In order to help such a difficult project manager reduce the burden, PMO (Project Management Office) was established. Having said that, many PMOs have embarked on the road of no return of managing and restraining project managers. PMO habitually sets up a series of tedious processes to reduce the efficiency of the project, which makes the already busy project manager more burdened.
For the project manager, I hope that PMO is his home and his backer. He takes the lead and is always protected by PMO. For PMO, the project manager should be a group of children in this family, caring, helping and guiding them to grow up, making them easier and better.
How to change PMO from project management office to project manager's home? We can start from the following four aspects.
1, to ensure the overall environment of project management.
When a project manager manages a project, the biggest workload is to communicate with various departments and urge them to perform their duties according to the project plan. However, in most projects, it is difficult for the project manager to get the full cooperation of various functional departments, which brings great obstacles to project management.
For this universal and critical problem, it's PMO's turn to play. Whether through relationship management or administrative communication, or the establishment of win system and incentive system, PMO will come forward to reach a consistent project value with all departments, which will greatly promote the support of all departments for the project. The work difficulty of the project manager will also be greatly reduced.
Protecting the project management environment is not as simple as communicating with other departments on behalf of the organization. Because the ending environment of project management includes not only the external environment, but also the internal environment. In addition to "major events" such as organizational level, there are many small things that will also affect the working status of the project manager.
For example, winning more than 30% of the project bonus package will definitely make the project manager happy. For example, a special conference room was opened for a project, and the project manager no longer had to look for the conference room everywhere. There is also the phenomenon that the project manager gets off work late. Preparing a warm midnight snack for them will also make the tired night warm.
By ensuring the project management environment, PMO can warm people's hearts and bring peace of mind and comfort to the project manager. In such a warm environment, hard work, fatigue and helplessness will also be reduced a lot.
2. Maintain the basic process of project management.
When the project manager rushes into the project site, it is easy to get lost in trivial matters. For example, if samples are sent to customers tomorrow, the quality of samples produced today is not up to standard, and it is easy for the project manager to compromise some measures that do not conform to the process. It seems to have solved the immediate dilemma, but it may have laid a huge hidden danger for the follow-up work.
There is a poem that says, "You can't see a mountain in the mountains, and you feel even more embarrassed because you look at it from a distance." Whether a soldier goes to the battlefield or a fireman is in a fire, it is like being in a deep mountain. They don't know how steep the overall situation is, and they may take detours or lead the war into danger at any time. It is necessary for scouts and commanders to "look far" in order to provide timely guidance and maintain the correct overall direction.
PMO is such a scout and commander of project management. The basic process of the project is the excellent experience summarized by countless enterprises in the project practice, and it is an effective methodology that can avoid detours or cause great losses. PMO should always maintain each project in the basic process of the project, which is the "far view" of the project.
For example, project changes must go through the change process to ensure the traceability of the project. For example, the cost budget must be strictly controlled to ensure that the project does not lose money. When the project manager ignores these basic processes because of trivial matters in front of him, PMO should point out and standardize them in time to avoid further losses caused by the project.
Maintaining the basic process of the project is not a restriction on the project manager, but a protection for the project manager. PMO should insist and the project manager should understand.
3. Improve the personnel efficiency of project management.
PMO not only has the responsibility to protect and care for the project manager, but also has the obligation to help the project manager grow and improve.
Every project manager has grown from an ignorant bud to an independent general. This growth process varies with individual talents and efforts. Some project managers grow once after doing a project, and some project managers still don't grasp the essentials after doing several projects.
From the perspective of performance, project managers have advantages and disadvantages. But from PMO's point of view, every project manager is a child of this family and should not be abandoned or rejected. Which parent will give up because their children are not talented enough?
PMO has the obligation to help every project manager to grow and improve more effectively. PMO can master the advantages and disadvantages of all project operations, and can also collect excellent experience of industry and even all project management practices. By sorting out and summarizing this information, it is easy to find the advantages and disadvantages of each project manager. Planning helps them develop their strengths and fill their shortcomings, supplemented by some necessary guidance and suggestions, which can help project managers achieve twice the result with half the effort.
PMO can not only help the project manager to improve quickly in the short term, but also plan the long-term growth baseline for the project manager. By dividing the capacity dimension and drawing the capacity map, the project manager will intuitively see the knowledge and skills that need to be mastered in the future. Combine your growth with your work, and the future is in the hands of the project manager. Only with a planned career can you have a chance to open up the situation.
Improving the personnel efficiency of project management is not only the responsibility of the project management office, but also the exclusive responsibility of the project management office. Improving personnel efficiency is a win-win contribution to individuals and collectives.
4. Organize the achievements of project management.
As Depth Charge, the project manager also needs logistics to clean up the battlefield. Both the output documents of the project process and the experience and lessons of solving various problems have become important achievements of this project. The value of these achievements is not lower than the value of project success, because these achievements may help more projects succeed at lower cost.
As a direct experiencer, the project manager summarizes the results more objectively and accurately. However, excellent project managers often ignore some basic achievements, busy project managers often forget to stop and sum up their reflections, and immature project managers can't judge which contents are of higher quality. Only PMO can help different project managers organize necessary results in time.
Another significance of PMO in sorting out project results lies in the accumulation of organizational process assets. Project managers who have studied PMP know the importance of organizing process assets. When encountering project problems, if there are perfect organizational process assets to consult, you can quickly find the answer. This is much more efficient and credible than word-of-mouth query.
Top consulting companies have an important asset, that is, they have the most advanced and successful practical experience in the industry, and they can match better solutions when consulting any company. PMO should also be the top consulting company in the field of project management in the company, collecting the important achievements of each project in history and present, and providing better solutions for future projects. Project managers will naturally love PMO as their home.
The original intention of PMO is to support the efficient operation of all projects, not the top-down leader. The PMO respected by the project manager is far more valuable than the PMO of the high-pressure control project manager. May every PMO become the home of the project manager.