Project Management Office
PMO is an acronym of the known Project Management Office. PMO is a department within an organization that deals with everything the concerns projects and with the projects themselves. It is a very functioning unit within a business enterprise that decides on whether an organization will grow profit-wise or will experience fall because it plays a vital role in decision making. The PMO can bear a centralized structure, but the form does not matter that much because the functions or the roles it plays are very influential. Most of the top organizations nowadays have a high performing group of PMOs that deal with the projects that are crucial for the growth and development of the organization.
Advantages of The PMO
The benefits of PMO are countless within a business. PMO helps in monitoring all the undergoing projects in an institution. This is beneficial in that it all everyone in an organization to shift their workforce to more personalized areas without having everyone working on the same area (Van der Linde, & Steyn, 2016). Although changing energy to particular areas might create boredom, it ensures that productivity is doubled and this is more vital than the boredom. Institutions that deal with productive individuals attain more profit and are more contentious, making the employees feel honoured because it also comes with competitive salaries.
PMO savers with decision making. The project managers, through the help of the project management officers, are able to ensure that the projects are done efficiently and professionally. Then, they report to the PMO who in turn report to the top officials which help in making sound decisions (Brière, Proulx, Flores, & Laporte, 2015). The project will be well understood because it is first broken down into its constituent parts and afterwards analyzed. When the analysis is done, the highest performing team then report with a fully formed decision that contributes to the organization’s success.
The PMO performs the task of monitoring all the undergoing projects. The project’s portfolios are actively monitored to ensure efficiency and effectiveness and to get to normal whoever goes amiss. The monitoring is done through the assistance of the selected project managers who collaborate with the individuals who complete the project (Brière et al., 2015). Monitoring ensures that everything is being done as previously highlighted and all the guidelines, as well as the resources, are well utilized. When monitoring is effectively done, the project outcomes will be perfect, which implies that the results will positively impact the business.
The PMO Competency Continuum Framework and Its Five Stages
The competency continuum framework ensures that there is the advancement of PMO functions. The improvement is made by providing the competency of the project management officials and project manager through guidance and fostering sound decision making (Turner 2016). By doing this, there is continuity in the functionality of the PMO and increase in professionalism, which probe for advancement in terms of all the underlined tasks (Kaul & Joslin, 2018). The continuum framework is done through a five-stage process that is regulated by different individuals and done stage-wise.
The Project Office PMO is the initial stage. It is the PMO in its infancy stage, which is the fundamental unit of the competency continuum strategy which purposes to make sure that there are excellency and professionalism in the task force. This is done when the PMO is forming to ensure that all the individuals who are to be employed to reach a certain calibre for efficiency and ensure that all the principles are followed. It contains the team that will oversee a single project with few individuals running it (Kaul & Joslin, 2018. The project managers are as well few in number and their work, here is also simple since they help in making sure that only one project flow as expected. The second stage is welcomed in with an increase in competency and tasks to be done.
The Basic PMO becomes the second stage in the continuum framework. In this stage, there are more tasks to be done with the business running more than a single project at a time. There are multiple projects that are meant to be overseen and to be more controlled by the project managers who are the backbone in this stage. This stage is characterized by fewer staffs since there are fewer tasks available despite having multiple projects overseers who are very important. The step that follows is more up to the ladder and professionalism increases with stage because the job will require individuals with more insight.
The Standard PMO forms the third stage in the continuum. This stage is the most central one to the entire process and purpose because it can oversee multiple projects because it is complete and comprehensive in all the tasks engaged. It houses more project managers and ensures optimized performance, which, on the other hand, allows effective monitoring of the projects and efficient reporting to the top-tiers. This stage will lead to a higher level which is done to ensure that the stage at which the PMO rhymes with the tasks so that increased productivity is realized.
The Advanced PMO forms the fourth stage in the continuum. The role played in here makes this stage to be like the bigger standard PMO. Some of the tasks in this stage are to merge the project with the organization’s interests and the laid objectives, which is done purposely to ensure that the project management criterion is aligned together with the business goals so that the presidency of decision making can also be realized. The basics of this stage to ensure that the business environment is project-oriented.
The Centre of Excellence is the fifth and final stage. The stage is on a powerful level in that it can perform alone without all the previous levels, though, most of the time cannot perform at the initial levels. The Centre of Excellence acts as a separate business, although the core role is to ensure that project’s operations are well managed. This is the highest level of operation in the PMO which form the link to other departments within the institution because it also forms the base for decision making and aligning the active projects with the business goals either a short time or long term.
The PMO Competency Continuum for Delivering sustainable PMO Value
The competency continuum framework is focused on ensuring productivity on every level of operation. In each stage within the continuum, some tasks are vital in making the whole process a success. For example, in the initial project office stage, there is the application of the laid down principles, which implies that there are rules and guidelines that are crucial for the optimum functioning in this stage. Following the guidance means that the legal guidelines ensure that there are no policies broken and in turn, the running of projects will be fast without many hindrances, which will have been predicted before by the rules.
In conclusion, the PMO plays some critical roles within an institution. The PMO helps people shift their attention to specific duties, which imply that there is more productivity. Although the advantages are countless, there are always some disadvantages. Corruption is the killer of most progress because nepotism has been documented when it comes to the selection of individuals to run the PMO and also those that work as the project managers. This is the greatest catastrophe and might lead to the downfall of the whole program. Nepotism should not be overlooked.
References
Brière, S., Proulx, D., Flores, O. N., & Laporte, M. (2015). Competencies of project managers in international NGOs: Perceptions of practitioners. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 116-125.
Kaul, P., & Joslin, R. (2018). Understanding PMO Success.
Monteiro, A., Santos, V., & Varajão, J. (2016). Project management office models–a review. Procedía computer science, 100, 1085-1094.
Turner, R. (2016). Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
Van der Linde, J., & Steyn, H. (2016). The effect of a project management office on project and organisational performance: A case study. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 27(1), 151-161.