From the course: Delivering Results with a Business-focused PMO

Who owns the PMO?

From the course: Delivering Results with a Business-focused PMO

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Who owns the PMO?

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- Who owns the PMO? It may seem odd to talk about ownership of a business function, but with the PMO, it matters. Ownership is more than a reporting line. It reflects the relationship between the PMO and the people who guide its work. For the business-focused PMO, success comes from improving overall performance. The PMO must be answerable to the leadership team. It should be owned by the people who are accountable for that performance. The PMO works with every part of the organization. Many people it interacts with will never have met the PMO staff and many will be more senior than the PMO resources they're working with. Unless the PMOs authority is respected by those groups and individuals, it can never succeed. Respect must be earned, but the chance to do that comes from the authority and ownership created by being associated with leadership. How do we establish that ownership? Well, it's more than simply saying business leaders own the PMO. Ownership comes from behavior. Here's an example of how that works. A leadership team involves the PMO in its annual planning activities. The PMO is asked to review project proposals and business cases from all departments. This ensures projects align with the business goals, estimates are realistic, and benefit claims are achievable. It also sends a message to departments that leadership wants the PMO involved. The PMO is invited to present updates on portfolio and project status at leadership meetings. This establishes the PMO as the voice of projects for all areas of the business and reinforces the value and importance of that PMO to leadership. The point is that leadership, the owners, act to place the PMO in a position where it can deliver value. We know the PMO is operating on leadership's behalf. The PMO also needs leadership to demonstrate ownership. PMOs deliver improvements in how projects contribute to success in a number of ways, and some elements are more important to the business than others. It's leadership who establish which aspects PMOs focus on. Leadership teams must be united on these priorities. That is, every leadership team member or organization executive must agree on where PMOs place their efforts to ensure the mandate is clear. For most departments, ownership is simply an org chart. For PMOs, that's not enough. Traditional PMOs come with a confused history and broad scope of their reach across all business areas, so ownership must be clearly defined and understood. Think about your employer. If your PMO isn't clear who owns it, who actively drives its work, and who establishes the criteria for its value, then address those gaps as top priorities.

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