East of England branch and PMO SIG event - Everything you wanted to know about PMOs

November saw the first collaboration between the East of England branch and PMO SIG in the form of an event titled “everything you wanted to know about PMOs”. The event was held in Peterborough, and was attended by an unusual demographic for PMO SIG, in that it was mostly males in the room!

The Chair of the PMO SIG, Emma-Ruth Arnaz-Pemberton, took the delegates through the key facts of what makes a PMO tick, the history of the industry, and the skills people need to work in this area that enables delivery success. She then went onto some hints, tips, and considerations before embarking on implementing a new or redeveloping an existing PMO.

Questions in the room following the presentation spanned from how to track metrics that add and demonstrate the value of PMO (tell a story with your numbers, don't make what you can measure important - often people use metrics that they can get easily and make them seem important, rather than taking the time to measure what is really key to drive maturity forward), and what happens when everyone is not brought into the journey (engage, engage, engage).

One of the key messages that resounded with the group is that often project managers are asked to set up and run a PMO without any consideration for the fact that the skills needed are different. Plenty of discussion continued for some time after the event where peers got to share experiences.