The PMO as a strategic ally in organizations

The Project Management Office or PMO occupies a relevant role in organizations, it supports the management of strategic projects seeking to generate a high impact on the organization, in addition to being in charge of achieving that projects are implemented successfully with the support of defined processes and standards to meet a delivery, aligned with corporate objectives.

For each organization, the design of the PMO will be different, the clarity of these 3 elements will be key to define it:

Maturity of the organization
Nature of business
Organizational management model

Commonly accepted project management office types are Support PMO, Control PMO, and Directive PMO.

In a Support PMO, your services are provided on demand (when requested by the project). Like the Support PMO, the Control PMO provides best practices, templates, and expertise, but also establishes mechanisms to ensure they are used. Finally, the Directive PMO is the one that assumes the functions of Project Support and Control, but also can assign or distribute resources. This type of project management office is also called strategic.

Whatever the type of PMO implemented, it will play an important role in delivering constant value together with the operational team, thanks to the correct monitoring of defined processes and standards. Although the PMO provides standards for the company, it must be adaptable, as organizations constantly evolve and the PMO has to do so in tandem to stay aligned with corporate objectives.

The scope defined for the PMO will be achieved according to the power of influence given to it by the organization in the project management process. The goal of the PMO is to make a difference, it is not only to create models and execute them, it must make the people involved boost their skills, it must also manage the acceptance, commitment, and resistance to the models it proposes for the administration and monitoring of projects.

Referring to the previous paragraph, the success of a project will be a reflection of the success achieved by the people who make up the implementation team and the PMO is the ally, who through its management, will contribute to that achievement.

General benefits provided by the PMO:

Planning, implementation, and delivery of projects under a defined methodology.
Visibility of the Project for decision making.
Transparency in the information on the Scope and Resources of the project.
Identification and management of possible risks to minimize their impact.
Standardization of metrics for projects.
Continuous improvement in project management.
Ensure the profitability of the projects.

With the support of the PMO, not only is the implementation of projects achieved on time but standards are provided that will support future projects for more agile executions. The incorporation of a Project Management Office in MBGE has allowed us to experience benefits in our organization, which are reflected in the benefit of our clients in the planning, design, and implementation of technological projects, which generate organizational well-being.