If any or few of these statements are valid in your organization then it is high time for you to look for PMO

• Projects are bleeding in cost
• Project are not delivered as per agreed timelines
• Customer dissatisfaction is high
• Employee dissatisfaction is high
• Project manager is reporting to too many bosses and he is spending most time in reporting than coordinating.
• Adhoc project management processes, not having documented project management processes
• Tomorrow is review meeting with customer & I do not know the true status
• Not sure which project has consumed how much resources
• Nobody is telling me how much time and resources are required to complete it
• People in project are highly reactive, no proper risk plan in place
• Too many adhoc activities
• Coordination of project team with recruitment, procurement, IT-security, IT-Systems, IT-Infrastructure, Training, Finance department is adhoc and people are torn because of last minute request
• Audit non-compliance are not being addressed on time
• Senior management progress & status reports does not have latest information
• Too much fight between Auditors & Delivery team
• Project Managers are highly technical or domain expert but they do not have requisite project management skills
• Every time promised that next project will comply all the required process and then same mistakes are repeated
• Lessons learned from delivered/cancelled/ other running projects are not known or not being used.
• I have new project in hand, how can I know that this time there will not be any goof up.

• Consultants look at Planning, Controlling, Scheduling & Control with fresh eyes.
• Consultants brings best practices and make sure those are implemented for the success.
• Can improve the productivity by bringing new technical or domain knowledge from industry.
• Client can focus on core competencies.
• Better prepared for dealing with similar projects in future.

• Even if external consultants are brought in project, you must commit internal resources
• If trust is not built for sharing information or for competency then internal PM competencies cannot be built
• Money burns quickly when there is misunderstanding of scope & power of PMO
• Risk of compromising sensitive company information can be high. Depending upon IT infrastructure and policies available in organization.

• Value of PM practices in organization.
• How organization want to manage the change.
• Primary Objective of PMO (increase productivity, reduce waste, reduce cost, reduce time, increase quality, faster responsive system).
• Engaging in project plan prior to defining the charter.
• Importance of review/approval gates in organization.
• Focusing on improvement without baselining what need to be improved and today's status.
• Training to project managers on project management practices for various size of project.
• Difference between skills of seasonal PM & occasional PM not recognized.
• Unique set of problem of organization like multitasking, resource shortage, work definition detailing, skill level of resources.
• One standard project lifecycle for all size, type of project and all type of customers. Not giving enough time in understanding existing lifecycles & processes and tailoring them as per the project and customer need.
• No lesson learned are document or they are not documented in such a way or kept at such a place from where it can not be easily available to right people.
• Detailed exhaustive process, assets library but not usable because processes may not be scalable, fit for big or small projects only, cannot be managed throughout the life cycle.
• Processes focus on what need to be done not on who, when, where & how.

• PMO services not used: PM do not know what they do not know, even if PM know they do not accept. I am doing my best nobody can do more than this attitude. I do not want anybody except more project staff.
• Lack of executive support: There may be many reason for this except to make this function dysfunctional. Not addressing issues and keeping a dysfunctional function
• PMO is working purely as policeman / auditor: They are there to share their experience to that project can take smooth ride.
• Focus on Metrics: PMO is burdened with work like data collection, process defining, compiling metrics etc. And does not have eye on project risk and issues or does not use their experience to address the risks.
• Ineffective Resource Management: Static resource allocation. No skill upgradation. Not able to estimate resources required. Not able to verify the status of work accomplished against actual work done.
• Unable to establish their ROI: Management can see the expenses incurred on PMO staff, but they are not shown the value added by PMO