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Project Management Office (PMO)

Description

A Programme or Project Management Office (PMO) is a single, central support structure, designed to provide assistance to change and delivery initiatives within an organisation. A PMO can provide a variety of support to a single Programme/Project or it can have a wider support remit to Programmes/Projects across the organisation, especially in an organisation where there is a lot of ongoing programme and project activity. Without such a PMO, an organisation is forced to replicate support arrangements over and over again as programmes and projects come and go. Compelling reasons for organisations to establish a corporate PMO include:

  • better continuity and maintenance of standards;
  • overview and scrutiny of all delivery activity within the organisation;
  • increased skills development and transfer; and
  • ability to collect and handover vital Lessons Learned from one initiative to the next.

A corporate PMO may eventually adopt a Portfolio Management role, looking across all Programme, Project and other related activity in the organisation. This enables organisation-wide standards and processes and provides senior managers with important information on progress, costs and resources which helps with key decisions.

With the release of new guidance on Portfolio, Programme, Project Office (P3O) from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and the proposals for foundation and practitioner level accredited qualifications, the P3O model is likely to become more prevalent in the NI public sector. A P3O based approach is welcomed by Central Procurement Directorate's Centre of Excellence (CPD/CoE) for Delivery.

The diagram below illustrates the main relationships between a Project Management Office and the other main Project roles. If the Project is part of an overall Programme, the same PMO may provide support for the Programme as well as its associated Projects.If this diagram is not accessible or you require an alternative format, please contact us at coe@dfpni.gov.uk

For more information please follow the links provided.