Episode 162: Business Driven PMO Setup; Chapter 10 - Establishing a PMO: A Practical Roadmap
This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story introduces, “Business Driven PMO Setup; Chapter 10 - Establishing a PMO: A Practical Roadmap” presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Each chapter of the book starts off with a cartoon and the cartoon in Chapter 9 goes like this. Each chapter of the book starts off with a cartoon and the cartoon in Chapter 10 goes like this. There is a picture of a CIO talking to two of his direct reports. The CIO says, “I just emailed you the consultant’s study and proposal for setting up our PMO. I want you two to read through this thoroughly and give me your thoughts.” One of the direct reports replies, “No problem boss. Is there anything in particular that you want us to focus on first? Costs? Timeframes? Staffing?” The CIO quickly answers, “Yeah, click on File/Properties and see if you can find out who this cookie-cutter proposal was originally prepared for.” Organizations have struggled with establishing their PMOs. Though every project management consultant, and vendor, has a roadmap on hand for how to go about setting up a PMO, for most organizations many of these roadmaps lead to costly expenditures and time consuming management and consultant activities that could have been avoided, or better utilized, at a different time in the birthing and maturity of the PMO. And, in some cases the directions of the PMO setup journey as prescribed by some of these project management vendors and consultants seem to be in the wrong order as if someone clicked on the reverse route button. To avoid calamity, a practical roadmap for establishing a PMO must be followed.
The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo suggests, “Commit to your company, not just your career." Today, most people suggest that you should commit to yourself, not your company. After all, you might get outsourced or your company may go out of business. I can’t tell you how many times I have read or seen some kind of article or blog post that all but suggests we should all be mercenaries for hire. And, they back up this conviction with countless examples of companies that have treated employees terribly. You can just imagine the stories. But, in the long run, being truly committed to your company will result in accomplishments, both observable to others and from within, that would likely never be possible when you go about your work without a true commitment to it.
The PMO Podcast™ Mailbag answers a listener question about what approach should be taken when writing a PMO charter.
The PMO Podcast™ is sponsored by BOT International, the provider of Processes On Demand, a PMO Setup solution used by more than 1,000 companies.
