Project Management Office

Historical origin

PMO first appeared in the early 1990s. At that time, PMO only provided very little service and support, and more by the company to "regulate" project managers, rather than providing them to the direction and guidance of project management. In the late 1990s, for the leadership leadership, the need to put projects in the operation of the entire enterprise has become more and more obvious, and the PMO has appeared in large quantities. PMO has proven to be ideal for the project manager or the corporate executive personnel. Because the company needs to establish an ideal environment that can perform business strategies, PMO implements this, it evaluates and sorts each project according to business strategy, and then conducts appropriate resource allocation.

Alive with the increasing and project management value of the project management concept, management gradually recognizes that project management will have a very favorable impact on improving corporate economic benefits and profits, more and more companies The company's strategic decomposition and task implementation is performed by the project. With the refinement of professional division of labor, more and more cross-time projects appear in the enterprise, how to optimize resource optimization in cross-functional projects, manage the risks, progress of each project, etc., become more and more important. In order to better solve the resource conflict, copy the successful experience of the project, standardize the project management standards of the enterprise, and the project management office (PMO) is delivered.

Function

PMO is a department that will practice, process, operational formation and standardization in the organization, is a core department that raises the management maturity of organizations, which is based on industry best practices And recognized project management knowledge system, combined with the company's own business and industry characteristics, to organize the project management process, cultivate the project manager team, establish a project management information system, provide consultant guidance for the project, carry out multi-project management, etc. This ensures the improvement of the project success rate and the effective implementation of the organization strategy.

PMO as responsible for establishing standardized project management standards, summing up best practices, solving resources conflicts, training project managers, project reviews, and construction organization-level project management systems.

Responsibility and Function

PMO usually has the following responsibilities and functions:

1. Provide administrative support for the project manager and project team, such as the production of various reports of the project;

2. Maximum concentration project management experts, provide project management consulting and consulting services;

3. The company's project management practices and expertise is organized into a set of methods for the company, providing internal spread and reuse;

4. Provide training in project management related skills within the enterprise;

5. PMO can configure some project managers, and it is necessary to participate in specific projects directly to support key projects.

PMO can be a temporary organization or a permanent mechanism. Temporary agencies are often used to manage some specific items, such as enterprise purchase items. Permanent PMO is suitable for managing a set of projects with fixed time cycle, or supports the continuous progression of organizational projects.

destination

Specifically, the project management office is to satisfy two Aspect:

1. Meet the need for business competition

An important reason for the early establishment of PMO is the painful experience of failure. The cruelty of modern commercial society competition has enabled any enterprise to be in trouble because of the failure of individual projects. The success or failure of the project is unsuccessful in today's society has not been divided, resulting in urgent needs of PMO.

A successful medium-sized enterprise must have a lot of projects in progress, whether there is excellent project management technical personnel, becoming the key to completing customer needs under limited time and cost conditions. However, there is a variety of limitations that reappear talents, and the outstanding talents you can have are limited. During the implementation of a large number of projects, it will inevitably require an organization to provide a strong support for project work to assist project managers and project teams to overcome various difficulties, high quality, and high performance completion projects in a timely and efficient completion of project managers and project teams. In order to allow project management techniques and experiences to become an organization's organization of wealth, it will ultimately improve the overall productivity of the project team and improve the profitability of enterprises. It has its necessity and urgency to establish PMO within the enterprise.

Once the project starts, PMO continuously monitors the changes in each project, providing various project managers and project team needed for support and services. One of the key I want to emphasize here is that as the company's strategy changes, the situation of any project will also change. PMO implements the project to adapt to corporate strategy changes by correcting, accelerating, terminating, or priority to projects, and achieves the direction adjustment of the company's strategic change to meet the needs of commercial competition.

2 to meet the needs of rational configuration resources

To get the benefits of PMO, the size of the company must first reach a certain level. If a company has only one project every year, don't waste a limited resource on PMO. For companies with many projects, you will find that the project manager is quite, each has different skills and experience. These project managers often do not realize the success of other projects, and even don't know what others are doing. If a similar situation occurs, PMO should be established. Any PMO operation requires investment in funds and personnel. However, the time and funds in PMO will be worthwhile, it allows the project manager to be better, faster, and save project work in the enterprise. Because PMO is a height of the entire enterprise operation rather than a single project, it is reasonable to distribute the company's limited resources, while providing various support for the project manager and project team to ensure successful implementation of the company's strategy.

Centralized PMO can ensure that all project managers have core project management skills, use common methods, process processes, and templates, and get support from the highest level of the company. The simplicity of the PMO organization makes everyone can establish such a office. But PMO staff configuration is very important and complex. In order to provide support and configuration resources in all aspects, PMO should include roles such as high-level supervisors, project managers, various special experts, and project coordination personnel.

Level type

According to different organizational culture, organizational structure, project management maturity, PMO is divided into three types: guarantee, control, strategic.

Guaranteed PMO

Initial level

guarantee type is the initial stage established by PMO, mainly providing management support for project managers (Project Management, administrative support, Training, consulting consultants, technical services, knowledge management, etc., this role appears in low-key and accessories, it is easy to recognize the project manager, it is not easy to cause too many opposition and power disputes, just starting in PMO The stage, this way is easy to implement and execute, and report to the competent deputy general and project manager.

Control type PMO

The managed stage

Control type PMO is easy to implement in the strong matrix tissue structure. In this case, PMO has a lot of power, which is equivalent to the management of the company, and the overall management and control of the project, ensuring the smooth implementation of the project to implement project objectives and organizational goals. At this time, PMO's work can include: Project Manager appointment, resource coordination, projection of projection, project inspection and data analysis, project manager training, etc., can report independent manager.

Strategic PMO

optimization level

strategic PMO is the advanced stage of PMO development. In this case, PMO assumes tasks such as enterprise project screening, strategic objectives, and decomposition, with a dual task that holds (strategic understanding) and off (starting project). In this case, Project Portfolio Management, ensuring that all projects can surround the organization's goals and can bring corresponding benefits to the company, and report directly to the highest administrator.

It can be found in practice. Many enterprise PMO initial construction period often adopt "guaranteed" form. With the rich experience of practitioners and experience in project management, and organize The improvement of the degree, the internal responsibility and privileges are clear, and the PMO gradually decomposes the administrative functions to the administrative department or the assistance and project analysis, the construction of the project management system is more focused on the monitoring and project analysis of multiple projects. With the training of the project manager team, this logo has progress to the stage of "control" PMO. When PMO data analysis, the company's decision-making and process change, project feasibility analysis, priority sorting, market development plays an important role in 1-2 years, PMO gradually assumes more important roles - strategic decomposition and project screening For the company's leadership decision-making role, it enters the stage of "strategic PMO".

So a PMO is established to mature at least 3-5 years. On the one hand, the maturity and development of PMO requires the importance of the company's leadership, the level of organizational institutions, the improvement of the management of maturity, and on the other hand, it is necessary to work hard and improve skills to adapt to organizational pairs. PMO is increasing and quality requirements. Enterprises can select different types of PMO based on the development of different stages, or large companies for hybrid organizational structures in the organization level and strategic grade, respectively, according to the needs of PMO.

The personnel are equipped with

Project office staff is more sensitive to both aspects: First, whether the project office plays a core guidance in the organization's project management, the second is, project office Supported functions.

If the project office is just a simple support and auxiliary role, then the project office staff is relatively simple, only by several people can: a supervisor of multi-year project management experience, One or two professional and professional secrets that have a solid project management skills and professional secrets that can deal with daily transactions are handled in terms of textual processing and archival management, and organize other departments for daily links, and so on. Alternatively, the entire project office is only composed of a whole-range expert, which is mainly responsible for project management. The main role of this simple configuration is that when there is a problem with project management inside the organization, the specific project is used to process.

If the project office plays a core guidance role in the organization, the staff is more complicated. The project office should be composed of a supervisor, multi-professional and administrative personnel. The supervisor should be officially given a considerable right to show the seriousness of the upper manager's effective management of the project. The position of the supervisor in the organization should be equivalent to the location of the high-level function manager.

Professionals in the project office should have a wide range of experience and skills, including technical support for basic budgets, arrange work processes, configuration resources, and solve computer software problems, and experts can solve any Project related issues. Administrative staff should have basic skills such as text processing, database maintenance and office exchange communication.

Project office is equipped with changes in its work. If the project office needs to develop project management standards and procedures for organizations, you must have a considerable professional professionals; if you provide consulting, counseling, and training, you must provide experienced project management experts.