Modern business must embrace change, but if change is to be managed successfully it must be controlled and coordinated. The Programme Management Office (PMO) is one of the key enablers in managing strategic change and securing effective business growth.

Every organisation has its own definition of projects and programmes and hence of what it means by project or programme management. Here we consider the terns in the holistic and generic sense the management of unique and discrete change activities that support an overall business goal or strategy. Often the first challenge for PMO is to ensure that "project management" is properly understood and is used appropriately to deliver strategic business change. The PMO will do this by:

1. Delivering quality-based project management methods, standards and practices that can be used across the organisation's operations and which are fully attuned to the organisation's overall business strategy;
2. Provide tooling and systems that support the above methods, standards and practices fully and which promote effective delivery of projects;
3. Providing the management board with a concise and up to date "health check" on all projects within the organisation's projects portfolio.
4. Delivering strategic change projects across the entire span of the organisation's operations;

This brings us to a key point. The PMO must be global, i.e. it must operate across the entire organisation. By all means have project or divisional level "project offices" but they must operate in a manner that supports and is consistent with the PMO. The consistency and focus that a successful PMO will bring to an organisation will bring tangible benefits in terms of:

Focussed and coordinated project delivery;
Optimal deployment and use of resources;
Higher levels of customer satisfaction both internal and external customers;
The motivation that employees enjoy through being part of an organisation where delivery is habit.

If a PMO or project office acts tactically, in the sense that it focuses on a single project or business unit then it is failing. It simply does not have the breadth of influence to add sufficient value to justify its own existence.

We can measure the impact of the PMO simply; an improvement in project success rates (in terms of on time, on budget, and on quality delivery) usually arises immediately after a global PMO is introduced. This means that the PMO must deliver real value and that value is measured

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