As a manager of a PMO with a large portfolio, I find myself at a crossroads as to the next “generation” of my PMO. A little background…My global company employs a distributed PMO model here with an Enterprise office driving change through evolutionary PM best practices and some light weight portfolio mgmt. We also have PMOs in our major divisions and functions. All PMOs (incl EPMO) reside in the global IT org.
Having successfully rolled out a project lifecycle methodology and transitioned culture to this new methodology, we are really starting to see value in the standardization, common language, and more rigorous governance (stage gate process). Our attention has been so tightly focused on the deployment of this methodology we have lost touch with the importance of the fundamentals of effective PM execution.
Our issues and risks have increased, they are not being aggressively managed (action plans and resolution) and our projects are, quite frankly, spiraling out of control. I have raised the flag on the trends associated with this dilemma and my manager has asked me to identify a solution to give my office more visibility into our projects and more influence on how we are executing against plan. We do have routine status reporting very four weeks and the visibility into the key issues and risks.
My quandary is really what to propose. In needing to establish my office as something more than this support/report generation entity, but with no direct control over these managers, what options do I have in developing this insight and greater influence to these teams to increase level of focus, drive delivery across my portfolio, and prevent this type of scenario to occur again?
Should I suggest a change to the structure and charter of the PMO? I am interested to hear what models are being employed in environments with similar constraints. Any feedback/input is greatly appreciated!
