Programme Office Managers (PMO Managers)

Like the Project Office Manager, the Programme Office Manager (PMO) role can vary depending on the organisation's project management capability, approach to programmes and projects (PPM) and the maturity levels.

In some organisations the Programme Office Manager's role is to manage the strategic programme office function - they have responsibilities at a more strategic level and will be tasked with putting in place best practice programme and project management processes, methods, training, coaching and mentoring.

The Programme Office Manager in this type of role may also have line management responsibility for the Programme Office staff. Areas of expertise may include benefits realisation, programme level reporting - progress, interdependancies, budgets etc. Programme Office Managers with responsibilities for a strategic PMO tend to be senior managers with previous experience managing programmes and projects and will also have experience operating at board level.

Programme Office Manager roles tend to fall into two camps - Programme Office set-up or the ongoing management of an established PMO - and candidates often have a firm preference for one or the other.

Some Programme Office Manager roles are purely focused on supporting one large programme of work and tend to report at the programme level i.e., programme level plans. These roles may have no remit for improvements or governance in PPM but provide a very hands-on support role in terms of managing the end-to-end programme plan including the budgets, forecasting, issues/risks and reporting progress to drive the delivery of the programme. This can be a very busy role for the PMO if there are many workstreams within the programme.

Some strategic Programme Office Manager roles have seen the title of "Centre of Excellence" Manager more recently, mainly due to the changing face of PMO and its widening remit. The CoE model has a greater emphasis on project governance and the need to improve project management processes and methods to achieve better delivery in terms of time, quality, costs and benefits.

The role of Programme Office Manager is also covered in the P3O (Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices) guidance from the OGC, we have a job specification available should you require one.