This is part one of my synopsis because this chapter is hefty! There’s a lot of information in here – the breakdown of types of models, the function and services the PMO provides, the roles and responsibilities of key people within the PMO (including detailed job specs) and case studies – phew!
This is the chapter which is going to need a few reads through – why? We all know that there are umpteen PMO models out there (most of us could attempt to describe them all and could possibly fail to communicate some models adequately due to the the terminology we might use, or limited personal experience of different types or fail to get across our individual organisational model to give it content) Anyhow, this chapter begins to describe these models and some of the descriptions are hefty with some terminology I’ve certainly not come across before (spoke model?) and some of the models are like rare creatures – models I’ve only glimpsed at in the 11 years of working in the field. So a few read throughs later, the models described basically cover either; “strategy support” or portfolio office, “delivery support” or programme office / project offce and “centre of excellence” or standards support.
The models described can include all of these; an “Organisation Portfolio Office” for example would include all three (and is the king of all PMOs), a “Hub and Spoke model” similar to an “Organisation Portfolio Office” (OPO) but with localised Offices (in organisations with a need for local PMO services), ensuring that the links remain to the mothership (OPO); a “temporary office model” has no strategy support or standards support – just delivery support and is deemed to be the poor relative of the P3O models; “Virtual Office model” has no permanent strategy support or standards support due to the organisation’s programme and project management maturity being such that it doesn’t need an office to tell it how to do things but will have a “temporary office model” when it needs delivery support. Still with me? And finally “small organisation model” which is intriguing as this model provides delivery support and some standards support (template creation / set up, project management processes etc). The intriguing thing about this model is that it should be describing an organisation with maybe only a couple of people working within the PMO, however, in over six years of recruiting PMO professionals and talking with organisations about their setups there are many large organisations out there with this “small organisation” model – which says alot about the PMO maturity levels out there to day – food for thought!
So the models are revealed and the book covers the success factors of each of these models in turn (spot the mistake in one of the tables!) to assist the reader in understanding the realism of each of the models there are case studies in the Appendices and for any project office professional wanting to work in the holy grail Organisation Portfolio Office there’s an example from a few organisations (so yes, they must exist!)
Part 2 will cover the functions & services and the roles and responsibilities shortly. To order the book please visit TSO at:
