The need for a centralized management structure that will coordinate projects for organizations in the face of mounting challenges of managing diverse projects, people, resources, and communication has become very compelling in today's complex competitive business environment. Establishing a project management office (PMO) which will provide the infrastructure of people, tools and procedures to leverage project management standards, allocate resources and institutionalize consistent performance measures to achieve effective project management has become expedient.
Gaining the support of senior executives and management is the first major step in an organization's quest for establishing a PMO. Regardless of the stiff resistance this change will occasion, this step is key to a successful PMO and provides the foundation upon which it will rest. This step will be followed by developing the structure and establishing the team which will both be dictated by the type of PMO required and its eventual responsibilities. The organization's management style, culture, roles and responsibilities will have a bearing on its final outcome. Once done, the PMO standards, practices and methodologies for project management should be developed and documented. This is an important step because according to Piscopo (2013) "these standards will allow for consistency across the organization and its portfolio of projects." Additionally, the proficiency levels and skills of personnel should be enhanced through specialized training. The PMO, once in place, must evolve a means of assessing and measuring the success of its projects.
The support of senior executives and management may prove a tough call and a major hurdle because setting up the PMO will usher in significant changes to the established culture which will shake up the organizational and create resistance at all levels. Developing the PMO structure and establishing the team will also present the difficulty of deciding the structure that will serve the organization's best interests and align projects to its business goals and objectives.
According to Byatt, Hamilton & Hodgkinson (2011) a PMO's primary function is "to control governance on projects, and to ensure that projects are being set up with the appropriate criteria." At inception of the process of establishing a PMO, a decision is necessary on the type of PMO the organization desires. Attask (2013) stated that "the ideal PMO model for any specific company is subject to debate" and proceeded to suggest the following three model types which are popular among project management professionals: supportive, controlling, and directive.
- The supportive PMO model or "center of excellence" model supports the project management needs of the organization by providing methodologies and best practices for its project and program managers. It does not involve the implementation of resources as other models do.
- The controlling PMO model or "control tower" model exhibits all the features of a portfolio management office because it operates at the level of the enterprise, it is about the strategic planning of projects; it is concerned with corporate knowledge management; and the management of projects across departments/business units. Above all, it creates a system of uniformity at project, program, and portfolio level.
- The directive PMO model or "resource pool" model takes control of project managers and resources which are strategically distributed across the organization's pool of projects. This model gives the PMO the vantage position to have direct control of each project's delivery.
By applying Lean Six Sigma in a multi-generational model, a strong project management process can be developed (Jones, S.H., 2010). Using the Design for Six Sigma's DMEDI roadmap could help generate a successful metrics model which is facilitated by itsDefine, Measure, Explore, Develop and Implementfunctions. A core step in this process could very well be the application of successive quality function deployment (QFD) iterations. To improve the PMO operations, the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) roadmap is a veritable tool that could be deployed to achieve brilliant results, particularly with the Analyze, Improve, and Controlfunctions which facilitate improving the existing PMO operations.