Building an enterprise-level project management system (03)-building an enterprise-level PMO

The Project Management Office (PMO) has become the name of a dedicated project management organization in various enterprises. Because the project management office has different distribution locations on the product, project, and resource management main lines, its types are also different:

 

1. PMO in the project: in some large projects, the project content is very complex, and it is difficult to coordinate and communicate among participants. In addition, it may be further divided into several sub-projects, various sub-projects also require a lot of communication and coordination work. In order to ensure the overall management and decision-making of the project, a PMO will be jointly established by various parties. In this case, the PMO for a specific project needs to be independently established, and the project will be withdrawn after the project ends. This type of PMO is only required for the project management line and is responsible for specific projects and is not within the scope of enterprise level management.

2. Department-level PMO: In some enterprise departments (such as software enterprise implementation departments), PMO will also be established to manage multiple projects in the Department, this type of PMO mainly serves departments and carries out multi-project management. Its management scope is within the Department and cannot exceed the Department's responsibility scope. In many aspects of management, we must abide by the rules and regulations formulated by other management departments of the enterprise. The main purpose is to help manage various projects in the Department, perform cross-project coordination and multi-project management. This involves product management and resource management, but it is still distributed on the Project Management line and cannot be regarded as an enterprise level.

3. enterprise-level PMO: an enterprise-level PMO is a relatively independent management department responsible for project-related management in the enterprise, in addition to tracking multiple projects in an enterprise and coordinating resources between projects, the enterprise's project management system should also be considered. For example, the establishment of enterprise project management systems and processes, the cultivation of project managers, and the management of enterprise-level project management information systems. Improve the project performance of an enterprise as a whole, establish an external environment for project management, and generally take charge of multi-project portfolio management to select the priorities of many projects facing the Enterprise, to ensure that the project selection is consistent with the enterprise's strategy. To varying degrees, such PMO can have an impact on product management, project management, and resource management, and its position is at the intersection of three management lines.

The focus of this article is "Enterprise PMO". In the Project Management Triangle, the relationship between the scope, time, cost, and quality of the project is displayed. Any change to one of these factors will inevitably lead to changes to other factors. Therefore, all factors involved in this enterprise-level large project should be the management content of this PMO. That is to say, enterprise-level PMO should be fully functional and comprehensive, and must be able to make comprehensive analysis and decision-making on the various associated factors of mutual influence. If some factors that affect the project process are not within its management scope, the overall coordination capability of PMO will be greatly weakened.
Although PMO focuses on project management, it cannot be confined to the project process itself. PMO is actually the intersection of three management lines of an enterprise. Therefore, in addition to focusing on the project process management of an enterprise, it also needs to focus on the resource management of the enterprise, or even the product management of the enterprise. Because the project is not isolated, the product management and resource management specifications and requirements also affect the project process.

So how to build enterprise-level PMO?

1. Prerequisites for building enterprise-level PMO:

A. Enterprises should rely heavily on project management and belong to a strong matrix or project-based project organization;

B. Enterprises regard project management capabilities as one of their core management capabilities;

C. The enterprise's management leadership attaches great importance to project management and needs to summarize and filter project information through an organization and assist in project management;

D. Enterprise capability provides sufficient budget for PMO.

Note: PMO is not a necessary condition for building an enterprise-level project management system, but can play a better role in promoting it in some situations.

2. Common Responsibilities of Enterprise PMO:

A. Establish and maintain the enterprise project management methodology to help enterprises pursue the best project management practices;

B. Establish and implement a series of general project management processes and templates, so that each project manager can build a set independently. This allows the project manager to start the project more quickly, at the same time, the project management process of enterprises is constantly optimized by summing up the project practices and lessons of enterprises;

C. The use of standardized procedures, tools, and terminology facilitates internal communication between the project team and the enterprise, reduces internal misunderstandings, and improves the efficiency of enterprise project management;

D. Perform combined project management based on the strategic objectives and evaluation criteria of the enterprise, prioritize the project, and select the problems faced by the enterprise;

E. Improve the core competence of enterprise project management by providing general project management training to managers and employees of various types of enterprises;

F. Strengthen the Construction of the project manager team through training and guidance for the project manager, improve the management technology of the project manager, and improve the first-line management capability of the project management in the enterprise;

G. assists various projects in tracking and solving various risks and problems in the project, and provides guidance to the Project Manager in specific project management;

H. establish and manage enterprise-level project management information systems to provide all the project information in the enterprise in a comprehensive and timely manner;

I. Manage Project Performance for projects, project managers, and project members;

J. evaluates and improves the external environment of project management (Enterprise Management Environment) to improve the efficiency of project management.

3. Typical PMO personnel composition:

A. Project Director: responsible for enterprise-level project management system construction and overall improvement of enterprise project management performance;

B. Quality assurance personnel (Quality Assurance): supervises and manages the project quality during the project process;

C. Change Management Officer: Manages project changes, determines the necessity and impact of changes, and determines whether to implement changes, management baseline after release and change;

D. Communication Manager: communicates and coordinates in projects and enterprises;

E. Project administrators: provides specific guidance and help for projects under their jurisdiction;

F. Resource Manager: assists in coordinating resources for projects within the enterprise to make the most effective use of enterprise resources.

4. How can enterprise PMO enable the work situation as soon as possible:

You can start with the following work items:

A. Re-control projects that are out of control;

B. Help new projects and establish budget and risk management processes;

C. evaluate and manage the project portfolio;

D. follow up and review the project;

E. organize and manage enterprise resource libraries;

F. Identify and train the project manager team;

G. Establish and improve the external environment of project management.

5. Avoid the following issues when constructing enterprise-level PMO:

A. unrealistic high expectations for PMO;

B. The responsibilities and permissions of PMO do not match. PMO is put on the Project Management line, but it must be responsible for the management and coordination of the three lines;

C. Conflicts of power with other management departments are considered an additional constraint by the project manager;

D. The procedures and templates developed by PMO are cumbersome, so that PMO is regarded as a bureaucratic organization focusing only on the processes;

E. It is regarded as a management cost by other internal departments and project teams and becomes a burden of the project, rather than project support;

F. PMO cannot be implemented due to lack of feasible work plans.