Do
you lead your organization’s EPMO (Enterprise Project Management
Office)? Are you familiar with the role? Regardless, within the PMO you
may be already performing all the duties of an EPMO and providing the same
level of support. But the real question is: Does your organization’s
executive team realize it?
Let’s
briefly set aside the issue of “title” for the sake of this discussion and
agree with Ashley Stahl, Forbes contributing author1, that it can be challenging to communicate one’s true
level of professional responsibility with words on a business card or when
introducing ourselves by our role.
As you
may know, a PMO “sets, maintains and ensures standards for project management
across an organization.”2 It is typically housed within IT and
reports to the CTO/CIO. The office is the purveyor of best practices,
communicates the status of key projects, and maintains project direction with
an overarching goal of delivering value to the organization.
On
the other hand, the goal of an EPMO, according to the Project Management
Institute (PMI)3, is to align IT projects with business strategy and
collaborate with an organization’s executives through all phases of strategic
planning to increase a project’s chances of success. An EPMO leader
typically reports to a CFO/CEO, is housed outside of a business unit, and
affects a portfolio of projects, enterprise-wide.
In
today’s competitive environment with the constant push to decrease costs,
increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance user
experience while continuously finding new ways to support the business, it’s
just a matter of time before the PMO naturally morphs into an EPMO. Many times,
there is no formal discussion or change in process or shift in job
description. Successful IT leaders in the PMO are organically becoming
more focused on strategy and starting to actually drive organizational
success.
Has it
already started happening to you or within your organization?
There has never been a
more important time to quantify and communicate the business value of your
efforts. You know what you are delivering, but
have you found ways to simply and effectively communicate that value to the
executive team?
Stay tuned for future
blogs. We will explore roles and responsibilities of those in an EPMO role, the
potential impact on an organization, and the ways you can secure your position,
with or without a fancy title, as a strategic partner.
1https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2017/09/07/how-important-is-your-job-title/#eca1876e3d8f
2https://www.cio.com/article/3277972/project-management/epmo-enterprise-project-management-office-explained.html
3https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/pulse-of-the-profession-2013.pdf