Each level of PMO, from project and programme level to portfolio and the centre of excellence, requires a different set of business skills in order to operate effectively – particularly at the portfolio level, where there is far more need for influencing and negotiation than you would expect to see in the project and programme offices.
However, there is not enough recognition of the differences in these levels amongst the organisations who want a PMO, as well as the PMO practitioners who are trying to progress their careers.
What is often the case is that people who have worked at project support level are applying for portfolio office jobs, thinking that knowledge of projects and programmes is enough to operate at the portfolio level of a business.
Equally, some organisation don’t yet fully understand what the portfolio level is, and will try and recruit from the project level – without realising the level of business skills it requires – then wonder why it hasn’t worked.
Both these routes can easily damage the reputation of the PMO, whatever the level, as well as the core business competencies.
Organisations then go on to pay a lot of money for the right person for the role, who will have an uphill struggle to try and change the perception of the PMO, due to the harm that has already been done.
It can also be very difficult for an organisation to convince people to start the PMO again and do it properly, when so many in the business have seen it fail.
Command respect
It is therefore crucial that a PMO is correctly attached to the right level of the business, reflecting the required skills with its staff, in order to command respect, and more importantly, succeed.
This is critical to stop PMOs from failing. The project level is about delivering something, whereas the programme level is about being able to see the interdependencies between all the different projects, as well as finding resources that are available and needed for the different projects.
The portfolio level meanwhile is about making sure the business actually does the right projects. If the board are coming out with all sorts of strategies, the PMO at this level needs to look at them all and identify which projects are going to need to be done in order to deliver this.
So there is a lot more in terms of business analysis – and very little on how the projects will actually be delivered.
Finding opportunities
The issue for those with project level experience who want to progress through the PMO ranks is that they might have a very strong background in supporting delivery, but know nothing about supporting strategy.
While you can be trained in project management, with portfolio you need the right behaviour and personality – the way you engage with people and influence them is more important than how you deliver projects. That is why most portfolio people tend to come from other areas of the business.
Businesses are always looking for strong individuals who have the right mix of gravitas, reputation, confidence in their abilities and can prove they are able to challenge – all the things which are easy to talk about but hard to teach.
Fortunately, for PMO practitioners who already possess these skills and want to move out of delivery support and into the more strategic side, there are opportunities to be found – particularly for those who are prepared to hone their business skills even further.
However, while a good project level PMO practitioner will do well at the programme PMO level, despite its differences, it is unlikely they will be able to move from the programme PMO to the portfolio PMO without something very special happening to allow this leap.
The best way to ensure this would be to go and work in another part of the business completely – ideally one that is managed strategically, in order to maximise their personal development here.