Establishment of a PMO will instill a structured and formal governance process in organizations that did

not previously have them, as well as enhance governance in organizations that did. This, in turn,
generates higher benefits, higher degrees of discipline, understanding, and professionalism within the
organization. These are all key ingredients to the successful execution of strategy. This form of PMO
should be directive. It should be able to control the programs and projects by directly managing them. The
structure of the PMO should be that individual functions compose: Delivery, Control, and Governance.
The following Exhibit provides a conceptual explanation of the proposed structure:
 

Exhibit 10 – Tier-four PMO proposed functional structure.

The degree of control provided by the PMO should be high, and it requires the capability and authority to
perform the following activities, all in the best interest of the organization:
 
Exhibit 11 – The role and functions of a tier-four PMO

Requirements of designing, setting up, aligning, and integrating a PMO

Building a successful PMO must start with a clear understanding and definition of what a PMO can and
should do for the organization. Yes, the PMO will execute strategy and deliver results, taking the
organization from the As-is state to the To-be state, but that is what you understand and believe in, not the
rest of the organization.
Before starting to design and set up the PMO, you need to ensure that all stakeholders are cognitive of (a)
the importance of the PMO (b) the role of the PMO and (c) what to expect from the PMO – what it will
and will not do.
(1) This means that your first and foremost requirement is to manage the expectations of all stakeholders
360°, including senior management, decision makers, project managers, project team members, functional
heads, and anyone who will have positive or negative influence on the PMO, or who will benefit or be
adversely impacted by its setup, even if such impact is merely an expectation. One of the most useful
tools is establishing the vision and strategy for the PMO. The vision should be flexible, concise, and
thoroughly describe what the final result will be. Involving as many stakeholders as possible in
formulating the vision will warrant buy-in, commitment, and support. The strategy of the PMO must
address the organization's key success factors. It must ensure the PMO is defined and structured to
support and enhance the organization's current direction, while being agile enough to accommodate to
future changes. Many practitioners fall into the trap of wanting to set up a PMO that has a high degree of
maturity, and then force the entire organization to change to accommodate it—a guaranteed path to
failure.
(2) Prepare a plan for the PMO establishment to guide its execution: This is best done in alignment with
the processes, addressed in The Standard for Program Management – Third Edition, to ensure the
plan includes things like: Transition plan, benefits (of the PMO) management, stakeholder engagement,
power shifts, definitions of roles and responsibilities, and definitions of how implementation will be
monitored and controlled. In short, treat the setup of a PMO as you would a project, using
the PMBOK  Guide – Fifth Edition and the Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice
®

Guide as references. The use of a steering committee composed of representatives from various areas of
the organization would help provide further alignment of the PMO with the organization's strategy, and
ensure that it has the needed support at the highest levels from the onset.
(3) Establish implementation priorities: the PMO will need time to grow and mature its processes and
strategic position in the organization. The PMO's initial focus should be on the programs and projects that
contribute the most to organizational strategic directives.
(4) Conduct a pilot roll-out: select strategic objectives that can be used to help develop and test-drive
PMO methodologies and processes, and invoke the processes to select, prioritize, manage, and deliver
projects that contribute to the achievement of the selected objectives. Remember this is a pilot, so the goal
is to make sure everything is working properly and make changes as needed.
(5) Conduct the full-fledged roll-out of the PMO, migrating programs and projects, and articulating
strategic objectives to identify, and start performing the roles described above.
(6) Allow for a period of performance by the PMO, typically three months, and then perform a
performance audit to examine whether what was developed worked or not.
The Exhibit below describes our suggested process:
Exhibit 12 – PMO design, deployment, integration, and transition process.

Operational Requirements

For a PMO to operate effectively, it requires that certain operational elements are in place. Of the most
controversial are the Project/Program/Portfolio Management Informations Systems (PMIS) and their
components. The PMO must be equipped with a comprehensive end-to-end solution that improves data
collection, storage, access, analysis, and dissemination with sufficient roll-up as well as drilldown
abilities while upholding project management rigor, methodology, governance, and discipline. The PMO
should have the ability to analyze and select software packages that best fit its requirements and those of
the organization at large. The tool(s) need to deliver value to all users and not just the PMO, otherwise,
only the PMO will end up using them. Yet, the dilemma remains that the PMIS should serve the PMO
and not the other way around—many PMOs have limited their ability to deliver to the capabilities of their
software packages, falling into the common trap of being controlled by their PMIS and not the other way
around. Remember that a successful PMO can exist with basic software capabilities, but sophisticated
PMIS do not necessarily mean a competitive or successful PMO.

Management Requirements

A PMO of the nature, form, and role this paper is advocating is a significant change to any organization
and its culture. There is a crucial need to ensure that the PMO and its operations are supported throughout
the organization, not only at the management level. In his interview with the New York Times, Paul
Jones states that “sitting in the center means it's not just about reporting up, it's not just about telling the
C-Suite about projects that are going well or that there are issues, it has to add value down to the project
managers and to the delivery teams. If they do not see the value in a PMO they are not going to support it,
they (PMOs) need to get support from all directions, top-down and bottom-up, and really successful
PMOs do both, they will look at how projects are reported and how it can influence decisions and the
benefits realization to the organization and also how it can support project delivery, reducing the cost of
project delivery, helping consistency of project delivery, and also taking the risk out of project delivery.”
PMOs cannot be effective without this direct and regular involvement of senior management;
unfortunately, many of them suffer the lack of executive involvement, especially in the Middle East.
Before exploring the reasons why senior management engagement and support is crucial, it is important
to highlight that the responsibility to secure such support lies with the PMO and not the other way
around. The leadership of the PMO must be able to demonstrate value to the executive level of the
organization. Executive support is crucial to the success of the PMO because: (a) Executives are at the
heart of the multi-project dilemma, their supportive engagement is key to resolving resource and priority
conflicts. (b) Cross functional executive support is important in that they provide functional resources,
expertise, and support management of issues, risks, and dependencies. (c) There can be no meaningful
governance without top executive participation