PMO Focus

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Here is my addition to your PM/PMO toolkit.  After reading Mark Price Perry's excellent book on the Business Driven Project Management Office, I found that I agreed with his observation that PMOs tend to focus on either Methods and Tools, or Speed and Value.  Note that my bias is towards speed and value. 


Here is a simple tool to gauge the focus of your PMO.  Just print and cut out the two pieces.

To use the PMO Focus Gauge, ask various stakeholders to place the pointer arrow on the gauge pointing in the appropriate direction.  I suggest taking photos of the gauge with an annotation to capture who placed the arrow. 

I don't mean to suggest that one side of the gauge is better than the other.  We can imagine compelling arguments for either side of the gauge, or for the middle.  Instead, this is a great tool to use in discovering an organization that is in alignment with your personal views.

I mentioned that my bias is toward the right side (Speed and Value), so that is the PMO I want to work with.  This does not mean that I don't want methods and tools - instead it means that I want to employ methods and tools in the pursuit of speed and value.  It also means that I will avoid any methods or tools that slow down my projects or decrease their value to my clients.

Another fun experiment is to print out two copies of the gauge and label one "Reality" and the other "Goal."  Then follow the same process.  This is really starting the GROW coaching process for the PMO.  It will be fun to see if the PMs and other stakeholders in your organization agree on the desired direction of change.

Let me know if you use this PMO Focus Gauge and what you find out.