PMO is responsible for establishing standardized project management standards, summarizing best practices, resolving resource conflicts, cultivating project manager teams, evaluating projects, and building a project management system at the organizational level. PMO usually has the following responsibilities and functions:
1. Provide administrative support for the project manager and project team, such as generating various reports of the project;
2. Maximize the concentration of project management experts to provide consulting and consultancy services for project management;
3. Organize the enterprise's project management practice and expert knowledge into a set of methodology suitable for the enterprise, and provide it for internal dissemination and reuse;
4. Provide project management skills training within the enterprise;
5.PMO can be equipped with some project managers, and can directly participate in specific projects and give key support to key projects when necessary.
PMO can be a temporary institution or a permanent institution. Temporary institutions are usually used to manage specific projects, such as corporate mergers and acquisitions. Permanent PMO is suitable for managing a group of projects with a fixed period of time, or supporting the continuous progress of organizational projects. Specifically, the purpose of establishing a project management office is to meet two needs:
First, to meet the needs of commercial competition.
An important reason for the early establishment of PMO is the pain brought to enterprises by failed projects. The cruelty of competition in modern commercial society makes it possible for any enterprise to get into trouble because of the failure of individual projects. The success or failure of a project in today's society is closely related to the success or failure of an enterprise, which leads to the urgent demand for PMO.
A successful medium-sized and large-sized enterprise is bound to have many projects in progress, and whether there are excellent project management technicians is the key to meeting customer needs within limited time and cost. However, no matter how excellent a talent is, it is inevitable that there are various limitations. Moreover, the outstanding talents that an enterprise can have are limited. During the implementation of a large number of projects, enterprises need to have an organization that provides strong support for the project work, and help the project manager and project team overcome various difficulties in time and effectively to complete the project with high quality and high performance. In order to make project management technology and experience become the organizational wealth of enterprises, and ultimately improve the overall productivity of project teams and the profitability of enterprises, it is inevitable and urgent to establish PMO within enterprises.
Once the project is started, PMO will continuously monitor the changes of each project and provide all kinds of support and services required by the project manager and project team. One of the key points I want to emphasize here is that with the change of enterprise strategy, the situation of any project will also change accordingly. By modifying, accelerating, terminating or prioritizing the project, PMO has realized the adjustment of the project to adapt to the strategic changes of the enterprise and meet the needs of commercial competition.
Second, meet the needs of rational allocation of resources.
In order to obtain the benefits brought by PMO, the scale of the enterprise must first reach a certain level. If an enterprise has only one project every year, don't waste limited resources on PMO. For an enterprise with many projects, you will find quite a few project managers, each with different skills and experience. These project managers often don't realize the success of other projects, or even know what others are doing. If a similar situation occurs, a PMO should be established. The operation of any project management office needs the investment of funds and personnel. However, the time and money invested in PMO will be worthwhile, which will enable the project manager to carry out the project work better, faster and more economically in the enterprise. Because PMO stands at the height of the whole enterprise operation, not the height of a single project, it rationally allocates the limited resources of the enterprise, and at the same time provides all kinds of support for the project manager and project team to ensure that the successful implementation of the project conforms to the enterprise strategy.
Centralized PMO can ensure that all project managers have core project management skills, use the same methods, processes and templates, and get the support of senior management. The simplicity of PMO organization enables everyone to set up such an office. However, PMO staffing is a very important and complicated job. In order to be able to provide support and allocate resources in all aspects, PMO should include the roles of senior managers, project managers, various special experts and project coordinators.