Challenges in Creating a Project Management Office

By: Sarika September 01, 2015

Last time we talked about why a Project Management Office can be vital to the success of your organization. Today, we’ll highlight some of the challenges in creating a Project Management Office and how to help overcome them.

So what roadblocks can one hit when trying to create a PMO? To name a few:

PMO is not Empowered to Make Needed Decisions
Lack of a Project Methodology
Lack of Tools to Track Resource Hours
Ad-hoc Project Prioritization and Assignments
Company Culture Unprepared/Unaware of what the PMO is/does

There are ways to overcome these roadblocks during and after implementation that can help the success of the Project Management Office and for the company overall.

Let’s go thru some of these issues, the potential impact and my proposed suggestions for mitigation:

Issue	Impact	Mitigation Strategy
PMO is not Empowered to Make Needed Decisions	This can make it difficult to provide authoritative decisions with the team or with the client A lack of decision making in project management can stall or impede project progress	Gain executive support. PMO should be seen as an enabler to the business - an independent body challenging status quo vs executing and approving management decisions. When company leadership supports and backs up the PMO, the PMO is able to help make and enforce decisions.
Lack of a Project Methodology	Lack of standardized methodology and processes leads to practice leads managing projects differently, which can have a negative trickle down effect	PMO should create standardized methodology and processes across all service lines and communicate this process to the team and leadership
Lack of Tools to Track Resource Hours	Difficult to estimate of work remaining and impacts to schedule and budget	There are multiple online tools available nowadays to help manage resources and schedules such as Asana, Wrike, etc. Find what tool works best for your company!
Ad-hoc Project Prioritization and Assignments	This can push back deliverables and deadlines of other current projects	Projects assigned to the PMO should be prioritized in order to prevent PMO from taking too much on Ad-hoc assignments should be prioritized and resourced appropriately while taking into consideration other project deliverables
Company Culture Unprepared/Unaware of what the PMO is/does	Sometimes this can result in lack of support from upper management	Draft a PMO Charter to clarify the goals, scope and role of the PMO and review with Management Support PMO decision making process Management should help embrace processes and methodology created by the PMO

These are just a few examples of challenges in creating a PMO and my suggestions as to how to work through them to achieve success! The most important thing to keep in mind is to never lose sight of the value a Project Management Office can bring to your organization and by continuously showing clients, team members and management the positive impact your role can bring to the company, everyone will be able to reap the benefits of a PMO!

Tags: project management office

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