What is PMO?

What is a PMO?

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A Project Management Office, also known as a PMO, has traditionally sat within technology departments. More recently we’ve seen a shift for PMO’s to be an enterprise function, as it is projects that drive the delivery of business strategy.

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The main role of a PMO is to provide governance, standards, reporting and process around project delivery. Its function is to maintain and define the standards as well as planning and prioritisation of the project pipeline.  

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When a company gets to a level where they run multiple projects, this is where they will get value and traction by implementing a Project Management Office (PMO). A successful PMO consists of a few foundational elements including tools, processes, people, and strategy.

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Standardising processes and improving efficiency will ultimately result in significant cost reductions (our clients see around a 30% decrease in costs while delivery the same amount of projects) and improve productivity across an organisation.

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With an increase in project volume and an increase in more complex projects, a Project Management Office becomes a vital part of any business.

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What is a PMO and what does it do?

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A PMO is not defined by a checklist. It will vary from company to company, but below are some of the possibilities:

• Train and coach stakeholders and project leaders
• Promote communication in an organisation and information flow
• Standardise methods and processes  
• Plan resources
• Create a project portfolio  
• Prioritise projects
• Create strategy
• Prepare resources for portfolio board
• Maintain Employee data: capacity, project allocation, and skills
• Optimise resources and solve conflicts  
• Monitor projects and project portfolio tracking

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The technology industry is growing and so are the use of Project Management Offices.

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As an industry leader in the successful use of PMOs, we have the experience to enable organisations to implement, configure, manage, and drive PMOs to deliver complex programme and project portfolios. Learn more about how you can cut the cost of delivering your programmes and projects with our Collaborative PMO solution.

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Read more about how we partner with KiwiRail to run their PMO, or learn more with the first piece of our PMO thought leadership series - "Time for a PMO Reset?"