Serissa

Some of you (members of APM) may be aware of a debate about the worth of PMOs, which has been rumbling online (APM blog, and here) and in print (Project - the APM magazine) since March.

The debate concluded on a more positive note for PMOs, and you can see the "final verdict", in one of the main featured articles of the June issue of Project, which records the face to face discussion David Shannon and I had about this topic. (Click here to download the article)

Over the weekend, David has posted what he considers to be the key questions to determine the value added of PMOs. I copy an extract of his post below, including the questions. What are your views? Are these questions the right challenge? If so, would they be answered positively in your organisation?

The discussion in Project on this topic has now stopped with the June issue in which Lain and I with James's facilitation ended with a large measure of agreement.  Nevertheless, I think all of us involved with PMO's should make sure of positive answers to the these types of questions, the answers made or confirmed  by the the indicated person.

1. Are we saving the project managers time and cost? - The Project Managers.

2. Are the projects' processes better for our contribution? - The Internal Auditor.

3. Are the projects'  products better for our contribution? - The Users.

4. is the oversight of the projects better for our contribution? - The Sponsors.

5. Is our total cost distributed across the portfolio good value? - The Finance Director

6. Are we a source of integration rather than conflict with the business as usual parts of the oganisation? - The Managing Director

Anyone care to modify or add to these questions?

Anyone carried out surveys of this nature to confirm their net worth?  

Anyone interested in forming a benchmarking group?

Thanks to James Simons for reminding me in the last issue of Project that I should contribute to my own website. Instead of writing about PMO I have enjoyed my conversations with PMO people, at the coalface, and also as part of the brilliantly exclusive PMO SIG get-togethers twice a year.  

But it's only fair to put something back into the general conversation on the web.

If there are good, fresh questions to share then my aim is to write here once a week. More often, if there is more to discuss – less otherwise.

I say 'questions' because I find them much more interesting than answers. Answers are everywhere - everybody runs around with answers and 'solutions' for you. They are plentiful like fragments at an archaeological dig. But a good question is like a patient excavator: it keeps going until the fragments make sense, or are revealed as rubbish.

For example, this question: “What is a PMO?” has been answered quite a few times. People keep asking it because the answers are not very satisfying. Having said that, I like this Wikipedia answer a lot.

I have my own answer in the sidebar of this site, there since the beginning. However, I realise that it only means a lot to me because it reminds me of my journey to find it. In other words, there were many, many other questions along the way. I’d like to share some of them with you and any good new ones that come along. Maybe one or two of those questions will help you make sense of your own fragments.

By the way, don’t keep your best questions to yourself.  Please let me know.

As we begin to populate our new website, let's re-state what we do:

• Design & delivery of PMO and PPSO services — Provision of consultancy to and implementation of the corporate centres of excellence known variously as PMO, PSO, PPSO, project office, etc.
• Facilitation, Training and Research — All about the control environments that make for optimal delivery of managed change, through the support for teams that carry out those tasks.
• Release and Implementation Management — Full governance of complex delivery for business transformation programmes and change management in general.