Project Management Office: the ultimate PMO guide

A PMO or Project Management Office is responsible for planning and organizing projects to maximize profitability.

In this article, we'll define what exactly a PMO is, and what other meanings lie behind these acronyms.

Discover the different types of PMO, their objectives and the tools to maximize the efficiency of all their processes in order to become an entity of real value in the corporate environment.

What is a project management office or PMO?

PMO: definition

The acronym PMO refers both to the project management department as a whole, and to the person in charge of it.

In the first case, the acronym stands for Project Management Office ( PMO). Project Management Office) and in the second, the Project Management Officer ( PMO). Project Management Officer).

We can therefore define these concepts as the department or person responsible for ensuring that project management is carried out efficiently and optimally, in relation to the objectives set.

What is the difference between a project manager and a PMO?

The project manager is the person who sets the objectives and provides the resources to achieve them .

The PMO's job is to manage resources efficiently, by setting up an organization that enables the KPIs initially set to be improved.

What are the different types of PMO?

There are up to eight different types of PMO.

• Evaluation PMO

This is the office or person responsible for monitoring a project.

It monitors the main key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide an early warning of any risk of non-compliance. 

• Strategic PMO

Based on the above information, the most appropriate strategic and organizational decisions are taken to correct any deviations likely to result in failure to meet targets (projects to be prioritized, skills and human resources to be targeted and recruited, pricing to be adjusted, etc.).

• Executive or control PMO

This is the office or person responsible for ensuring that all defined settings and strategies are applied appropriately.

He ensures compliance with the rules and points out any incompatibilities likely to affect the execution of tasks as planned.

• PMO support

This involves providing support in any part of the project. Whether at a strategic level or in terms of monitoring, reorganizing resources or any other issue requiring reinforcement to achieve objectives.

• Crisis PMO

This is a team or professional specialized in crisis situations.

This type brings together support features, resource re-planning, funding sources, agile or scrum methodologies and any tools that facilitate the rapid resolution of situations that could jeopardize a project. 

• Global PMO

This is an office or person that encompasses all or part of the functions described above.

If the structure is sufficient, a global PMO would be the apex of the hierarchical pyramid. This is where all the parameters on which the previous PMO types depend are supervised, with the aim of coordinating them while maintaining the company's values and guaranteeing compliance with key common KPIs. 

• Internal PMO

Depending on the size of the company or the volume of projects, management offices can constitute a department in their own right within organizations. 

• External PMO

These are project management consultancies that can provide their expertise as suppliers on a recurring or ad hoc basis.

The role of a project management office

To determine the functions of a project management office, it's important to know the key indicators for measuring the success of your projects.

Based on these indicators, we can establish the following functions:

Strategic planning and governance

The first of these functions is strategic planning and governance in order to choose the right projects. The company's strategy, vision and values must be taken into account, as well as the resources actually available.

An obvious but illuminating example: a PMO will not be able to support a job requiring 25 programmers if it only has 10 and cannot handle the remaining recruitment volume.

Knowing how to say no to certain projects, due to doubts about their profitability or because they are not aligned with the company culture, is also a function that the PMO must fulfill in this section.

Standardization and project training

The project management office must also train its human resources to equip them with the knowledge, tools and processes necessary to achieve the objectives.

Resource management

PMOs will manage human and technical resources to increase efficiency and productivity.

This involves planning and allocating available human resources as efficiently as possible. And to establish a schedule of tasks and processes that enables workflows to be reproduced as they were initially planned, in order to align with the objectives set.

Control of cost effectiveness

Finally, the PMO must ensure the  profitability of his project portfolio. He or she must constantly monitor deviations from the initial budget.

It's all about ensuring that the project you're working on doesn't just pay off on paper, but also in practice, and that it's delivered on time through project financial accounting.

PMO tools: essential characteristics

PMO software is a tool for managing projects and the project portfolio as a whole more efficiently. This management system makes it possible to centralize management, consolidate data and thus enable efficient management. 

There are many different issues around project portfolio management that companies need to address with PMO software.

• Visibility : Real-time visibility and forecasts on all consolidated business data for better planning and anticipation.
• Human resources management : Global management through the project portfolio is needed to better allocate resources. In the context of the war for talent, the logic of commitment in matching projects and employees must be a key element.
• Reactivity and adaptability: since unforeseen events are always present, you need to be able to observe deviations and the financial and operational impacts of planned or envisaged changes in order to make better decisions.
• Analysis : A PMO tool must give you the keys to understanding your projects, and the reasons for successes and failures, at the right level of granularity.
• Collaboration and confidentiality: A PMO tool is a true mediator of information and decisions: it must provide the right level of support to each employee.
• Simplicity and automation: The PMO tool must save you time by eliminating repetitive tasks, standardizing and accelerating operations with workflows.

Real-time visibility & collaboration

The first essential element for a PMO tool is to deliver information in real time, with appropriate levels of access and rights.

The visibility provided by a PMO tool lies in its ability to consolidate information in real time.

Project definition: budgeting and planning

Defining project budgets is the first essential functional component of a PMO tool. It must enable you to cost and plan your projects, in order to verify and validate their financial and operational viability.

This budget will be used as a benchmark for future projects, particularly those to be carried out under public-private partnerships.

Stafiz responds to the key issues of this phase by remaining flexible: 

• inclusion of all costs and revenues (rebillable and non-rebillable costs, etc.);
• budgeting according to your operation: grades, people, tasks or phases ;
• scripting based on sales opportunities and their quotations (pre-resource planning...).

Sample budget with detailed production plan in Stafiz

Resource management

Resource management is the heart of your service company: managing resources from both a strategic and an operational point of view.

At the strategic level, a PMO tool will have to manage capacity on a forward-looking basis, i.e. meet the company's needs (demand) with relevant and available talent (supply).

It will also involve managing the operational aspect, i.e. planning and organizing the load with flexibility. To ensure good management, indicators such as utilization rate must be clear and available.

Stafiz offers all these features and more. Capacityplanning enables you to organize your needs - i .e., your profile searches for your entities/BUs - in a collaborative way.

Your employees can signal their interest in an assignment or in working on a given skill directly on the interface. Finally, our algorithms present you with the most suitable profiles based on your criteria: skills, aptitudes & availability. Fast and efficient.

To anticipate your resources, keep an eye on your capacity forecast with dedicated reports :

Learn more about the resource planning with Stafiz

In terms of operational management, resource allocation is quick and easy with Stafiz.

You can easily staff, shift, modify and transfer schedules. This gives you a clear, up-to-date view of your workload, so you can better allocate your employees.

Finally, reports allow you to track utilization rate by team, collaborators, zones or any entity of your choice: all this is fully configurable.

Progress and performance monitoring

Tracking progress and performance is one of Stafiz's differentiating features and strengths. With the right degree of confidentiality, teams can track not only progress but also, and above all, the financial impact of the project's current situation, including forecasts.

Empower your project directors and field teams to deliver your projects on time and on budget.

You benefit from general key indicators and in-depth views in order to analyze progress by employee, tasks or phases, grades, etc. Identify deviations from the initial plan at a glance, in addition to being alerted by email.

Discover project management in Stafiz

To go even further, analyze your data in depth: visualize your data by task/phase, grade, employee...

Identify what remains to be done and adapt if necessary: modify your resource planning, renegotiate with your customer, cost your projects more accurately... You have the decision-making tool you need.

Strategic reporting and project portfolio monitoring

Finally, a PMO tool must provide a consolidated, cross-functional view of your project portfolio: it must enable you to monitor the profitability and risks weighing on your portfolio.

This will enable you to better select your projects and make better day-to-day management decisions.

On the reporting side, Stafiz's strength lies in being able to consolidate all revenues and costs ( resource planning , purchases, subcontracting, costs etc.) and to be able to follow them by projects, phase/tasks, teams or collaborators, grade: achieved vs budgeted, utilization rate and production, income statement, invoicing status, etc.