To position yourself for plum future assignments, consider working in a Project Management Office (PMO)!
If your organization has a Project Management Office (PMO), think about what happens there. One thing is that, in order to survive, it must always produce and show value. If your organization’s PMO has been around for a few years, it has probably passed that test and could be a good place to work and gain some big exposure.
Another thing about a good PMO’s is that it must align closely with your organization’s strategy. Once again, if your PMO has been around for a while, it probably also passes that test and aligns with the strategy.
So, participating in a well-established PMO can be a tremendous opportunity to you! I can give you exposure to the most important projects across your organization, visibility to upper management, an opportunity to network with top level project managers, and the chance to work on best of breed practices as a PMO is a center of excellence.
If your PMO has not been around for a while, it still may provide an opportunity. You can potentially get involved in setting up those things that help move your organization forward! Implementing a PMO can be jarring in many ways – to the people within the PMO, but also to those in operating units as well as in upper management. But while that is happening, the PMO will be at front and center and will be very visible to upper management. PMOs often sit at the core of the business – even driving critical success factors.
Here are some other things that likely are happening, or should in your PMO. A PMO will grapple with investment decisions – like what to do with the organization’s resources – through project portfolio strategy and execution. In addition, the PMO often has a key role in monitoring and controlling the resources to drive success.
With this potential comes pitfalls and challenges – and even a lot of excitement and opportunity. A lot of skills and competencies – hard and soft – come into play to do all of that heavy lifting in a PMO! The opportunity is worth a look.
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John Reiling, PMP
PMTrainingOnline.com
