DO YOU NEED A PMO CONSULTANT

Companies seeking more efficiency and tighter monitoring of IT projects are opening PMO in growing numbers. Here’s what is a PMO, what types of PMO Consultants you should consider, and why you really need one.

A PMO is a group or someone — internal or external to a company — that sets, maintains and ensures standards for project management across that organization. They’re the keepers of best practices, project status and direction — all in one spot.

“At the end of the day, PMOs are in place to help orgs deliver value to their stakeholders to projects and programs,” says Brian Weiss, former VP, practitioner career development of the Project Management Institute.

According to the P3O® methodology, 'PMO' is the decision-enabling and support business model for all business change within an organization. This will include single or multiple physical or virtual structures, i.e. offices (permanent and/or temporary), providing a mix of central and localized functions and services, and integration with governance arrangements and the wider business such as other corporate support functions

DIFFERENT TYPES OF PMO CONSULTANTS: TRADITIONAL VS PROJECT-DRIVEN

The PMO Consultants must provide tangible, repeatable, long-term benefits. To do so, they must be customized from the start to align with organizational strategy and be prepared to change as corporate strategy shifts.

THE ADVANTAGES OF WORKING WITH A PMO CONSULTANT

Understandably, many organizations wrestle with the decision of whether to hire a consultant. Incumbent managers may feel that bringing in external expertise would expose inadequacies in their running of the delivery organization. This kind of thinking is often unfounded and can hold organizations back from maximizing their full potential. Here are five reasons why bringing in a PMO consultant can take your delivery capability to the next level:

AN INDEPENDENT OBJECTIVE OUTSIDER’S PERSPECTIVE

You’ve worked at an organization for a while. You’ve worked hard for it and you have a great bond with your colleagues. You believe in where the organization is heading. When you are this close to a business, it is often hard to avoid bias. Perhaps by being too close to the issues you find it harder to see them clearly. Consultants, with a fresh part of eyes can often diagnose underlying issues relatively quickly.

ACCOMPLISHING SHORT-TERM GOALS

You want to change, but everyone is too busy simply getting the day job done. Perhaps the change you want to make requires different skill-sets to those you have in your delivery team, or may require someone with more experience. Bringing in a consultant with experience can often actually end up saving both time and money – getting change implemented rapidly.

BRINGING NEW SKILLS

PMO consultants are expected to keep up with the latest trends – everything from scaled agile frameworks, to Robotic Process Automation, BPMN, machine learning and AI. Consultants can help you develop these capabilities within your own PMO team, whilst helping senior managers understand the business cases that underpin them.

I'm Joel Eloundou, your experienced and certified PMO Consultant. I can help you, if you want to:

• Implement or re-energize your PMO

• Bring your project management approach to a next maturity level

• Increase the maturity of project and non-project staff

• Facilitate your change management