NOTE: updated title to reflect the post is about results, not a survey itself.
Elizabeth at the Girl’s Guide links to a survey on PMO effectiveness (here) that provides some interesting, if not wholly unexpected, insights into the attributes of a strong PMO tick. The only false note was what the study apparently represents as the main objective of the PMO:
to provide a group dedicated to supporting and integrating operations across organizational boundaries. This is accomplished by providing services that either mitigate or directly address the root cause of the challenges being faced.
Does such an objective and approach make sense to you? Maybe it’s out of context — I haven’t downloaded the entire study — but does that objective and approach correspond to how your PMO sees its main objective? I guess that IMO and in our case, the role of a PMO is simple: make strategy happen.
Filed under: PMO, Portfolio Management, Program Management, Project Management, Strategy Management
make stratgey happen through collections of projects.
The definition from the survey appears to be a Business Process Management function in the operational sense.
How can “services” be in the PMO when the traditional PMO oversees Projects.
Maybe its a different PMO, say in a health services agency?
Glen, I can understand “services” in a PMO context — we deliver support for bids/estimates, QA/QC (e.g., project and program reviews), and training. As you note, however, the context of that definition is so fuzzy that it makes the PMO like a generic business process function.