There are:
- The Project Office
- The "entry level" PMO
- The "plain vanilla" PMO, or Standard
- The advanced PMO
- The advanced "COE PMO" (Center of Excellence).
The "Project Office" is not really a PMO, but just a function within a company that has some structured project oversight. It involves a few projects and limited project managers, and focuses on deliverables, costs, schedules, and basic resource utilization.
The "Entry Level PMO" actually provides some documented and repeatable PM methodology across all projects and adds: *multiple (more) projects, *multiple PMs, *a Program Manager, *Part-time PMO support staff to enable proper reporting and support.
The "Plain Vanilla PMO" adds *Infrastructure to support the project environment, *multiple program managers, *Director / Senior level leadership, *Full time PMO Staff
The "Advanced PMO" adds *a layer of business objective review and focus, and aims to support strategic business goals, and has a much more mature reporting / dashboarding capability.
The "COE PMO" is an advanced manifestation of a PMO and would add *continuous iprovement of cross-department collaboration to support business strategy, *authority to shape the organization based on project progress, *require Six Sigma and Business Analysis depth to ensure excellence in strategic support, and *has sought-after influence in Operational and Strategic and Global activities. The COE PMO, when established correctly, can be a work of art and a deadly weapon to "win" against the competition.
If you've been paying attention, I mentioned there were SIX types of PMOs, but I've only discussed five here.
If you want to know what the sixth one is, perhaps you should contact me.
