processes that add no value and take time away from real delivery. While this is not true, the PMO will find itself spending a lot of valuable time trying to correct this perception
If an organisation is serious about project delivery they need to:
Recognise the importance of the PMO
Appoint experienced professionals
Ensure that there is a clear mandate and sponsorship
Doing this opens the way to appointing a suitable PMO manager.
PMO Manager role and responsibilities
While this will vary by organisation and type of PMO, it can include:
Define and build PMO
Appoint / recruit PMO resources based on PMO model
Define organisational model
Provide reporting to senior management and stakeholders
Ensure alignment to strategy
Create working relationships with project managers and other PMO’s
Facilitate governance process
Overall risk management to identify themes
Facilitate dependency management across the projects and programmes
May line manage project managers for a pro-active / managerial PMO
PMO Manager skills and experience
Typically a solid project / programme manager
Real experience of project delivery
Commercial outlook
Pragmatic
Trustworthy / honest
Very good stakeholder skills
Exceptional communication skills
Strong leadership
Choosing the right person to lead a PMO can make a dramatic difference to the value that the PMO delivers. You may be interested in viewing the article The real roles across a project or programme.
