PMOs have traditionally been the domain of Aerospace, Large Manufacturing, and Construction. Now that organizations of all pursuits are seeing their value, I thought I'd share a little regarding my experience as it relates to Creative Agencies and the benefits PMOs provide them.
The top reasons PMO's are important to a growing Creative Agency are:
- Reduction of Overall Risk - A Centralized Repository for all projects and their status is critical to reduce confusion on activity within an agency. Without a solid understanding of the planned activities of all departments, Agencies are setting themselves up for the potential for "inconclusive wisdom" on the status of their business. This is one of the major reasons that a PMO should cross functional areas of a business. The distinction of a "Facilities PMO" vs an "On-Air PMO" or "Infrastructure PMO" or "Digital PMO" is ineffective. A PMO for any company less than, say, 1000 Colleagues, should be responsible for supporting and project managing ALL planned activities. In my experience, even lareger organizations have often attempted to consolidate or integrate disparate PMOs to achieve even greater benefits, after realizing that the "PMO per functional group" approach often doesn't work very well. Organizationally, this may be a political landmine at first, but given the right leadership it brings fantastic results to all involved in a relatively short period of time.
- Resource Allocation improvement - On a project-by-project basis, a PM knows the risks to her/his resources. When rolled up into a portfolio, unforeseen risks become much more apparent at a much earlier stage, making resource-based decisions much more effective.
- Project budgeting - Coordination of resources, including external vendors is much more efficient, professional, and reliable when entirety of all efforts is known. This is a no-brainer.
- Project Timeliness - A consistent way to manage priorities and conflicts through a consolidated Project Management methodology is very clearly a huge benefit. Without a strong PMO, many PMs are left to manage their own negotiation with other PMs on a project-by-project basis. Often this project-by-project negotiation is to the detriment of the organization.
- Improved Quality - Quality methodologies are much better managed at a portfolio level because at the portfolio level an organization can clearly dictate what level of QA might be required based on the awareness of all ongoing efforts. If it is known that QA resources have additional bandwidth during a given period, additional focus can be given, and projects may be reprioritized to take advantage of additional bandwidth during certain timeframes.
- Key Learnings - The purpose of a "post-mortem" or Key Learnings process at the end of each project is to capture the activities or results that were beneficial or need improvement on a given project. Only through a proper PMO can an organization truly leverage the learnings across all projects (and apply them to all future projects) to dramatically improve future delivery.
- Better Business Analysis - During the business analysis and planning stage, a PMO is a fantastic resource for a PM to gain insight into what critical issues should be managed better, and what previously unchartered territory would require more attention. The "repository of learning" that a PMO provides is without a doubt a major benefit for Agencies to consider.
- Perceived Value - Speaking from personal experience, along with all the other factors for selecting an Agency when awarding business, the quality of the PM process and the interest in the Project Management practice in ensuring quality is always a top factor. Without a solid, working, and frankly very buttoned up PM methodology, agencies are likely to burn out under the weight of the chaos of new business. Solid and accurate project management artifacts are the "proof" that an Agency is taking the business they've been awarded very seriously. Remember - the Project Manager on the client side has a major influence on who gets awarded more business.
- Fortification of the Agency Brand - If a client can rely on an agency to have the same (or similar) methodologies on all projects, even though the assignments themselves may be different, the client has a greater degree of confidence with the Agency, and is likely to be more focused on the strategy or other decisions which can strengthen the relationship.
Naturally, many organizations consider a PMO function as "administrative overhead", however given the proper resources, administration is by far a small portion of the entire contribution of those involved in the PMO function. The PMO leadership should also be one of the busiest and most capable PMs on the team !
