Explore Essential PMO Roles and Responsibilities

Learn about the roles and responsibilities within a Project Management Office (PMO). Discover how PMOs provide governance, support project delivery, and ensure efficient resource management. Gain insights into the key functions and responsibilities of PMO personnel in driving successful project outcomes.

PMO or Project Management Office is necessary for streamlining processes and projects. It is an important unit that handles multiple projects across departments and ensures successful delivery. 

Today we will go over the PMO roles and responsibilities. Before that, we will discuss what it is and why it is important. 

What is PMO?

A project management office (PMO) is a centralised unit that standardises processes for enterprise-wide projects. The PMO must help different project teams apply and maintain consistency across processes, improve resource allocation, identify gaps, etc. 

PMO can also refer to Program Management Office or Portfolio Management Office. This group usually is between the top-level management and the projects to be delivered by the HR department, Finance, or other departments. 

Main PMO Roles and Responsibilities

The PMO needs to create a blueprint of priorities by knowing the organisation’s business objectives. This group or team also needs to provide reports to the senior management. 

Here are some of the most important roles and responsibilities of a PMO. 

Planning 

The PMO creates project plans. 

This could include improving project success rates, standardising project management processes, and enhancing communication and coordination. It may also be about evaluating how projects are currently managed in the organisation. 

The PMO is also responsible for planning the right project management framework, develop specific KPIs, resources for individual projects, etc. 

Capacity Management

Optimising resources for projects is among the main responsibilities of this unit. The PMO has to identify where resources are going to be allocated. But this is possible when the priorities are set for each project team. 

Refer to our blog on resource management. 

Project Governance

This aspect of the PMO responsibilities involves decision-making strategies and leadership. It has to train the team members for successful project execution, consider the lessons learned from previous projects, and so on. The PMO plays an important role in creating a culture or environment of continuous improvement. 

Importance of PMO

Traditionally, the Project Management Office would handle administrative duties solely. It was also limited to a few industries, including IT and software development. Today, PMOs are a vital part of high-level organisations across many industries. 

According to the Project Management Institute, “80% of high-performance organizations – Champions – have a PMO”. 

Some important benefits of PMO are mentioned below. 

• It makes processes efficient, as the project team (s) does not have to reinvent guidelines themselves. They just have to follow the procedures. 
• PMOs make sure the project is completed on time. 

Types of PMO

Different types of PMOs exist based on the organisation’s needs. The roles and responsibilities vary slightly.

Supportive 

This type of PMO does not take full control of projects. Instead, it is supportive and helps different project managers follow standard practices. This PMO also does not directly involve with the projects. 

Controlling

This PMO has more control over how projects should work than the supportive PMO. This unit can decide which project management tools to use or the framework to be chosen. This type of PMO aims to help the project team achieve deliverables as efficiently as possible. 

Directive

Here, the PMO has full control and directs projects. The unit manages entire projects of large organisations. Teams under this type of PMO report directly to the unit. 

Parting Thoughts

This was an introduction to the key PMO roles and responsibilities. As you saw, the roles differ based on the needs and size of organisation.