Wondering what the PMO meaning is in project management? Well, in this video, I'm going to
share with you what PMO is, the benefits of having one and why you may want to consider having it in
your organization. And if you want to be a Project Slayer, stay around to the end of this video,
because I'm going to share with you how to get your hands on a free list of why projects fail.
Hi, if you're new here, welcome. Don't forget to subscribe to the best career and project
management advice coming to you every Wednesday. I've been in project management for many years
and I have seen some really strong PMOs, and I've seen some really weak ones as well. And
I'm going to share with you my knowledge on PMOs to help you be successful. So let's get to it.
PMO meaning. PMO is an abbreviation for project management office. Now a PMO is usually its own
department within an organization and what that department does is a couple of things.
It looks to standardize ways of working when it comes around projects. It looks to ensure best
practices are implemented within the organization. It's a place where all projects get funneled
through and distributed accordingly. And ensure that it's aligned with the strategic initiatives
of the organization, collects metrics. And more importantly,
it is the organization or the department that reports into the senior executive, giving them
the information they need to ensure that things are on track or even what's the status of what's
going on with all those major initiatives. Who needs a PMO? Well, in my experience,
I would say any organization that is not standard when it comes to project management
or you have a lot of individuals who just don't understand how to run projects, a PMO can be
extremely helpful. One of the main functions of PMOs is to centralize everything. And to provide
those best practices so that anyone within the organization is ensuring that they're doing
their due diligence when executing a project. Who should work in the PMO? Okay, you definitely
need some sort of leader of the PMO. That could be a manager. In my opinion, I think
it has to be someone senior at director level who actually is a peer of the executive team.
Because the leader of the PMO, that office, needs to take a look at strategy and provide guidance
to the executive team as to whether or not those strategies can be executed based on time, scope,
budget, even resourcing. And if you're a manager of a PMO reporting into a senior executive team,
it becomes very hard because the senior executives teams
don't understand the full gamut of everything. So they're going to tell you to do something
anyway, even though you know you can't or it's going to create a lot of difficulty. So my biggest
recommendation is your leader of the PMO needs to be someone, a peer of that executive team, so they
can talk to them and then start negotiating what actually everyone is going to be working on. Now
as well, who else do you need? You're going to need project managers, project
leads. Anyone who's working on a project it's a central location for everyone to come together,
important from a resource loading perspective. Now, do you need to have a PMP if you're in a PMO?
No. So do you have to have your project management designation? Absolutely not. I really find that
having a PMP does help, but it doesn't necessarily determine whether you're an awesome project
manager or not. There are a lot of amazing project managers who do not have their designation. The
key for people in the project management office is that they get project management, they understand
how to work it. And more importantly, they know how to work with teams to get them on board.
Because you know what the biggest problem with projects? No one reports into you. They all report
into other departments and other managers, but yet your project has to be something that motivates
them to ensure that it's number one on their list. So you really need to have people who are really
good with understanding team dynamics. So really project managers and a project manager director
or a PMO director, those are really the people you need within your PMO office.
Now that you know all about PMO meaning, it is time for you to grab this in the link below.
Understanding how to ensure that your projects don't go through these typical failures. You
do not want that. All right. I would love to hear from you about what you thought of PMOs.
Have you ever experienced a PMO? Please put it in the comments below. Until the next video, see you.