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Regular PMOs are tasked in setting project standards, monitor and control projects, and provide visibility to management team. Some PMOs are only serve as a administration service provider to projects, e.g.: status reporting.

Such activities above formed the foundation of a PMO and nothing flawed about it. When a PMO possess such visibility and influence over projects, its latent of become a strategist in an organization is often overlooked and undermined.

The basic tasks of a Strategist PMO are:-

1. Project Selection
When an organization is presented with many opportunities, it is equally vital to select right prospects/ projects that able bring an organization closer to its strategic goals. Shortlisted prospects will be evaluated to ensure its viability and feasibility.

For example, an organization wanted to introduce complete Project Management system, it needs to ensure the deliverable of its turnkey software development projects are able to become a complete Project Management system. Otherwise, the organization need to invest separately to materialize its goal.

2. Project Evaluation
Evaluation comprises of both technical viability and financial feasibility. The ultimate focus is on the financial feasibility of a project. Because the results of technical viability study will be translated to dollars and cents.

Among those financial evaluation methods are average rate of return, internal rate of return (IRR), net present value (NPV), and payback period. Cost of capital (cost involved in getting funding) is part of this evaluation.

3. Project Prioritization
Shortlisted prospects/ projects are prioritized with others prospects and existing projects. Every organization has limited capability to run certain number of projects. Thus, prioritization of projects is certainly unavoidable. In this exercise, some prospects/ projects have to be dropped or terminate prematurely.

When an existing project will be replaced, its salvaged value and adversarial impacts need to be seriously evaluated and handled. This premature closure entails severe impacts to its respective stakeholders, such as clients and project team. Thus, the success of replacement rely on the maturity of an organization and the effort of change management.

What's Next
In order to protect interest of an organization and remove favoritism, PMO has better position to objectively select, evaluate and prioritize the prospects/ projects. The existence of projects is heavily influenced by political landscape. Such Strategist PMO should reports directly to Board of Directors and not to single person. The PMO Head plays utmost critical role to ensure its objectivity.

Now you can take a step back to think how to nurture the strategist within your PMO.

1. Formulate or revise Business Case - outline authority and accountability of Strategist PMO
2. Solicit right candidate as PMO Head - ideally this person should possess strong knowledge of PMO and industry knowledge/ experience
3. Communicate the Business Case of Strategist PMO - prepare everyone to accept this newly arrived strategist
   
4. Regularly monitor performance  - this is ensure this strategist is properly nurtured with right support within organization

Scrum framework focuses on producing incremental deliverables in short and regular intervals (e.g. 2 - 4 weeks). Thus, it is well received in many software development projects. Subsequently, other industries are adapting Scrum framework to combat uncertainties and remain responsive to deliver better customer satisfaction.

Now the question is - what is the possibility to implement a PMO by using Scrum?

Roles

• Product Owner (PO) - Appointed from business that responsible to prioritize deliverable, clarify requirements and ultimately accountable for the success of PMO implementation.
  
• PMO Team Members (Team) - SMEs (subject matter experts) or consultants that are tasked to develop and implement PMO services, processes and tools.
  

• Scrum Master (SM) - Recruited to the team as a facilitator to ensure Scrum framework is practiced correctly and consistently. For matured Scrum practicing organization, this role is optional.
  

Events/ Activities

• Sprint Planning - PO explains his/ her requirements based on Product Backlog; the Team clarify and estimate the duration needed. Upon agreement, each Team member get the tasks they can performe. Thus, the sprint starts.
  
• Daily Scrum - SM and the Team have daily meeting (15 minutes max) to discuss:-
  1. What has been done yesterday?
  2. What is planned for today?
  3. Any road block or challenges faced?
• Sprint Review - At the end of sprint, the deliverable is demonstrated to PO for acceptance.
  

• Sprint Retrospective - This is the time everyone evaluates the working processes and agreement (a.k.a. lesson learned):-
  1. What worked?
  2. What did not work?
  
• Backlog Grooming - PO sought second opinion from the Team to breakdown Product Backlog Item into smaller and manageable deliverable.

Artifacts

• Product Backlog - Owned by PO and it's a road map of PMO.
• Sprint Backlog - Owned by the Team and it's their work package of a sprint.

Critical Success Factors

• Product Owner has:-
  1. authority and accountability on PMO's direction.
  2. appreciation on the values and benefits of using Scrum.
  3. the trust on the Team's capabilities and competencies.
• Team has:-
  1. formed their own working agreement and adhere to it.
  2. mutual respect to each other despite they may have difference in opinions.
  3. accountability for their individual deliverables and performance.
  
• Scrum Master to:-
  1. educate both PO and Team to use Scrum framework consistently and effectively.
  2. protect the Team from anybody including PO on possible re-prioritization or addition of new features mid-ways.
  3. seek to resolve the challenges faced by the team.
• Ensure Entire Scrum framework is adopted and adhered to to gain intended benefits of it.
• Regular Inspection and Adaptation - When something is not working, everyone goes back to retrofit on how things are done (i.e. working processes and agreement) and not finger pointing on anyone.

Conclusion
As cited in The State of Scrum (June 2013), Scrum has gained its popularity and earned its successes outside of software industry. The approach to use Scrum to implement PMO is truely ground breaking and need a lot of courage to bring this to fruition. Thus, everyone in the team plays their role to make this a success.

May the Scrum Forces be with you.

Some may argue there is no such thing as pseudo-PMO or PMO-wannabe; PMO is a serious business and not for kids. While others may detest the needs of PMO in small organizations; literally they know everything like the back of their hand, and as they call everyone there by name.

Why Small Organizations
Nowadays, more and more small organizations are handling their business - the project way. They call their contract as "project." The person in charge is called "project manager." Each project is formed temporarily and tasked to deliver services/ products unique to each client. Meanwhile, project manager is responsible to deliver the project on time, on budget and within agreed scope.

Why Pseudo-PMO
Due to various reasons (e.g.: budget, competent personnel), full-fledged PMO is not affordable to small organizations. Without support of PMO, their projects (a.k.a. business contracts) are experiencing unnecessary pains. Often they are fire fighting in the projects, which is a form of wastage. Ultimately, reduce profitability. Thus, they need some form of PMO to ease their pain and increase bottom-line.

Without any form of PMO, small organizations are most likely to suffer in following areas:-

Have you ever experienced this? Too many choices presented will end up no decision being made. That's mainly because we are unsure what the implications are for each selection.

In deciding which type of PMO (Project Management Office) to be adapted can place us in similar indecisive situation.

Let's take a step back, and see the menu of PMO. Generally PMO has three types:-

1. Supportive - this PMO provides administrative and depository support to project personnel, such as filing, template design, training & etc. Its authority over projects is very low. When an organization is reducing cost, this type of PMO is the first one to slash. And, its job can easily taken by a project administrator.
2. Controlling - this PMO provides governance on the projects. It provides and enforces Project Management frameworks/ methodologies with relevant tools and processes. Its authority over projects is moderate as higher management can override its decision. When an organization is downsizing, it is the second to slash. Part of its jobs is transferred to higher management, and the rest is left on uncharted island.
3. Directive - this PMO has full authority over projects. At the same time, it has full accountability on the project performance. Only matured organizations will go for this. The primary benefit is the organization utilizes projects to gear the direction. Should any mismatched projects detected, they will slash the projects. And, keep the organization moving forward.

In order to successfully implement specific type of PMO, the organization's maturity plays a vital role. If your organization is unsure which type of PMO to adapt, try find the answers for the following questions:-

Many companies do not have Project Management Office (PMO). The primary reason is they enjoy various games in their projects. The actual list of games is extremely long and only few popular ones are highlighted here.

Hide & Seek
This is known as "sweep under the carpet." When the project sponsor asking for statuses, the Project Managers present a heavenly report. Everything is on track and on budget. Their plan is perfectly planned and executed. All stakeholders love the project. After project status meeting, the Project Managers will step out from the heaven and go back to the reality - chaotic hell. Everything is totally opposite on what the report says.

Without PMO - the visibility is manipulated and impaired.

Duck, Duck, Goose
This game is also known as "back stabbing." When something goes out of hand, the group of Project Managers will start solving the problem by finding the "goose." The identified "goose" will start finding another "goose." This cycle continue endlessly. Thus, the fun is endless as everyone is living in an illusion that they are working very hard to solve the problem. In actual fact, nothing is solved.

Without PMO - nothing is really get solve at its root cause.

Skipping Rope
Time is cost, and cost affects profitability of a project. To increase profitability, time has to be reduced. Thus, this game is famous and known as "fast and furious." When Project Managers need to follow a recommended practices, time is wasted in documentations and thinking; nothing really get done on the ground. To accelerate the whole cycle, they assume every projects are the same and copy-and-paste from other projects. When the documents are ready, they happily executing the real work. In reality, they have buried countless mines in their projects - from other projects.

Without PMO - good practices are skipped at the expense of project success .

Conclusion
When one day your Organization decided to be a grownup. That's the time PMO can answer that call. With right PMO, all these childish games will come to an end - for good. Other children will soon realize they cannot continue be childish and decided to grow with your Organization. At that very moment, your Organization has stepped up in its maturity level. Congratulations!

Now the decision is yours - you can decide to continue playing these games or otherwise.

PMO stands for Project Management Office; in same cases it means Programme Management Office. As per the illustration on the left, PMO can exist in various levels in a company. Some companies have it formally established with dedicated personnel and budget. While some have a person to perform some duties of a PMO, such as Program Director, Project Director and Senior Project Manager.

PMO duties generally comprise of:-

• Monitor and control the health of each maneuver (i.e.: Project, Programme)
  
• Define the standard Project Management methodology (i.e. processes, tools, templates & etc.)
  
• Ensure the projects are adhering to the methodology to deliver predictable outcomes
  
• Continue improve and propagate Project Management methodology
  
• Provide guidance and support to team members (e.g.: Project Managers, Team Leads)
  
• Manage dependencies among projects
• Serve as a communication platform across projects