- 1. Governance models
- 2. Accountabilities and responsibilities
- 3. Stakeholder engagement
- 4. Risk and issue management
- 5. Project management control processes
- 1. Analyze your existing organization
- 2. Define the purpose and structure of your PMO
- 3. Get the right people
- 4. Clearly lay out best practices
- 5. Implement and monitor PMO governance plan
- 6. Revisit and update as needed
- 1. What is a PMO framework?
- 2. How do I set up PMO governance?
- 3. What are the three pillars of project governance?
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Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Is PMO Governance?
- Decision-making processes
- Resource allocation
- Risk management
- Structured accountability
Depending on the structure of the company, project governance may be led by the project manager, board members, or multiple senior employees. In large organizations, the governance structure may involve multiple checks and balances from seniors across departments.
Project governance is a critical component of project management. It establishes clear policies and procedures that ensure accountability from decision-makers. It also builds transparency, reduces the likelihood of errors that can derail a project, and implements standardization for best practices from your project managers.
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Summarize this article for me pleaseUnderstanding PMO and Its Role Within an Organization
- Airbnb: “Airbnb exists to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, providing healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable.”
- Slack: “Slack saves time by tearing down communication and systems silos”
- ClickUp: “One app to replace them all”
While traditional PMO management processes have focused solely on ensuring adherence to governing standards, modern PMO is more strategic—called strategic PMO or enterprise PMO (EPMO). Strategic PMO isn’t just about adherence, it’s about creating alignment, fostering agility, and using technology to power innovation. 💡
Instead of narrowing in on executing projects and governing plans only, strategic PMO aligns governance with stakeholder expectations and broader business objectives with the value proposition in mind.
In the past, a leader in PMO would evaluate whether project activities met the governing rule. In modern PMO, the leader now chooses projects and strategic objectives that meet wider company goals.
Modern PMO is also less rigid in terms of structure than it once was. Frameworks increasingly adopt agile methodologies to ensure projects and team leads can adjust and adapt more easily, without disrupting governance protocols. ⚖️
The result is frameworks with more cross-functional focus, collaboration, and flexible decision-making structures.
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Summarize this article for me please5 Components of Project Governance
There are several components of project governance—and it’s not just a list of rules to follow. Let’s dive into the different project governance components including models, risk management, and control processes. 🏊
1. Governance models
- Consider the scope of projects
- Establish guidelines for the project timelines
- Address the complexity of different projects and project life cycles
- Assess risk and create structures for reducing risk
- Involve input from stakeholders
Keep in mind that governance models should also align with your company goals and values. For instance, the governance framework that a theme park uses will be much different than the one a tax firm uses.
Why? Because the mission and values of these agencies vary. While a theme park might focus on visitor safety, a tax firm would focus on regulatory compliance. 🎡
There are several different project governance models you can consider including:
- Advisory board model: A framework where a group of industry experts serves as an advisory board to help the CEO or other senior leaders make decisions at various project stages. Common examples of industries that use this model include fire departments, school districts, and nonprofits
- Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT): Developed by ISACA, COBIT is an IT-focused governance model with a focus on regulations, compliance, and data protection 🔐
- Management team model: Common in small and medium-sized companies, this model builds department or steering committees with leaders who collaboratively lay the groundwork for governance. It’s designed to use each person’s expertise for faster decision-making and joint accountability for governance across departments
2. Accountabilities and responsibilities
PMO governance establishes roles and responsibilities for all project team members. This ensures better accountability and clearly defines who is responsible for decision-making at every stage of the project management lifecycle. ✅
By setting governance standards early on, project managers can build better workflows and avoid bottlenecks. This eliminates confusion on who’s handling what in a project. At the same time, establishing authority levels creates a clear hierarchy of responsibility and makes it easy to grant access and permission to resources during the project.
3. Stakeholder engagement
A good governance model engages all project stakeholders during the process. When it comes to managing projects, common stakeholders include the people working on the project and project sponsors or investors. In governance, stakeholders are a larger group of individuals—including anyone impacted by the project and the project objectives.
When creating a governance model, start by identifying all potential stakeholders. Next, your framework should create communication plans for updating all stakeholders, protocols for managing expectations, and guidelines for who has decision-making power.
4. Risk and issue management
All projects have inherent risks and your governance framework should attempt to mitigate these before they derail the project. When crafting your PMO governance framework, create a system for identifying, classifying, and prioritizing risks or problems. Keep the structure flexible enough to address different types of problems, but clear enough to guide everyone on the project through the risk management plan.
5. Project management control processes
You can’t build a governance framework and call it a day. An effective plan must be monitored and reviewed regularly. You need to regularly compare results and efforts to your baseline governance model. Assess any areas where protocols aren’t being followed and determine if that’s due to unclear instructions or a need for structural change. 👨🏽💻
During your review, be sure to get feedback from decision-makers and stakeholders following the governance plan. With regular review, you can identify areas for improvement and adjust your governance model to fit your company’s needs.
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