Planning Support Activities Across the PMO Continuum

The "planning support" function along the PMO competency continuum represents a primary PMO support activity in the project management environment. Associated responsibilities expand from simply providing project work plan guidance and tools to specifying and facilitating a comprehensive collection of adjunct project plans, as required in the project management environment.

Table 14.1 provides an overview of the range of prescribed PMO planning support activities according to each level in the PMO competency continuum.

Table 14.1: Range of Planning Support Activities across the PMO Continuum

Project Office	Basic PMO	Standard PMO	Advanced PMO	Center of Excellence
Conducts project planning using the established process	Conducts simple project planning support Identifies project work plan format and content Prescribes the standard project planning process Introduces basic project planning-support tools	Develops capability to facilitate primary project planning Conducts project preplanning collaboration Conducts work plan facilitation Offers follow-on project work plan support	Expands capability to conduct project planning efforts Specifies adjunct project plan requirements Facilitates development of adjunct project plans Expands project planning process and tools for adjunct plans	Conducts project planning analyses to identify planning effectiveness Examines completeness of project plans Examines use of project plans Examines efficiency of the project planning process

The project office is the frontline user of the project planning processes developed and implemented within the relevant organization. In the absence of a higher level PMO, the project office should examine best practices in project planning to devise its own repeatable approach. Ideally, this approach will be coordinated and collaborated for use across multiple project offices that exist in the relevant organization.

Mid-range PMO levels have the responsibility of developing and implementing a viable planning process and accompanying tools to serve the needs of project teams. Initially, this effort focuses on introducing and managing the project work plan — the essential project planning document that guides project team activities toward achieving project objectives. As PMO capability advances, the planning process is expanded to include other adjunct project plans needed within the project management environment (e.g., communications plan, vendor/contractor management plan, quality management plan, etc.). Above and beyond the responsibility for establishing the planning processes, a PMO matures when it also can facilitate project teams in their preparation of at least the fundamental plans used to conduct the project management effort.

The center of excellence pursues an oversight role through ongoing analysis of the established project planning capability. In turn, its findings can be used to develop improved planning activities, recommend better planning support tools, and identify best practices through ongoing research relative to specific needs of the relevant organization.

Planning support activities should be conducted in conjunction with process guidance prescribed in the PMO "project management methodology" function (see Chapter 1). In essence, this PMO function represents the development and implementation of the planning components of the project management methodology, with the added features of PMO involvement and facilitation of the prescribed planning processes in specific project planning efforts.