We’re excited to share that the “Inside PMO Reports” by House of PMO are now available on Amazon! These reports are packed with insights and best practices for PMO professionals, featuring contributions from top PMO Managers tackling today’s biggest challenges.
There are eight reports available, covering areas like portfolio management, resource management, AI, and the latest on project controls. Each report dives into the challenges PMOs face and how professionals are overcoming them.
Starting in 2016, the Inside PMO Reports aim to produce an annual deep dive into specific PMO topics, exploring real-world solutions rather than textbook answers. By gathering diverse participants to discuss each subject, these reports offer fresh perspectives and new ideas.
Previously a benefit exclusive to House of PMO members, these valuable reports are now accessible to PMO practitioners worldwide through Amazon. The reports remain free to House of PMO members and can be accessed here.
The reports can be purchased individually or as a whole collection, and they are free of charge for existing Amazon Kindle Unlimited customers.
Inside PMO Reports Available
Given the critical roles of both functions (PMO and Project Controls) in successful project management, this 2024 Inside PMO Report from the House of PMO investigates the current perspectives and changing dynamics between these functions. Recent developments have brought to light new challenges and opportunities, impacting not only the functions themselves but also the organisations they support.
The narratives and analyses presented in this report are intended to facilitate a rich exchange of knowledge and experiences among PMO and controls professionals. This initiative seeks to inspire and provide practical insights, encouraging a proactive approach to role development and the enhancement of PMO and project controls effectiveness.
The Inside PMO Report features the contributions of experienced PMO leaders who generously share their perspectives and experiences.
This Inside PMO Report from the House of PMO focuses on the future of PMO, specifically if the PMO could and should be a business function, much like the finance and HR departments are.
As organisations increasingly use portfolios, programmes and projects as the primary drivers of value creation and organisational success. Organisations recognise that projects are how they achieve their strategic goals, deliver products and services, and adapt to changing market conditions.
The PMO serves as a central hub for project and change management practices, processes, and standards within an organisation. Its primary responsibilities include providing support, guidance, and governance for projects across the organisation. In the emerging project economy, project management becomes a critical competency for organisations and professionals alike and it makes good business sense if there is a permanent business function to oversee the central role of projects in driving value, innovation, and competitive advantage in today’s dynamic business environment.
Is the PMO the missing business function in businesses today?
There is a real lack of insights when it comes to leadership in PMOs. What makes a good PMO leader? How do you become a great leader of the PMO? Is it different to leading any other type of business function? These were just some of the questions we wanted to find answers to for this Inside PMO Report.
We also wanted to understand if leadership skills and the different qualities and behaviours are just limited to PMO Managers and Directors – those that traditionally lead a PMO. What about the people who work in the PMO? What about the PMO itself?
In the report, we take a look at leadership from different PMO angles and bring some new insights for the PMO community
We keep hearing about the rapid pace of change in businesses today; how digital disruption will change our workplaces; that advanced technologies will transform the way we carry out work tasks. In project management, these technologies will not only feature in project solutions – they will also be used in project management and the management of projects to drive better predictions and decision-making and reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks. The technologies at the centre of this change has become collectively known as ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) or ‘AI technologies’ and in our project world that means technologies such as predictive analytics, machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA). They’re all used in conjunction with data.
During 2019, the House of PMO had been exploring this subject to understand what AI technologies will mean for the PMO and find answers to questions such as:
- What problems are we trying to solve with AI?
- What are AI technologies should we be interested in?
- How do we get started with AI?
- What pitfalls do we need to be aware of?
- How does this change the PMO role?
- Are these AI technologies a threat or an opportunity for the PMO?
In this report, we look at all of these questions and more. As the PMO, we support the successful delivery of programmes and projects within our organisations alongside a decision-enabling role. It is also our job to be aware of and build knowledge about what impacts their success. Like the Agile explosion a few years back, the PMO needs to be in a place to provide guidance on the benefits of these advances, how they can be utilised and the steps the organisation should consider taking to embed them. This report provides insights into what the PMO needs to know about and consider in relation to AI technologies and data.
Measuring the value of a PMO has been a hot topic for a number of years now and it’s helpful to think about where this perceived need has come from. There are three, potentially related, root causes:
- Historical lack of understanding of the role of the PMO and the negative perception of PMOs have led to PMOs feeling the need to explain and justify why they are there.
- PMOs are typically justified via a Business Case. It follows, therefore, that if a PMO’s existence is based on a cost/ benefit analysis, it needs to demonstrate/ provide evidence of that benefit and its value to the organisation.
- Various Best Practice states that you should.
In this House of PMO Report, first published in 2019, whenever metrics are discussed in relation to PMOs, the conversation immediately jumps to metrics in relation to the value of the PMO. The initial challenge of ‘should a PMO be measured?’, quickly turns to ‘should the value of the PMO be measured?’, ‘what is the point of measuring the value of the PMO?’ and if it can, ‘what metrics can be used to measure the value of a PMO?’. Further reflections also leads to ‘is measuring value a measure of PMO success?’.
This inward focus leads to further discussion; who cares if the PMO is measured? Surely the organisation is more interested in whether its programmes and projects are successful and whether they are aligned with their strategy – outcomes that the PMO may be able to contribute to.
Purchase the report to understand how PMO Managers today are working with KPIs, Metrics and Measures.
Many PMOs now need to support Agile projects as well as traditional waterfall projects, moving to be a hybrid or bimodal PMO.
The report looks at the functions and services required and answers the questions – what stays the same, what needs to change, and what is new.
The question for the PMO community is, “do you understand what additional skills and competencies you need working in a hybrid PMO?”
Many of the skills you have are still required, but some will need further honing or developed from scratch. The report looks at how the services of the PMO change when supporting Agile projects and what associated skills you will need to have to do that successfully.
Resource management has consistently been one of the most challenging areas for project management and PMO.
In this Inside PMO Report we focus on the top three areas which provide the most challenge:
- Capacity Planning – cross organisation and cross divisional/department in terms of ‘do we have enough people to do the work’
- Allocation – down to a project level where we start to have named resources and all the fun and games of potential timesheeting issues that we do or don’t have.
- Skills and capabilities of the delivery teams and what the PMO can do in this area for example with competency models.
The report presents the Circle of Resource Management and provides practical insights and advice for PMO professionals when tackling PMO services related to successful resource management approaches.
As organisations look to improve on the returns from strategy development and increase maturity in programme and project management delivery capability, portfolio management has increasingly taken centre stage as a business function to support that. Portfolio management is seen as the ‘glue’ or ‘bridge’ between strategy and strategy execution (delivered by programmes and projects). The PMO or Portfolio Office is the place where portfolio management practices become a reality for an organisation.
For many PMOs, the realities of supporting portfolio management do not go beyond reporting on the portfolio activities, yet there are many different aspects to portfolio management which the PMO could provide services and support around.
In this report we discover how PMO Managers today are helping their organisations to maximise the value of best practice portfolio management.
