A universal set of principles, methods and templates are built by the PMO for the purpose of managing and executing various projects. With the help of standardization, it becomes easier for managers to switch between various projects and fresh project managers can work faster as well. Developing templates for managing projects means that uniform set components can be re-utilized. This ends up saving overall costs, time and effort for the business.
Major roles in a PMO
Business Owner or Sponsor –His job is to establish the scope of the project and define various elements of the particular project for delivering results. The business owner must have sufficient knowledge and experience with regards to handling various projects so that he can take informed decisions.
Project Executive – The project executive is actually the leader of the project and is normally held accountable for the failure or success of the project. He is the motivating and guiding figure for all project team members. It is usually the senior manager in the technology department whose projects are tech driven.
Project Manager –The project manager is responsible for taking the lead in managing the entire team and co-ordinating their actions on a daily basis. He/she also lays down the plan for various activities to be undertaken along with well-established timelines within which the project must be delivered.
Project Team – The project team constitutes the actual group of people who perform the activities to deliver outputs in accordance with pre-determined goals by the Project Manager.
Key responsibilities of PMO
- While the management measures for the project are set by the PMO, it is also necessary to ensure that the team follows them. This is achieved through consistent project assessment methods. It helps to get feedback on the progress of the project as well.
- The PMO keeps a record of the progress of various projects being handled by the company on the basis of updates received from different project managers. Standardisation methods are followed with regards to the manner in which the data is collected and presented as reports to the management. Project dashboards are usually used to showcase such data which is a simple method to keep a check on the various project statuses.
- In several organizations, the people handling or executing projects may not necessarily be trained formally for project management. The PMO thus plays an important role in providing assistance to this group.
