The PMO profession, acronym for Project Management Office, or Project Office in French, consists in being responsible for the management of programs and portfolios or projects.
For a PMO, Know How to Position Yourself Well Vis-à-vis the Codir, stakeholders and project teams is A Vital Issue for the Success of Its Mission... and therefore for his survival in the organization!
It can be very difficult for a PMO to understand how to position itself, or even to identify that this positioning will greatly condition the failure and success of relationships with stakeholders but also of projects. The PMO Often Acting as a Fuse in case of dysfunctions/difficulties in project management.
When a PMO comes from “project leadership” himself, he may not know if he is a project manager++, not always knowing how to evolve his role, turning more into a role of Head of Project Managers.
But We Can Be A Very Good Project Manager and Being a Very Bad PMO (and vice versa).
When a PMO does not come from the “project management”, it can have difficulty understanding the issues in the field and be too close to the Codir, alienating the project teams and not relaying good practices and information to the Codir.
One cannot discuss the history of relationships without first explaining why this topic is worth discussing.
There are often dysfunctions or unforeseen events in a project, but when these dysfunctions affect a majority of projects in a program, or even in an entire project process, then it is important to look for the elements common to these dysfunctions in order to be able to address them.
Among the signals that may indicate dysfunctions in the management of project programs and relationships between the stakeholders in the process, we often find project latencies and frustrations.
Misunderstanding and frustrations for project managers when decisions not taken or changes in decisions destabilize project management or even the deprioritization of projects or their abandonment.
Misunderstanding and frustrations of decision-makers when the project manager is committed to the completion of a milestone or deliverables and when in the end they are not met.
Today, we can say with confidence that the PMO has a role to play in resolving these issues, and even that much of it comes from their responsibility.
Its inability to be part of the solution often lies in its positioning in front of stakeholders. Several positions have been identified that pose problems in the history of these relationships: The “pass-through” PMO, the PMO too focused on the Codir, or towards project managers, etc. review the symptoms to watch out for.
This is the position that the PMO takes when it plays a role primarily in reporting to stakeholders. It brings little or no value to the process, its action is restricted (often to the definition of its role by the company) and it reports actions and information from the field to the Codir and conversely the information and instructions given by the Codir to the management/project management.
A casual PMO is a bit like going through your life while just being a spectator. There is absolutely no point in creating a position to be endorsed in this way.
It tends to widening the gap between the Codir and project management where communication is weak, exchanges are not very constructive and even when they exist. We often remain in a very top-down dynamic with decisions that are uncorrelated to reality on the ground.
PMOs were usually more focused in their relationship with the Codir, making it a priority to provide the information and elements required by the Codir. With a “big little boss” relationship with project managers, and a relationship between PMO and Codir in a “common front” with project managers.
He makes his role a priority when it comes to providing a lot of Reporting, the project teams will have a feeling of control and micromanagement” but in fact the teams will not have decisions or support from the comanager and PMO allowing the smooth management of the project.
Little by little, the PMO will alienate the project teams and witness the collapse of team commitment.
In the end, we end up with Codirectors who make decisions on false data, because we ask for too many reports from the teams. This does not make their lives easier (especially in “best effort” mode) and we end up giving information for the sake of giving information and we multiply the bullshit information that is often used to cover themselves rather than having qualitative time to spend to advance projects.
As a result, this generates distrust and distrust of the PMO on the part of project managers, which leads the latter to obtain and manage on false data from project management and therefore, as a result, a management that also manages on false data. So management thinks that things are progressing, and when they realize that this is not the case, the PMO “jumps” waiting for the next fuse.
On the other hand, a PMO who comes from project management will often have difficulty positioning himself and this will also malfunction because he will do projects, get involved a lot with project managers and will not advance decisions with the Codir, because the decision-makers will not have understood the state of play of the various situations on which they are asked to decide. The PMO will not be able to obtain these quick decisions for project management because the members of the Codir will have lost sight of the elements of the projects and will not have enough information or a clear enough level of understanding to distill the right decisions or the right insights to the project teams.
Decision Makers Need Understand the state of affairs, a reality on the ground in order to be in a position to provide the right decisions and corrective actions. To do this, the PMO must be in a position to give a clear picture of the reality on the ground, on the progress and evolution of project management. He must be able to communicate at the right level, in order to synthesize key information, in order to always put events into the cognitive framework of project goals and business goals. Information must be communicated to the Codir in the form of actionable items, allowing the Codir to make quick decisions that can be easily implemented.
He must be close enough to the collaborators, to understand their problems, to help them in the process and the approach and the project management by making their lives easier, but above all he must be in a position to obtain for the project manager quick decisions on the key elements that the project manager needs to advance their actions.
It must be a support to the project leadership allowing them to identify and anticipate the difficulties as well as the resources necessary to achieve the objectives.
In the case of project managers in best effort mode, the PMO plays a role in training and coaching departments and teams in order to help them increase their skills and achieve sufficient autonomy in the management of these projects but also by promoting the commitment of employees in project management.
It is this happy medium to find between not doing projects and helping employees by trying to make their life easier in project management.
At the same time, the PMO has good access to information, so it can bring back the right actionable items, by communicating them at the right level of discourse to the Codir, which makes it possible to obtain quick decisions and corrective actions.
The PMO must provide clarity and foresight in order to facilitate communication and understanding between project stakeholders and thus facilitate monitoring and progress.
On the other hand, a PMO who comes from project management will often have difficulty positioning himself and it will also malfunction because he will do projects, get involved a lot with the Project managers And will not advance decisions with the Codir, because decision-makers will not have understood the state of play of the various situations on which they are asked to rule. The PMO will not be able to obtain these quick decisions for project management because the members of the Codir will have lost sight of the elements of the projects and will not have enough information or a clear enough level of understanding to distill the right decisions or the right insights to the project teams.
Decision makers need to understand the state of play, a reality on the ground in order to be able to provide the right decisions and corrective actions. To do this, the PMO must be in a position to give a clear picture of the reality on the ground, on the progress and evolution of project management. He must be able to communicate at the right level, in order to synthesize key information, in order to always put events into the cognitive framework of project goals and business goals. Information must be communicated to the Codir in the form of actionable items, allowing the Codir to make quick decisions that can be easily implemented.
He must be close enough to the collaborators, to understand their problems, to help them in the process and the approach and the project management by making their lives easier, but above all he must be in a position to obtain for the project manager quick decisions on the key elements that the project manager needs to advance their actions.
It must be a support to the project leadership allowing them to identify and anticipate the difficulties as well as the resources necessary to achieve the objectives.
In the case of project managers in best effort mode, the PMO plays a role in training and coaching departments and teams in order to help them increase their skills and achieve sufficient autonomy in the management of these projects but also by promoting the commitment of employees in project management.
It is this happy medium to find between not doing projects and helping employees by trying to make their life easier in project management.
At the same time, the PMO has good access to information, so it can bring back the right actionable items, by communicating them at the right level of discourse to the Codir, which makes it possible to obtain quick decisions and corrective actions.
The PMO must provide clarity and foresight in order to facilitate communication and understanding between project stakeholders and thus facilitate monitoring and progress.
The PMO must divide his time between these two stakeholders, he must be a Ally of both parties and play this role as a facilitator and facilitate communication and access to the information necessary to move projects forward.
For him to be able to fuel the wheels, he must not position himself in a customer-supplier relationship. He must create a partnership relationship with both parties, as a trusted third party would do in order to ensure that he can create win-win situations between all parties.
This will also make it possible to remind all employees and authorities of their rights and duties. Hence the importance in the project approach for the PMO to clearly define and communicate the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder, in order to be able to guarantee the proper functioning of the process in the success of project objectives.
The PMO can sometimes find itself in this delicate situation, or in the event of dysfunctions, it faces a high concentration of frustrations from the various parties.
Here, to properly manage these situations and keep a cool head, it is important to remain factual, not to fall into the emotional register and adopt the hat of “problem solver.” Being able to streamline communication and find win-win situations will allow the PMO to pass these delicate stages, which are certainly uncomfortable, but often unavoidable in the management of projects at the scale of one.
One of the PMO tools to streamline project management and communication, leading to rapid decisions is The Project approach set-up.
One of the approaches that is very effective is a Approach driven by commitment, milestones, decisions and which is centered around the SRR (for Meaning, Role, Ritual).
The SRR concept makes it possible to clearly define and communicate everyone's roles and responsibilities, while making them meaningful for everyone and setting up rituals that allow the concepts and project culture to be properly adopted for all.
The project sponsor is the collaborator or organization who initiated the project and who assumes final responsibility for it. It is customary to say that it is the one who “country”
It is important that the PMO and the project sponsor maintain a strong and effective working relationship in order to ensure the success of the project. Here are some key things that can help define relationships between a PMO and a sponsor:
In summary, it is important for the PMO and the project sponsor to maintain a strong and effective working relationship to ensure the success of the project. This involves clear and regular communication, well-defined responsibilities, and active collaboration.
You may have already guessed it at this point, one of the missions and indicators that would be perfectly suited to the PMO nowadays would therefore be rather The Ability to Get People to Decide and How Quickly It Helps to Get Decisions Made To code to improve project management.
Its ability to make these rapid decisions will come from its ability to communicate at the right level with the Codir, to facilitate the exchanges of information between the Codir and the project collaborators, while facilitating the work of the latter in order to guarantee the integrity of the information and to help in the operational management of projects.
If the Codir has few decisions to make, it may be because not enough information is coming from project collaborators. On the other hand, if there are a lot of decisions to be taken that go back to Codir but a few decisions are taken that will not work either. It is A Subtle Balance Achievable goal!
