How Many PMOs Do You Need?

Advertisement Final 3 Days to get Project Management certification training from LearnSmart and save 87% through Jan. 31st. Use your training to earn your Project Management and CAPM® certifications. Score 128 PDUs: Just $199: [Final 3 Days • Get it Now] [Contact Us] [About Us] [Update Profile] January 25, 2017 As our month-long focus continues, we stress not overthinking the PMO, ask how many you need and get enterprising and agile. Plus, your organization's hierarchy, improving data quality and tracking progress by task. Our blogs position PMs as persuaders, build your project scorecard and harvest homegrown talent, while readers ask for advice on starting a PM career, conflicts of interest and team appraisals in our forums. Advertisement [5 Trends Impacting Your 2017 PMO Strategy] Last year, innovation disrupted every industry—and is now the new normal. As more technologies emerge, building an agile organization becomes more chaotic. It’s a jungle out there: millennial workforce, resource management, multimodal PMOs. Here are [five trends your PMO should care about] in 2017. "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." - Virginia Woolf PM HEADLINES Your PMO Resolution Shaping a PMO that adds value in a simple, straightforward way is a challenge that many PMO leaders would be hard-pressed to achieve. For those of you new to leading a PMO or struggling to wrap your arms around PMO processes, a writer offers advice: [Don't Overthink It]. Quantity Control There are a lot of different PMO models in place, but is there a consensus view on how many an organization should have…or at least how multiple PMOs should be structured? Exactly [How Many PMOs Do You Need?] Gimmie an E(PMO)! PMOs can exist at any level of the organization, and there are compelling advantages to having an enterprise-wide PMO. [How 'E' Is Your EPMO?] provides proof on why it’s vital to the project environments of 2017 and beyond. The Agile PMO PMOs are popular and have a lot of potential, but too often fail within organizations. They have unique challenges as an organizational unit—which require them to become more agile. Keeping things simple and adding value in new and different ways are key success factors with [The Relevant PMO]. Relationship Matters PMs that work in a mature project organization are in an environment that likely includes the PMO. [The PM’s Relationship with the PMO] is important, so you would be well advised to understand it. The Hierarchy Effect [Behind Every Effective Project is a Hierarchy]. How does your organization and its hierarchy have an effect on your projects and project management? The answer is dependent upon the type of organizational structure you have in place. Essential Data [Improving your Data Quality] and completeness of your data are crucial to a successful outsourcing project. In order to scale a solution, the organization must address underlying issues around essential data. "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." - Virginia Woolf Process Problems You roll out a new or upgraded process for the project teams to follow, but there are new problems at an event (such as a phase gate review). How do you respond—and not appear defensive or create an environment where people will not want to help you find the cause of the problem? Get help [Troubleshooting PMO Process Issues]. Tracking Progress In a traditional project environment, work may be rolling in for the project team as tasks—each task seen as a story from a product backlog. [Tracking Performance by Tasks] presents a worksheet as a tool to track progress of similar tasks on a weekly basis over a project's duration. Consulting: Scared of AI? People are becoming increasing comfortable with artificial intelligence. But [What Does Consulting Have to Fear From AI?] These are challenging times for large consultancies and small independent consultants as they are forced to respond to attacks from three sides. Finish While Staying Sane When the project is nearing its end, you need to have a good plan for [Closing it Out] while finishing all the work that needs to be done—and staying sane. It’s not easy, but it can be done. Keep these tips in mind… THE PM POLL Is there a question you've been itching to ask? Did you know that ProjectManagement.com members have a community at their fingertips? [Create a poll] today to get some PM help from your peers! [Q: Which project management methodology/style works best for your projects?] - Agile/Adaptive - Critical Path/Critical Chain - Crystal Method - Extreme - Joint Development Process (JAD) - Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) - Rational Unified Process (RUP) - Scrum - Six Sigma - Traditional/Waterfall TOOL SPOTLIGHT PPM: [Deltek] [Search for your solution on our Tool Finder] BLOG IT Our [ProjectManagement.com Blogs]--written by some of our most experienced staff and community--offer more valuable insight on the latest issues and trends facing your company and your career. Here's a look at some of the latest postings... [Voices on Project Management]by Dave Wakeman While he won’t dispute communication tends to garner a lot of attention from project managers, Dave will say that calling the type of communications that project managers engage in straight up “communicating” is a bit of a disservice. [Project Managers As Persuaders] has more. [The Money Files]by Elizabeth Harrin While many PM tools offer dashboards built in, these can only track the measures that are included in the system. So if you want your project scorecard to be part of your wider project dashboard, then you’ll need to find a way to get that data in somehow. Learn [How to Build a Project Scorecard]. [Game Theory in Management]by Michael Hatfield While taking the wrong approach in addressing setup problems will certainly lower the chances of the PMO being successful, doing all of them right by no means guarantees success. There’s still [More Enemies Out There], and young PMOs will often make mistakes in dealing with them. [My Professional Journey]by Deepesh Rammoorthy In order to reach the end goal of profits or a quality product and respect from the community, companies and organizations need to harness, encourage, develop and [Harvest the Homegrown Talents] of the people working for them. [The Critical Path]by Kristin Jones Have you ever wanted to ask a question in one of our discussion boards, but became overwhelmed by the number of boards to choose from? Were you afraid that your question would go unanswered in an inactive board? Well fear no more because we have [Streamlined Discussion Boards on ProjectManagement.com]! Q & A Did you know that help is just a click away? Our [discussion forums] give you access to the ProjectManagement.com community: more than 500,000 experienced minds and growing! Take advantage of their expertise...your question could be posted here for even more exposure to our vast readership. Pose your question today or stop by to help out other members in need of advice, including these recent and ongoing discussions on... [Your PM Beginnings] "How did you begin your project management career? What was your very first project?" [Getting Your PM Foot in the Door] "I am interested in becoming a project manager. In order to develop experience, what are some recommendations to get your foot in the door and start as a PM?" [Conflicts of Interest] "What tips do you have for practitioners to help them recognize they are faced with a conflict of interest situation? What flags should they be looking for?" [Team Appraisal] "What approach do you use when it comes to appraising the performance, motivation or engagement of project team members during the project life cycle? Can a generalist approach be used for all projects, or is it project dependent?" [Engineering Transition] "I would greatly appreciate if experts here could share their experience in successfully making the transition from a technical role to PM role and advise me on what more I need to do or accomplish." [The Stimulating Factor] '"Before starting on a project, it depends...but typically, what stimulates you the most? The people you already know are going to be part of the team, the budget, the dimension of the project, the difficulty of the goals, the client, the final product or service, possible recognition, personal growth..." "You cannot find peace by avoiding life." - Virginia Woolf PREMIUM PICKS Did you know that [Premium/PMI Membership] gives you access to our [extensive library of PDU-earning webinars]? Here's just one of the latest valuable offerings you can check out! [What is Innovation and Innovation Management?] Ask 10 professionals and you will receive 10 different answers. There is confusion around basic concepts that will require some elaboration to set a proper point of departure. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome. How can we make your experience better? Is there something you haven't been able to find? Something you want to see that we don't have yet? [Let us know]. We'll handle it. 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