The project management office (PMO) is one of the fastest-growing concepts in project management today, but it's not the only answer.
The PMO was born to aid the project manager. Surely then, the PMO (and, as a direct result, you) would benefit if there were a parallel organization for the technical managers, consultants, architects, design specialists, gurus of the world of application configuration and so on.
The PMO is not and should not be an isolated body talking only to the project managers. It should be one of many business units leading the delivery of company strategy.
Align the PMO to a single technical body, no matter what it is, and then align the two through a common process or methodology.
Think about your own in-house project methodology for a moment. Is it just for project managers or does it extend to integrate the technical tasks? Does it recognize the non-project management roles and responsibilities? Does it involve the technical deliveries and control mechanisms? It should.
If you have a common method, have you trained each team in a way that they both respect and understand each other's skills and duties? Have you done so in a way that ensures that the highest level of communication? You should.
When your business assesses the value, benefit and simply whether a new project should go ahead at all, it won't just be the project manager's view that gets the budget approved, will it? So align the technical gurus and the project gurus as one to ensure that the lowest risk and highest ROI projects are commissioned.
Perhaps the future is the perfect pairing of a PMO with a TMO -- a technical management office. It may be that the TMO is formed as a separate entity but closely works alongside the existing PMO -- or even that the PMO embraces and includes the TMO function.
The specifics of how a PMO or TMO relationship would take shape depend on what's best for your own organization, but perhaps it is the future.
What do you think?
The PMO was born to aid the project manager. Surely then, the PMO (and, as a direct result, you) would benefit if there were a parallel organization for the technical managers, consultants, architects, design specialists, gurus of the world of application configuration and so on.
The PMO is not and should not be an isolated body talking only to the project managers. It should be one of many business units leading the delivery of company strategy.
Align the PMO to a single technical body, no matter what it is, and then align the two through a common process or methodology.
Think about your own in-house project methodology for a moment. Is it just for project managers or does it extend to integrate the technical tasks? Does it recognize the non-project management roles and responsibilities? Does it involve the technical deliveries and control mechanisms? It should.
If you have a common method, have you trained each team in a way that they both respect and understand each other's skills and duties? Have you done so in a way that ensures that the highest level of communication? You should.
When your business assesses the value, benefit and simply whether a new project should go ahead at all, it won't just be the project manager's view that gets the budget approved, will it? So align the technical gurus and the project gurus as one to ensure that the lowest risk and highest ROI projects are commissioned.
Perhaps the future is the perfect pairing of a PMO with a TMO -- a technical management office. It may be that the TMO is formed as a separate entity but closely works alongside the existing PMO -- or even that the PMO embraces and includes the TMO function.
The specifics of how a PMO or TMO relationship would take shape depend on what's best for your own organization, but perhaps it is the future.
What do you think?
I'd like to expand the discussion of combining a PMO and a TMO. It does make a lot of sense, but it also raises a lot of questions. Has anyone else tried this, and if so, what does it look like for your organization? How is the TMO defined, and how does it work with the functions of the PMO?
Thanks!