In common

Q I've been invited to join a project management office (PMO) being created by my organization. What is a PMO exactly? What do the best ones look like?

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We tackled the first part of this question in the June issue of PM Network. There, we saw that although precise definitions of PMO vary widely, there's general agreement the work of the PMO is to centralize and manage a portfolio of projects within an organization.

With that answered, we can now turn to the second half of the question: What are the characteristics of the best PMOs? For answers, we asked two experienced project managers, both authors of well-regarded books on PMO operations. J. Kent Crawford, PMI Fellow, PMP, is a past president of PMI and is now CEO of PM Solutions, a project management consultancy and training firm in Havertown, Pennsylvania, USA. His newest book is Optimizing Human Capital with a Strategic Project Office [Auerbach, 2006]. Craig Letavec, PMP, has managed project portfolios for a number of Fortune 500 firms, and is the author of The Program Management Office: Establishing, Managing and Growing the Value of a PMO [J. Ross Publishing, 2006].

Of the best practices traits set forth by Mr. Crawford and Mr. Letavec, five stand out:

1. The best PMOs are run like the best businesses, with a clear focus and an emphasis on results. PMOs are not ends in themselves, but rather vehicles through which parent organizations pursue their strategic objectives. “Great PMOs have a business plan, and they execute against it consistently,” Mr. Letavec says. “They have a strategy, and they continuously adapt that strategy to meet the changing needs of their parent organization. A PMO without a sound business plan and strategy is a disaster waiting to happen.”

2. The best PMOs enjoy strong executive support from the parent organization. Aside from the obvious political benefits of top-level backing, Mr. Crawford explains other advantages: “The involvement of senior leadership facilitates project portfolio decisions. This optimizes bottom-line results by [helping PMOs to select] the highest value initiatives, regularly assessing the progress of those initiatives, and changing—or killing—projects that are not delivering the promised results.”

3. The best PMOs are learning organizations, with an orientation that points them toward the future. While they can—and do—look backward to capture lessons learned from past projects, even then their primary focus is on the future. “Great PMOs and their leaders look beyond the immediate goals to answer ‘What's next?’ and ‘What's possible?’” Mr. Levatec says. “They find ways to improve, innovate and add value beyond just meeting their immediate goals.”

4. The best PMOs offer the best leadership. Those selected for project leadership have to be top performers, and it's important that they are seen that way, both inside and outside the PMO. Such leaders make the PMO a place where people want to be. They can inspire their teams with their vision of a worthy mission, allowing a clear understanding of how the PMO's success will add value for the entire organization.

5. The best PMOs often show a bit of an attitude, a swagger in their step. In his book Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration [Perseus Books Group, 1998], leadership guru Warren G. Bennis studied seven high-performing teams. What he found was a little unsettling to some. It turns out really great teams can often be a bit eccentric, even noxious, especially to outsiders. They erect barriers to entry—how can you have a great team if just anyone can enter?—and they use jargon, ritual and tradition to mark their boundaries with the outside world. Surely there are dangers in such barriers, but Mr. Letavec says some of the best PMOs aren't afraid of being irreverent. “They rock the boat a bit, and they create waves,” he says. “They challenge ‘the way we've always done things,’ in the name of creating something better.

In short, the best PMOs are great places to work. People want to be part of terrific teams, and they fight to gain entry to such groups. Much of that is driven by a perception that their work is meaningful: We all want to make a difference. As Mr. Crawford says, “The best PMOs significantly enhance their organization's ability to deliver results that positively impact corporate performance.” PM

Bud Baker, Ph.D., is a professor of management and leader of the project management MBA at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, USA. Please send questions for Ask PM Network to [email protected].