Bill and Bob Tomas @ thomastoons via Flickr
The headline was a quote from a recent survey in response to the question, “what pressures do you currently face in your PMO?” Interestingly this situation is pretty common in UK business’ today. I think we would all like to hear that PMOs are becoming increasingly common in organisations that deliver programmes and projects and not only common but a function that the 
organisation can’t live without.
The reality is somewhat different, especially as we’re seeing the PMO fight for its life right now; “seen as a removable overhead in hard times”, commented one PMO professional.
PMOs now are also being subjected to downsizing;
They have removed the PMO manager as the required function is established and given it over to a graduate trainee to perform a predominantly administrative service
The lonely PMO is also an increasingly common feature, staffed by one person, the whole set up smacks of “we would like to do better programme and project management but actually we don’t really want to bother with all that best practice and governance stuff and we don’t really want to pay for it”, paying lip service to the whole concept of PMOs.
Organisations are struggling on with resource issues in the PMO;
We have one Project Coordinator who is doing above and beyond her role. There are 10 project managers, but not enough project support. The project managers have to pick up some of the support function work as there is not enough resource to manage this work.
Hmm, doesn’t seem like great value for money when the project managers are being hired to manage projects and perform their own project support if anything it seems like a very expensive option.
Another comment;
By nature, a PMO is a support and services department within an organisation. When there is an economic down-turn then it is typically these departments that get scrutinised for possible cost reduction opportunities.
Interesting times! The world of PMO recently got a boost with the launch of the new guidance P3O and now, more than ever, PMOs have to show their real value and benefits to their organisations just to stay in the game. We give with one hand and take away with the other, I can’t help thinking that the organisations who resist the urge to downsize or even scrap their PMO altogether will emerge the victors when it comes to the upturn in the ecomony. It’s up to the people within the PMO to ensure they’re doing everything they can to contribute to the bottom line and make sure they’re constantly and consistently telling people how and where they’re contributing.
