CoachingSalesJanuary 9, 2018by BoldThemes3Evolving the Program Management Office for the Modern Era

Imagining a New Project Management Office

Many of today’s companies face unclear business strategies, confusion over their overall objectives, and constrained support from senior executives. What most companies do know, however, is they’ll need more project managers to help as they:

• Take on more projects related to enhanced and emerging technologies, and
• Transition to operating models primarily focused on product-based work

As a result, PMOs must transform so they can drive new initiatives aligned to your company’s evolving business strategies. They must stop delivering control and start supporting everything from strategy and financial planning to business value realization.

But how do you ensure they’re effective? Your new PMO must have the agency to review changes, adapt as needed to provide value, and adopt new skillsets to help your organization execute its strategy. Here are just a few ways you can start:

1. Bring on the EPMO

An EPMO can provide your organization with a point of view independent of the rest of the company on how to implement companywide changes. It can help ensure organizational alignment and that projects follow through with new processes and operations, and the EPMO can maintain and encourage collaboration across teams.

As you bring on the EPMO, there are two essential things to remember:

• You need an executive-level position to head the EPMO to guarantee its role in strategy.
• Your EPMO needs the right techniques, tools and empowerment to make data part of your company’s overall story.

2. Enable EPM Capabilities

Your new PMO and EPMO need to adopt modern-day EPM capabilities to ensure your organization is ready for anything. This means assessing their operating models to determine if they can support such capabilities. For example, to ensure consistency and a significant impact across your organization, contemplate centralizing your delivery project and program oversight in a single organization or hub.

Another EPM capability includes creating new decision-making criteria, including time- and value-based measures, when prioritizing the enterprise portfolio. Ask yourself, “How urgent is one initiative versus another? What will the impact be of a particular project as we balance the enterprise portfolio?”

3. Facilitate Collaboration and Cross-Team Accountability

Lastly, as you upgrade your PMO, you need to identify which behaviors need to change not only in that team but also across the organization. Now that your program and project leaders are no longer delivering control and becoming more strategic, they need to model behaviors others must embrace as well. Adopting a culture of agility can help. 

It’s time to create new relationships across the organization. Not only should your PMO help unite siloed delivery teams, but it should also have the ability to collaborate with other leaders. The PMO should coordinate and protect projects as needed.

To ensure both collaboration and accountability, your PMO should also have access to metrics and reporting tools to demonstrate cross-team accountability between business and IT.