Article Written by Gwen Miller, PMP

I can tell the economy is improving.  I have seen so many calls for ‘HELP’ in the past month.  But it was one 9-1-1’s in particular that got me pondering, ‘Do the executives really understand what it entails to set up and deliver a Project Management Office (PMO)?’

This distressed young man stated, ‘I was just hired by this company and was told that we are going to set up a PMO for the company.  Oh, by the way, NONE of us are Project Managers.’ (there were others to take on this raft over the falls).

I could feel the tension in his words, ‘here I am just starting out my career with this company.  Really thankful to have a job.  Want to do really well on my way to a successful career.  What did I do soooo wrong in my life to be tasked with creating something I know absolutely nothing about.’

I could tell there were others in these discussions that were just as disgusted as I was, (ARE YOU KIDDING ME??  ARE THEY TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY??), as we inundated this poor, lost soul with our own flavor of what he should do.

It shows that organization has no concept, or lacks an understanding, of just what a PMO is (and I know there are many more offenders out there).  Perhaps that is because we have yet to come up with a standard definition. There seems to be as many ‘flavors’ of PMO’s as Baskin and Robbins ice cream.

Just reading all the responses, I thought ‘If I were in his shoes, what would I do?’  Now that he is mulling over all the information provided to him through the group discussion.  And then there are all the websites he can glean further information in which to begin formulating his CYA plan.

I kept hearing those immortal words from Dragnet, ‘just the facts ma’am’.  So the facts are the leadership of the organization or whoever the PMO sponsor is, will need to provide some insight into ‘what’ the team will be expected to deliver.  For example, they might need an Administrative PMO.  This type of PMO focuses on documenting and reporting on the projects in progress.

I would hazard a guess that is what they are going for (and I am going out on a limb here).  They need information so they are tasking a group to get it for them.  For the other types of PMO’s there needs to be an understanding of the project management to create a standardize methodology, tool and templates, program and portfolio mangement, resource management, training, and strategic planning.  I hope my guess is right.

So once there is clarity and expectations are understood, document this knowledge in what is known as a PMO Charter.  In simplistic terms, the PMO Charter is the authorization to establish the PMO and its role in the organization.  It will include such details as whom the PMO sponsor is, the services that it will offer, the staffing necessary to deliver those services, and who the customers will be.  It should also provide a start date when the services will begin to be delivered.

This is where the advice gets a little tricky.  Since there is no PM on the team, I can’t just say ‘now treat it like a project, define the tasks needed to get the PMO implemented, and provide the project plan to the team, give leadership the delivery date and lets go!!  Not that simple.

At this point the team will need to begin determining the tasks to get to the end game.  Time for team brainstorming.  Assuming each team member understands their role; have them write down tasks on a sticky note.  No debate, no conversation.  Quantity not quality.

When everyone is done, paste the sticky notes, in random order, on a blank sheet of paper where they can be viewed with the rest of the team.  Start looking for logical groupings.  Before you know it, and you may have a couple of stragglers out there, you have at least enough information to understand what needs to be done.

List the tasks in a spreadsheet.  Assign who on the team will complete the task and ask them how long they think it will take to complete.  At this point, you will have a very rough and primitive plan to implement the PMO.  Hopefully, there is enough time allotted in the PMO Charter to get everything set up in time to begin service delivery.  Hopefully the PMO sponsor understood time would be needed to get set up.

On a wing and a prayer.  I have not seen any further correspondence from this young man.  I hope he is busy fighting in the trenches to get the PMO implemented.  I do hope he will come back to the group for more guidance if he runs into issues.  I secretly wish that his leadership will somehow come by this article and give some thought to ‘Is she talking about us?’

What needs to happen to get company leaders to understand what Project Management is?  Do your leaders get it?

© 2011  Gwen Miller, PMP