5 reasons why a PMO will fail

5 reasons why a PMO can fail
Author: PM Majik
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

Contents
1.0 Purpose of this presentation
2.0 No perceived value
3.0 No senior sponsorship
4.0 Lack of authority
5.0 Staffed by inexperienced resources
6.0 Seen as audit function – “project police”
7.0 Summary
8.0 PMO resources

1.0 Purpose of this presentation
The purpose of this presentation is to provide an understanding of 5 reasons why a
PMO can fail. This will help you to avoid the causes so that your PMO can be
successful.
5 Reasons that a PMO can fail
1. No perceived value
2. No senior sponsorship
3. Lack of authority
4. Staffed by inexperienced resources
5. Seen as audit function – “project police”

2.0 No perceived value
• It is common for many people within an organisation (especially project
managers and senior management) to view a PMO as little more than a low
value, bureaucratic administrative function that is staffed with junior
resources. Even worse an overhead!
• This means the PMO function is not respected and any attempts to request
project information or implement standards are either ignored or the inputs
from the projects is very poor and do not follow standards.
• The unfortunate impact is that the quality of the reporting provided by the
PMO is very poor. This reinforces the project manager’s and senior
manager’s argument that the PMO offers no or little value.

3.0 No senior sponsorship
• A PMO should have a senior sponsor (if not you have real problem).
However, even if you have a sponsor, in many cases they do not understand
the full benefits of a PMO and think that it is simply a means to achieve a
consolidated report (a simple case of collecting all the inputs from the
projects and placing them into a consolidated presentation).
• This will result in a sponsor that sees little value in supporting the PMO to
execute their duties. This is especially critical when you have the situation
where the project managers complain to their own sponsors that the PMO is
taking up their valuable time to complete pointless reports instead of
important delivery work. Then, at the next senior management meeting, the
sponsors will find a way to attribute any delays on their projects to the fact
that the PMO is impacting the projects with pointless requests.
• A disengaged or reluctant PMO sponsor will not support the actions of the
PMO. This will result in the position of the PMO being further weakened or
even to be disbanded!

4.0 Lack of authority
• This is very closely linked to point 2, lack of sponsorship.
• If a PMO is not given the appropriate authority (mandate) by senior
management, the project managers will interpret any request for information
or to comply with standards as optional (at best). This will result in the PMO
not being able to collect the required project inputs meaning they will not be
able to provide consolidated reporting for senior management.
• The mandate must be public i.e. issued in a communication by the sponsor
to all stakeholders. Simply telling the PMO they have the mandate will not
be sufficient.

5.0 Staffed by inexperienced resources
• This links very closely with point 1, perceived lack of value.
• If senior management believe that all the PMO does is collect and
consolidate information, this will result in the PMO being staffed by junior or
inexperienced resources - why do you need experienced (expensive)
resources to collect, copy and paste information into a spreadsheet or
PowerPoint?
• This manifests in a PMO that does not know what tools and process should
be implemented, are unable to review and challenge inputs resulting in poor
quality output that is not valued by senior management. This compounds
the problem further, why would you invest more funds for more experienced
resources if the value provided is so low?
• Inexperienced resources will also suffer at the hands of the project
managers. With little or no project delivery experience, how can an
inexperienced PMO resource have any chance of challenging the reports of
experienced project managers?

6.0 Seen as audit function – “project police”
• Project managers typically do not like people outside of their project
reviewing their reports. This usually results in every issue being exposed
leading to extra attention from management. While it is important to have
open and transparent reporting to avoid nasty shocks, it must be done the
correct way.
• Unfortunately some PMO's operate where they are looking to highlight
weaknesses and problems so as to expose the project manager. This
behaviour makes the project manager reluctant to share any information
other than the absolute minimum.
• The result is that the working relationship between the PMO and project
managers breaks down resulting in only the minimum information being
reported and the PMO not really understanding where the REAL problems
are in the project.
• Remember the PMO is not an audit function, it should be working with and
supporting the projects to help them deliver. The objective of the project
managers and the PMO is the same - the successful delivery of the projects.

7.0 Summary
Taking steps to avoid these 5 common reasons for PMO failure will greatly improve the
performance of your PMO.
Reminder of the list:
1. No perceived value
2. No senior sponsorship
3. Lack of authority
4. Staffed by inexperienced resources
5. Seen as audit function – “project police”
Additional Resource
http://www.pmmajik.com/5-reasons-pmos-fail/
If you really want to add a lot of value, consider investing in a set of professional PMO
Templates. This will allow the rapid implementation of tools and processes.

8.0 PMO resources
If you want more information, visit www.pmmajik.com where you will find lots of project
and PMO resources including the FREE guide, 7 Steps to Set-Up a PMO.
Visit http://www.pmmajik.com/set-pmo/
PM Majik Website
On the PM Majik website you will find over 100 articles that contain practical and
pragmatic tips and insights for designing, mobilising and managing a PMO. New
articles are added weekly. Topic requests are encouraged from the community.

5 reasons why a PMO will fail

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