What is a PMO consultancy?

A consultancy is a business practice that provides expert advice to others. A PMO consultancy provides expert advice to organizations on setting up, running, troubleshooting, or closing Project Management Offices.

There are many reasons why a company may hire a PMO consultancy. They may feel they lack PMO expertise. They may need support and advice during a major transition, such as the adoption of agile practices or a PPM tool migration. They may simply want PMO advice from an impartial, third party.

The approach the PMO consultancy takes will depend on the engagement and the challenges that the organization faces, but they will typically include one or more of the following:

Capturing the Strategic advantage of Project Data

Review of current state running and a business needs assessment
An assessment of strengths and weakness of PMO Processes and capabilities
Making recommendations for improvement or organizational change
Providing support for the introduction of new processes, tools, or frameworks
Providing mentoring, coaching, and training to support people within the project delivery teams
Providing facilitation services to support objective setting and planning
Offer support and expert advice during transformation and periods of change

PMO consultancy vs. Project Management consultancy

While Project Management consultants are experts in project management, PMO consultants usually adopt a broader perspective. A PMO consultant will not only focus on project management frameworks but will also be able to advise on some or all of the following areas:

PPM tooling
Portfolio prioritization
Strategic planning
Alignment of corporate and project/programme governance
Alignment of finance and project processes
Alignment of HR and project processes

PMO Consultant vs. PMO Contractor

There is a key difference between a PMO consultant and a PMO contractor. A consultant’s job is to consult. They may offer advice or support but are not in charge of execution or responsible for project success.

The role of the PMO consultant is to enable the business and help give your employees the right tools to do these things on their own.

By comparison, PMO contractors are typically hired to fill an internal role, such as a PMO Analyst or PMO Manager.

The advantages of working with a PMO Consultancy

Understandably, many organizations wrestle with the decision of whether to hire a consultant. Incumbent managers may feel that bringing in external expertise would expose inadequacies in their running of the delivery organization. This kind of thinking is often unfounded and can hold organizations back from maximizing their full potential. Here are five reasons why bringing in a PMO consultant can take your delivery capability to the next level:

An Independent Objective Outsider's Perspective

You’ve worked at an organization for a while. You’ve worked hard for it, and you have a great bond with your colleagues. You believe in where the organization is heading. When you are this close to a business, it is often hard to avoid bias. Perhaps by being too close to the issues, you find it harder to see them clearly. Consultants, with a fresh pair of eyes, can often diagnose underlying issues relatively quickly.

Accomplishing Short-Term Goals

You want to change, but everyone is too busy simply getting the day job done. Perhaps the change you want to make requires different skill-sets to those you have in your delivery team or may require someone with more experience. Bringing in a consultant with experience can often actually end up saving both time and money – getting change implemented rapidly.

Bringing New Skills

PMO consultants are expected to keep up with the latest trends – everything from scaled agile frameworks to Robotic Process Automation, machine learning, and AI. A PMO Consultant can help you develop these capabilities within your own PMO team whilst helping senior managers understand the business cases that underpin them.

Company leaders can learn from consultants

Good project and agile delivery require good portfolio leadership. A PMO consultant can help leaders prioritize initiatives and shape business and project portfolio strategies from the top-down and bottom-up. But it is never simply about doing the analysis. Good consultants will work with leaders to embed the required skills, benefiting the project organization for years to come.

Consultants deliver results

The role of a PMO consultant is to help you achieve results that you aren’t likely to get without outside assistance. Good PMO consultants will work with you to set the right deliverables and milestones that will allow you to achieve your objectives and key results.

Want to know more?

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