Project management offices have administrative processes that can be misconstrued as overhead or potential roadblocks to project delivery. Effective PMOs are able to integrate these processes into the delivery cycle without causing bureaucratic drag. An effective PMO is a resource for project managers to leverage. But project managers need to understand the role of the PMO in portfolio governance, process quality assurance and project management coaching. The following five tips will help project managers improve their interaction with the PMO.
1. Support the PMO requests for information
Communications management and portfolio governance are key functions within a PMO. The project doesn’t operate in a vacuum and needs to report out across the portfolio. Project managers need to recognize the PMO’s obligation to communicate project status and performance for portfolio reviews. Both project managers and the PMO need to work together to avoid replicating project information in different formats. Aligning report expectations with the project artifacts produced by the project will minimize the burden to communicate repeatedly to various management levels.
2. Follow the process to deliver the project
Project teams need to follow an organization’s established project management procedures to ensure consistent results. The PMO’s role for process assurance is a quality management function. Project managers should recognize the PMO’s responsibility to audit project deliverables. The PMO isn’t a malicious entity bent on inhibiting project progress when a deliverable isn’t signed off. However, it is the PMO’s role to ensure process is followed.
Problems arise when the process becomes too cumbersome and the PMO doesn’t listen to project manager feedback. Process improvement is an ongoing activity with any organization and both groups need to work together to iteratively refine and improve the process.
3. Communicate key issues and risks to the PMO
Project managers should view the PMO as a project asset instead of a project liability. At the program level, the PMO is the central resource to monitor and track program level issues, risks and change requests. At the organization level, the PMO often reports directly to senior or executive management and can help communicate top-level issues across the portfolio. At the enterprise level, the enterprise PMO is a critical success factor for successful portfolio management. All of these roles require interaction and communication with the project teams.
Instead of creatively shaping a troubled project status to the PMO, the project manager should report the objective status and leverage the PMO to request assistance. The PMO wants to know the problems within the portfolio and may be able to provide additional resources or propose alternative solutions. Since the PMO monitors the portfolio, it has a broader perspective of all the projects and can help prioritize issues and problems accordingly.
4. Engage the PMO in the tollgate process
Since the PMO often inquires about status within the portfolio, involving them in the project’s gate review process is an effective approach to communicate status on a regular basis. In some organizations, PMOs manage the tollgate process for the project manager and proactively monitor approaching tollgates and help the project manager facilitate the approval process. Engaging the PMO in a tollgate will also provide an objective assessment of the project and provide additional insight into issues and risks not perceived by the project manager. Since the PMO is engaged in multiple projects, similar issues and lessons learned can be shared.
Project managers can view the tollgate as a low-value-add activity since scheduling a tollgate and maintaining the project schedule often conflict. Due to scheduling conflicts and required sign-offs, the project often progresses beyond the tollgate and resolves any issues once the tollgate has been conducted. The PMO can assist with this process by scheduling and coordinating the tollgate process while project manager can focus on project delivery.
5. Be an active participant in portfolio governance
A PMO cannot effectively support projects outside their visibility. Project managers need to communicate project start-up early and initiation requests through the PMO. Unstructured organizations often have projects initiate without sufficient resources or skills needed for the project success. The PMO can help assign resources and support the project, but it needs to know the project exists.
If the PMO is viewed as too bureaucratic, project managers may minimize the size of the project to the PMO. I’ve seen several projects that quickly lose control of scope and need to be rescued or cancelled all because they didn’t initiate the project correctly and assign appropriate resources. The PMO can be a champion for project success, but the PMO needs to know about the emerging projects in the portfolio. Project managers need to work with the PMO to ensure proper governance is in place.
An effective PMO is designed to help not hinder project development. PMOs need to be a catalyst for project success and project managers need to leverage the PMO as a tool for project delivery. The balance between PMO process requirements and project delivery can be difficult to maintain. Both groups need to view each other as a critical success factors to deliver the project for the customer and need to communicate their needs to refine the process.
During the project lifecycle, projects have enough of their own issues that PMO and project management alignment shouldn’t be one of them. Review these tips from both perspectives and share them to improve PMO and project management interaction.
