When Should You Start a Project Management Office (PMO)?
While the impact of a PMO is enormous, it is not something that companies typically start right out of the gate, especially smaller companies. There’s no particular size, revenue, or makeup of a company that would indicate it’s time to start a project management office. However, the following symptoms may be signs that you should start looking into implementing a PMO:
Work is Not Getting Out the Door
Successes often bring logjams that create bottlenecks across the company. Work is drastically slowed down, rework is necessary, and subsequent problems occur because of mismanagement.
It Feels Like Every Project is The First Time You’ve Done Something Like This
Even though you may have done a particular type of project time and time again (for example, your company may create websites that require some amount of customization for a client) it feels like this is the first time you’ve ever done this type of project. People are tripping over each other, necessary questions are not asked until it’s too late, or deliverables languish on a shelf while the responsible department sits on their hands. If it’s a comedy of errors just to get a project out the door, then it may be time to set up a project management office.
There is not a Single Group that Knows What’s Going on Across the Company
Everybody knows bits and pieces of where things stand, or they may have their own very myopic view of the world…but nobody knows how everything ties together and this is starting to create problems. Deliverables are passed from one department to the next that are not configured properly or are missing key elements that were originally agreed upon to deliver. It may be time to put a project management office in place to provide that watchful overview.
As previously mentioned, a project management office is typically introduced into a company once it has reached a certain size. However, companies of any size can get a jump start on PMO principles by creating systems and processes to successfully run projects during times of growth.
