Are PMOs still a good idea?
Yes. Projects and programs are growing in complexity. So the level of required integration is increasing and there will be corresponding increased risk to successful project outcomes. For consistent and repeatable delivery, program management capabilities should be consolidated into a single organization and centralized structure responsible for the oversight of delivery programs. While PMs may be decentralized to optimize business relationships, it will be more important from an efficiency standpoint for PMO capabilities like standards and templates, processes, training, tools, reporting, and quality to be centralized.
Communication
Project Managers will need to be very strong communicators. They will have their traditional primary role in leading project teams, and working with business sponsors and product owners. Additionally, PMs will need to have more of a role coordinating with a secondary level of internal project partner groups like engineering, technical design, procurement, testing, commissioning, operations & maintenance and other stakeholders. And PMs should be the primary point of contact for project issues with a third, tertiary level of support groups like contracts, finance, talent acquisition, safety, and data security. The PM in 2023 is likely to be the only person with the broad view of the project that comes from all this collaboration. With that privilege comes an increased responsibility to document and communicate via a PPM tool, and to have project teams with strong project controls capabilities because this communication role could be 50% of a PM’s time.
Value
While more organizations than ever are using PMOs, PMOs still have a very high failure rate. One of the primary reasons is a perception that they don’t add value. In 2023 PMO Directors will need to place more emphasis on establishing and communicating the value of the PMO. They can gain support by explaining the value of project management and the PMO to business owners, sponsors, and other stakeholders. There are opportunities to quantify and present metrics such as net promoter scores, customer satisfaction survey results, increases in project throughput, consolidated project completion results, and an increase in capability maturity with a list of new functionalities.
Focus on Project Outcomes
PMOs will have to make project outcomes the primary measure of PMO success. That means increased emphasis on measuring and reporting benefit realization. Any systemic shortfalls will need root cause analysis for long-term process improvements. PMOs should expect increased use of performance metrics and data analysis and be able to recommend business changes as a result.
Project Evaluation and Selection
It is one of the most difficult challenges, but PMOs will need to own the project intake and selection process to ensure that the enterprise is working on the right, prioritized projects that meet the needs of the business.
Scalability
The most common complaints about PMOs are that they are over-processed, overly burdensome, slow, and inflexible. Those perceptions drive independent projects outside of centralized PMO purview that often result in the problems that led organizations to look at PMOs in the first place. To overcome this hurdle, PMOs will need to train staff on a fitness-for-use philosophy that uses only as much project management as adds value. PMs will be able to waive parts of the methodology that do not apply, and to create new ones as appropriate.
Leadership
As expectations of PMOs increase, their leadership becomes more important. A simple and effective leadership model stresses taking care of people. That means an increased focus on career paths, certification, meaningful assignments, workload balancing, training, and rewards and recognition. 2023 will continue to be a job seeker’s market with talent shortage and a low labor force participation rate. For those reasons, PMOs should consider salary increases and should focus on retention measures.