PMOs Moving Up the Ladder: Blessing or Curse?

June 8, 2009 | by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Our PMO Award winner and finalists had their day in the sun in Boston, and the brief case studies of their achievements have been posted on the PM Solutions website, for those of you who weren't able to be with us at the awards ceremony.

It's an interesting thing about these case studies; this is the fourth year we have sponsored this award, and each year I've pulled together a story from the application materials, checked with the PMO Director, and gone straight to press with it ... oh, but how things have changed in 2009!

This year each of the case studies went though more than one level of review at the PMOs' companies - from legal to PR, and up the chain to VPs of various stripes, our humble few pages of copy were vetted, critiqued, corrected and revised. At first this just frustrated me, but then I realized: for the first time in the award's history, the upper echelons actually care what is being said about the PMO.

And that, my friends, is progress.

Yet ... weigh in here, project managers ... although PMs have for decades said they wanted greater visibility in the organization and more executive involvement ... now that this is a reality in many companies, I'd bet that visibility is a two-edged sword. Yes, you get the praise and maybe even the funding you deserve. But the presentation of Paul Ritchie's quoted in yesterday's post from Kent Crawford tells another side of the story: visibility also means being held accountable for our lapses, and scrutinized on factors we perhaps had not even thought of.

I'll be interested to hear from those of you who find themselves visible ... and nervous ... as well as those who are basking in the spotlight.

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