Components of a PMO - Part 5 - Content
This is part 5 of a series of blog posts in which I look at the components of a PMO and give you a pragmatic way to increase your PMO success and improve your PM maturity.
The final and in my opinion the most important component of each and every Project Management Office is the Content.
By Content I am not referring to the content of your team meeting agenda or the content of your requirements document. Instead, I am referring to the Content that shapes and defines your PMO:
- Policies
- Procedures
- Templates
- Usage Guidelines
- PM Processes
- PM Methodologies
- Etc.
In short: Content is everything that defines the How and What of your organization's project management framework. Defining the Content of your PMO is going to take up a lot of time during the original setup of your PMO. You will have to answer questions like:
- What is our document management policy?
- What does our project charter template look like?
- Where do we store our project templates?
- How do we report project status to management?
- How often does a PM send a status report?
The answers to these and hundreds of similar questions will become the Content of your PMO. Once written down they are also referred to as "Content Assets". These Content Assets are first used to institutionalize your PMO and then drive project execution.