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The "business performance" function along the PMO competency continuum represents a progressive expansion of the PMO's role and responsibility as an implementer of business strategy. In particular, the advanced implementation capabilities along the PMO continuum focus on contributions to business fulfillment across the enterprise.
Table 20.1 presents an overview of the range of prescribed PMO business performance activities according to each level in the PMO competency continuum.
Project Office | Basic PMO | Standard PMO | Advanced PMO | Center of Excellence |
---|---|---|---|---|
Applies established business practices to conduct project management | Facilitates business practice integration
| Introduces business collaboration
| Expands business collaboration
| Manages business performance
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The project office is predominantly a beneficiary of business performance management conducted by higher level PMOs. It conducts project management with awareness that business principles and practices have been incorporated into its primary activities within the project management environment. It does not usually independently conduct wide-reaching business performance management initiatives.
Mid-range PMO levels will be more and more involved in business performance management, alongside other business units and in response to applicable executive deliberations and decisions. Its role becomes one of taking the established project management capabilities to broad-reaching areas of the relevant organization, including a possible national, multinational, or global scope of influence. In conjunction with this effort, it integrates both enterprisewide and regionally specific business practices into each project management environment encountered. It also introduces project management practice solutions into each business environment encountered. The mid-range PMO, particularly one with more advanced functionality, will play an active role in business fulfillment. It will use such mechanisms as project management methodology deployment to define, measure, and forecast the achievement of business objectives within each aligned project management environment. It will use such mechanisms as an expanded project knowledge management system to collaborate business information, inform decision makers, and measure and achieve customer and stakeholder satisfaction across the enterprise. It will use such mechanisms as project portfolio management to improve business position, ascertain returns on investments, and facilitate timely business decisions in a constantly evolving global marketplace. The midrange PMO's "business performance" function ensures that the established capability within the project management environment enables and does not restrict the fulfillment of business purposes.
The center of excellence represents the essence of global business performance management across the broadest stretch of the enterprise. It distinctly addresses business issues from the perspective of implementing executive business decisions and supporting strategic business objectives. In some cases, it can help deliberate and develop executive positions and strategic goals related to business performance management. In turn, it also provides business performance oversight, control, and support to any established mid level PMOs across the enterprise.
A major feature of this PMO function is the development and implementation of key components of all the other PMO functions to enable business performance to be measured and managed. The primary variable encountered is the breadth and depth of influence the PMO will assert relative to the relevant organization or the enterprise. To that end, this PMO function model will sometimes reference activities associated with particular PMO functions. It does this from a perspective of integrating business practices into the project management environment and project management practices into the business environment.
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