The Programme Management Office is a widely accepted model for co-ordinating complex change programmes and, when well

executed, provides senior managers with a powerful tool for decision making. As you'd expect, PMOs come in many guises, and determining the scope, remit and staffing of a PMO is critical to success. You need to be confident you have an effective and cost-efficient office that supports your change portfolio and is driving forward the efficiency agenda. What is a PMO? It's worth taking a moment to define what a PMO is or should be. The most successful provide:

Governance - for example, ensuring programmes deliver return on investment Transparency - providing relevant, accurate and timely information to support decision taking Delivery support - making it easier for project and programme managers to 'do the right thing' Re-usability - embedding industry standard practices to reduce costs and enable capability development across the organisation

Of course, there are other factors: Portfolio Management, for example. And critically, the PMO from an enterprise perspective is also responsible for Resource Management: forecasting, allocation, contractor management, and so on. So, what are the steps involved in creating the PMO your change agenda and sponsors need? Here, in brief, are the four main stages: 1. Define: identify sponsors and budgets, select components to create your customised blueprint, present models to sponsors and challenge needs, and prioritise drivers for component implementation 2. Assess: look at processes and skills to create a roadmap and identify gaps, validate the usability of existing processes, work for acceptance and buy-in from stakeholders, and explore opportunities for improvement (through a training and development plan, for example) 3. Build: prioritise your implementation plan, use and re-use internal and external examples of best practice, communicate with and 'socialise' stakeholders, and test prior to launch 4. Run: resource, rollout, create succession plans and engage internal resource, and conduct post-implementation review to embed continuous improvement I'm not suggesting this process is simple. But it can be straightforward, and the key comes in planning and documenting PMO structure, processes and personnel. And ensuring you have someone senior enough, with the right experience and gravitas, to head the office. As with any significant organisation or institution, the whole tone and approach is set by the person at the top. Points to consider Here's a short checklist that covers some of the key points to remember when setting up and running a successful PMO. The first may seem obvious but is well worth noting: run your PMO like a project, applying the same rigour. You should also establish sponsor needs early. There's no 'one size fits all' solution and, equally, there's no need to build from scratch. I hate re-inventing the wheel.

You should seek to implement PMO services in line with business drivers and project/programme issues, and ensure all new PMO processes are directed at reducing project team effort. Feel free to beg, borrow and steal best practice, from within and outside the organisation. At the same time, put your best project management practitioners in the PMO and recycle their expertise regularly. Use technology: get a PMO portal, use it, and save money. Finally - and I can't stress this enough - you need to communicate and communicate, with all staff, project teams, sponsors and stakeholders involved.