The document discusses how to define the mission and vision of a Project Management Office (PMO) when first establishing it. It recommends starting with the end goal in mind and identifying the PMO's purpose, benefits, and goals through a mission and vision statement. Examples of concise and effective PMO mission and vision statements from other organizations are provided. The document also provides guidelines for creating a mission statement, focusing on the key measures of success, and creating a vision statement that inspires stakeholders.

1. 7/22/2009
Report #1: Start With the End in Mind
The Rapid PMO: Strategic Steps from A to Z
Hass Howard

2. Hass Howard, 2009
Report #1: Start With the End in Mind
The Rapid PMO: Strategic Steps from A to Z
Where to Begin?
When designing your Project Management Office (PMO), it is a good approach
to start with your end goal(s) in mind. The establishment and continuous growth
of an effective PMO is a journey. Just like with any journey, the bumps along the
road are easier to consume if you know the end destination. Identifying the
mission, vision, and goals of your PMO is an excellent start that lays the
foundation for a smooth journey.
Now, any sort of organizational change will encounter its fair share of obstacles.
Erecting a PMO is no different. However, clear communication of the PMO’s
purpose, and its benefit to various members of the organization, shall reduce
reluctance to its implementation. By first defining the Mission and Vision of the
PMO, selection of the PMO type becomes a fairly easy task.
Defining the PMO Mission and Vision
Mission and vision statements are common vehicles for communicating the
overall purpose and future intended state of an organizational unit. The
eventual users of your PMO are not foreign to the intent of mission and vision
statements either, as these tools are used quite frequently in strategic plans, on
company web sites, and in a multitude of business communications to establish
a common perception of a goal or business entity. Launching your PMO without
these two pieces of the big picture in hand does not necessarily translate into
disaster, but it definitely increases the obstacles along your path.
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For the purposes of this report, we will concentrate on forming an information
technology (IT) centric PMO for a company with operations throughout North
America. By first defining the mission of the PMO, we establish a shared
understanding of the PMO’s purpose. Provided below is the sample mission
statement that we will use for this fictional PMO.
Establish excellence in the management of IT projects by offering project
management support services to the enterprise, enabling the successful
completion of IT initiatives on time and within budget where customer
requirements are consistently met or exceeded.
There are a few elements of the mission statement that you should take notice
of, particularly its clear expression of the PMO’s major intent, “Establish
excellence in the management of IT projects”. Users of the PMO are also
identified, “…project management services to the enterprise.” How the PMO
contributes to the IT Division’s achievement of the company’s strategic goals is
also addressed, “…successful completion of IT Initiatives on time and within
budget where customer requirements are consistently met or exceeded.”
The Enterprise IT PMO empowers project managers, and anyone
involved in the administration of an IT related project, to leverage a set of
proven project management best practices, tools, and processes to
consistently deliver projects on time and within budget, maintaining no
more than a +/- 10% variance between actual and estimated projects’
costs and durations, where customer satisfaction ratings are routinely 95%
or greater for all initiatives contained within the IT Project Portfolio.
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Using the above mission statement, we will use Mission Statement Creation
the following vision to articulate the future
1. To create your mission
goal-state of the PMO. statement, first identify your
organization’s “winning idea”.
Even in this brief example, the linkage
between mission and vision are clear. While 2. Next identify the key measures
of your success. Make sure you
the mission emphasizes the aim of the PMO, choose the most important
the vision inspires the members and customers measures (and not too many of
of the PMO by depicting the increased them!)
capabilities and efficiencies that everyone will 3. Combine your winning idea
benefit from once the mission is realized. As and success measures into a
you construct your mission and vision tangible and measurable goal.
statements under this rapid model, consider 4. Refine the words until you
them to be conversation catalysts that you have a concise and precise
can quickly employ to engage all levels of statement of your mission,
which expresses your ideas,
staff in the PMO design and implementation measures and desired result.
discussions.
Vision Statement Creation
PMO Mission and Vision Examples
There are many techniques that your 1. First identify your
organization’s mission. Then
organization can leverage to quickly generate
uncover the real, human value
a mission and vision statement for your PMO. in that mission.
Mind Tools, a leader in the skills building field,
2. Next, identify what you, your
provides a very effective and straightforward customers and other
seven (7) step process for defining a mission stakeholders will value most
and vision statement (see figure A). This is one about how your organization
will achieve this mission. Distil
of many practices that you can follow. these into the values that your
Throughout the Internet there are also many organization has or should
good examples of PMO mission and vision have.
statements that your organization can use to 3. Combine your mission and
guide the creation of its own PMO mission and values, and polish the words
until you have a vision
vision.
statement inspiring enough to
energize and motivate people
inside and outside your
organization. (Mind Tools Ltd.,
2008)
Figure A
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When visiting the State of North Carolina’s Enterprise Project Management
Office (EPMO) web page, the mission and vision statements are two of the first
items you view on their home page. Similar to our fictional mission and vision,
the State of NC EPMO employs brief paragraphs to communicate its mission and
vision.
Mission Example
Mission Example
“To provide leadership for the improvement and expansion of Project
“To enable successful completion of projects and realize their benefits, the
Management across state government through coordination and
PMO will:
communication, standardization and measurement, and mentoring and
coaching.”Collaborate with State agencies to help ensure achievement
· (State of NC EPMO)
of their project goals and objectives.
Vision Example
· Conduct project tracking, review and oversight on behalf of
the Legislature.
“The EPMO provides professional oversight to facilitate successful IT
· Encourage adherence to repeatable project management
projects through assessing projects and facilitating resolution of issues,
processes with established standards and measurement
risks and roadblocks and by providing early warnings if a project is likely
criteria.
to fail. The EPMO does this through project management methodologyand
o Provide sustainable applying professional experience
best practices and by best practices tools.complete information to the SCIO
and providing full and
to ensure the SCIO can respond appropriately. management EPMO)
o Coordinate statewide project (State of NC training,
coaching and mentoring programs.
” o Actively participate in project governance.
(Office of Enterprise Technology)
The University of North Texas uses a briefer, yet still effective, vision statement for
its PMO.
Vision Example
“Create a foundation within CITC for enhanced awareness and
collaboration, increased efficiency, and more consistent delivery of the
right projects at the right time with the right resources.” (U of North Texas
PMO, 2008)
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Bullet points are also another practical vehicle for publicizing your PMO’s mission
and vision. The State of Minnesota combines brevity and bullet points to
articulate its PMO’s mission.
The style of your mission and vision statements should resemble the culture of
your company. Some organizations compose missions and visions that span
several pages. With the objective of this undertaking being to establish a PMO
of value as expeditiously as possible, I caution the use of lengthy mission and
vision statements. Besides, it is much easier for people to remember concise
mission and visions that are very compelling.
What’s Next?
Establishing a mission and vision without any measurement goals is akin to
planning a trip without any target travel dates. Forming the picture of what you
seek to accomplish is only part of the equation. To truly energize the enterprise
around project management maturity, tangible goals and strategies should
accompany the PMO mission and vision. Individual, team, and departmental
contributions can then be continually assessed against the achievement of the
stated goals and strategies.
Next in the Series:
Report #2: Adding Teeth to the Mission and Vision
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7. Hass Howard, 2009
Works Cited
Mind Tools Ltd. (2008). Mission Statements & Vision Statements. Retrieved January 7,
2009, from Mind Tools Web site:
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_90.htm
Office of Enterprise Technology. (n.d.). PMO Mission and Vision. Retrieved January 7,
2009, from The Office of Enterprise Technology State of Minnesota:
http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/content.do?subchannel=-
536890651&programid=536910278&id=-536890276&agency=OETweb
State of NC EPMO. (n.d.). Enterprise Project Management Office, State of North
Carolina. Retrieved January 7, 2009, from Enterprise Project Management Office, State
of North Carolina: http://www.epmo.scio.nc.gov/
U of North Texas PMO. (2008, April 18). University of North Texas PMO. Retrieved
January 7, 2009, from University of North Texas Computing and Information
Technology Center: http://pmo.unt.edu/
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