Most people hear “PMO” and think, “the project group that tracks status and sends reports.” Project Portfolio Management Office (PPMO) is different.
The best PPMOs operate as a fully integrated service, combining the structure and execution discipline of a PMO with the portfolio-level leadership and resource visibility essential to executing your strategy at scale. They see the whole picture of work, not just individual projects.
Instead of only asking, “How are the projects going?”, a PPMO asks: “Are we doing the right work, in the right order, with the capacity we actually have?”
That one shift responsibility a lot.
How a PPMO is different from a PMO
You can have a solid PMO and still have portfolio chaos and system constraints.
A typical PMO:
- Manage project managers
- Helps set up projects
- Create templates and polices compliance
- Reports status to executives
That is useful, but it often sits downstream from the real struggle, which is “How can we maintain balance across the portfolio and operations, without loosing momentum?”
A PPMO walks upstream:
- It has a voice in what gets started, not just how it runs
- It works closely with finance and strategy, not only IT or operations
- It looks to reduce overhead, increase throughput, and deliver better strategy outcomes at scale?
Simple way to say it:
Implement a PMO model to manage projects.
Implement a PPMO model to manage the system of projects in service to business growth.
When you know you need a PPMO
You will feel the need before you use the term.
Common signs:
- Too many number one priorities
- Good ideas get started then stall because teams are buried
- Leaders argue about priorities using opinion, not a shared view of the work
- People complain about “initiative fatigue” and nothing ever seems to finish
- Strategy reviews and project reviews feel disconnected
At that point, this is not a “we need better project managers” problem.
It is a portfolio problem.
One simple test
Here is a quick test you can use in your next leadership meeting:
“Can we, through pane of glass, see all major work in flight, who owns it, how it is progressing, roughly what it costs, what is coming in, and what we would stop if we added something new?” “Can we get to the details just as fast?”
If the answer is no or the room gets quiet, you do not just need more PM hygiene.
You need a fully functioning PPMO. Whether you call it a PPMO or something else, someone has to own that job.
Dive deeper into the project portfolio management of a PPMO.
