Prince2 Aligned PMO Setup

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murthi74
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Hello Folks,

Do any one of you have some reading material, marketing presentation etc. on setting up a PMO aligned to Prince2?

I am keen to sell a PMO Setup aligned to Prince2 and need to put some marketing material.

Can you guys help me / point me to some already prepared stuff.

Thanks.
Srikanth
satisfactionuk
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Hi,
There are two trains of thought about a PMO office/

The first is purported by the PMBOK guide as being above the project manager and being run by a manager of project managers, which suggest that the company is running either a programme or portfolio of projects.

The flexibility of Prince2 supports this assumption where this is the case, however, where there is no formal programme or portfolio being run one can still have a PSO or Project Support Office that takes care of the day to day administrative duties associated with one or more individual projects.

Rather than setting up a fully paper bases PMO or PSO I would recommend that you check out Project In A Box at this address http://www.projectinabox.org.uk/tours.asp which is a highly efficient configuration management programme that is dedicated to prince2 that can monitor and control projects, portfolios and full programmes from just one application.

A short email to their support office could provide you with all the information that you need.

Hope this helps with your endeavour.

Kind regards


Stephan Toth
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dhaughey
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Hi Srikanth,

I've been on both ends of the PMO spectrum. At one end the autocratic policeman (avoid!) - and the other where the PMO works in partnership with project managers to achieve good business outcomes.

Here are some of the activities I think a PMO should undertake:
  • Initial project set-up.
  • Project filing.
  • Maintaining best practice.
  • Training.
  • Updating and maintaining templates.
  • Quality assurance.
  • Recruiting staff.
  • Maintaining a skills inventory.
  • Timesheet administration.
  • Providing decision support information for senior management.
  • Communicating policies and procedures.
  • Compiling and publishing statistical information.
  • Disseminating lessons learned.
The PMO should ensure that project managers aren't overburdened with process that doesn't add value. They should act as a repository of best practice, in your case PRINCE2. Beware the PMO that is there to make sure project managers follow process, regardless of whether it adds value. Project management by form filling isn't an effective way of managing projects.

Have a look at these articles:
Best of luck setting up your PMO!

Cheers,
Duncan
satisfactionuk
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dhaughey as usual your input is right on the nail. Thanks for the great information, I have copied and pasted both of these very interesting and informative articles into my library for future use.

Now for the downside, grrrrrr, I hate you, lol,. because you got me thinking on another subject area and more expense.

So, here it is, I found two seemingly good books on the subject and reference to a third on Amazon.
  1. Creating The Project Office - A managers guide to leading organisational change by Jossey Boss Business Management.
  2. The Complete Project Management Office Handbook by ESI International Project Management.
It is recommended that the second book be read in conjunction with P30 which is outlined below.

The P3O guidance - aligned to OGC's PRINCE2, MSP, and M_o_R - brings together in one place a set of principles, processes and techniques to facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management through enablement, challenge and support structures.

I have looked at the index and browsed through some of the pages and both books which seem to cover the topic adequately but I will not be able to do a review on them until I have studied them in some detail.

There is another book called the Project Management Office Toolkit by Jolyon E Hollows but that is quite pricy at £62.04

See project managers never stop learning lol

Kind regards and thanks

Stephan Toth
murthi74
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Hello,

Thanks everyone for the responses.. it was very useful.

This is an amazing forum..

Srikanth.
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