PMOs: People, Styles and Lifecycles - 10th November 2015

Chris Mills representing the APM PMO SIG spoke to an attentive and enthusiastic gathering at the Ageas Bowl in mid-November. He led us through:

• P3O – Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices
• What do PMOs do for you?
• Types of PMO
• PMO People
• The Future of PMO.

Chris was an ideal speaker having implemented his first PMO back in 1992.

Research over LinkedIn and PMO SIG members have informed that PMO’s, amongst other things:

• Own the methodology
• Provide a common language
• Enable maturity and capability
• Are the nerve centre for communication
• Support benefits delivery
• Assure project delivery.

Time was then spent exploring 4 types of PMO’s:

• Supportive
• Directive
• Operational
• Controlling.

Each of these drew interesting questions from amongst the 35 attendees, 11 of whom were attending their first APM event.

Chris advised that the SIG had done some work previously and come up with some ‘interesting’ job types for PMO people. Details are within the attached slide-deck but the titles were:

• Librarian
• Handyman (or woman I guess!!)
• Police
• Doctor
• Nurse

Pleasingly, he reported that 4 role profiles have been included within the recently re-launched APM Competency Framework. They are:

• PMO Administrator
• PMO Officer/Specialist
• PMO Manager
• Portfolio Analyst

Before closing he mentioned a number of planned/hoped for research topics to further PMO’s, details of which are in the slide-deck.

You can contact the PMO as follows:

• Web – http://www.apm.org.uk/group/apm-pmo-specific-interest-group 
• Email – pmosig@apm.org.uk
• Twitter – @pmosiguk

Russel Jamieson
People SIG chair & Wessex branch committee member

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