A Five-Step Roadmap for Standing Up a Winning PMO

A project management office, or PMO, can be a godsend for organizations suffering from disjointed, inconsistent project management practices or fractured visibility across different teams and departments.

A PMO is a centralized resource that supports project teams and ensures consistent practices. An advanced PMO includes a smooth mechanism for onboarding new projects, provides clear stakeholder visibility, and equips team members with the information and skills they need to work effectively and efficiently.

But standing up a successful PMO is easier said than done. And when it’s done poorly, companies can miss out on the benefits while adding a burdensome administrative layer.

Here’s a five-step roadmap to setting up a PMO that drives value.

Step 1: Establish the Vision

Before you decide what your PMO should be like, first ask what you want it to do. Is your primary goal to establish greater project consistency and visibility across the organization? Is it to boost performance by raising the overall level of project-management acumen? The pain point that led you to consider standing up a PMO in the first place will provide a clue regarding its core focus.

PMOs come in different flavors. Centers of excellence offer project-management training and resources. Collaborative PMOs work directly with teams to improve their project management skills and support their project. Controlling PMOs have a top-down approach geared toward ensuring compliance and consistency. Another variable to consider is whether the PMO will be department-specific or over the entire enterprise.

There’s merit to each approach, and some forms of PMO will be better suited than others to addressing your organizational context and priorities.

Step 2: Define the Model

At this stage, you’re defining specifically what your PMO is going to do to achieve your vision. Determine the services and business processes it’s going to perform and the tools and templates it will rely on. Identify the success metrics and KPIs you will use to measure PMO performance and communicate the value of the PMO to your organization.

It’s equally key to clarify what your PMO won’t do. In most cases, for example, it’s not a good idea for too many operational day-job activities to flow through the PMO, bogging it down. And PMO resources and structure would be overkill for certain discrete, short-term projects. Determining exactly what work will fall under the PMO’s purview—which often requires agreeing on a definition of what constitutes a project—is essential to setting it up for success.

Step 3: Develop the Pieces

Here, the PMO processes are built out and translated into action-ready resources. Fill your toolbox with methodologies, templates, and reporting structures from the basic (project charter, risk register, lessons learned format) to the complex (weighted prioritization models and capacity planning). This stage often includes extensive process mapping and the configuration of software you’re adding to facilitate the PMO’s work. Collect relevant data on the current and upcoming projects that fit your new definition of what falls into the PMO. And pilot new processes and tools on active projects to build buy-in and recruit super users to help with change management.

Depending on the baseline of project-management acumen within your organization, this may also be the time to roll out training materials. Ensure project team members are prepared to work with the PMO and feel comfortable with the new processes. They should understand how the PMO adds value to individual projects as well as to the organization at large.

Step 4: Launch the PMO

Once your PMO is live, shift your focus to providing intensive support as teams across the company adjust to new tools and ways of working. From training materials developed in advance of the PMO’s debut to office hours and one-on-ones with project team members, this stage is all about PMO leaders ensuring project team members and stakeholders have what they need. Provide ongoing support as they begin to incorporate new PMO tools and processes into their day-to-day work and projects.

This service-focused stage usually lasts about three months. In addition to working with team members to smooth the uptake process, monitor KPIs such as the PMO’s adoption rate.

Step 5: Build Momentum

Once the PMO is up and running smoothly, it’s time to turn your attention to its long-term success. Continue tracking KPIs and gathering feedback so you can adjust where needed. And plan for the future by developing a process to onboard new employees to work within the PMO’s structure.

Standing up a project management office is a complex project unto itself and requires an abundance of thought, skill, and time. Companies without the capacity and capability can turn to experts who will build a PMO with you. A great PMO is well worth the effort to equip your organization’s project teams to deliver consistent, excellent results.