Setup a Program Management Office
By Puneet Mathur, PMP
Program as defined in the PMI The
Standard of Program
Management 2nd EditionTM is a
group of related projects
managed in coordinated way to
obtain benefits and control not
available from managing them
individually.
A Program Management Office is
a structure to manage such
group of Programs and provide
the benefits and control as part
of organizations strategy. It is
different from a Project
Management Office since the
focus here is on Programs and at
a much higher level than that of
Projects.
In large organizations there is a
need to setup Program
Management Office due to the
following reasons:
1. Executive reporting of
Programs and projects
2. Alignment of Programs and
Projects to organization
strategy plan.
3. Governance around
Programs and projects
4. Centralized management
of Programs in a matrix
organization
5. Future Roadmap for
Program and projects
All or any of the above could call
for a need to setup Program
Management Office. Whatever
the need to setup a Program
Management Office there has to
be an Executive Sponsor who
would be the chief patron and
would provide support to its
inception or birth. On
identification of the need the
next logical step is to appoint a
Program Manager/Director who
would head the Office. The
Program Manager then assists the
executive sponsor to build the
framework for Governance,
management and reporting. In
some cases Program Manager
may also hire and recruit project
managers if they do not already
exist in the organization. We can
see the entire process in Figure 2
which starts with the need and
ends at building an 18 months
roadmap for the PMO. Although
this sounds very simple but the
journey of setting up a PMO is
quite arduous and can take up
anywhere from 12 to 18 months
depending upon the budget and
complexity of the organisation in
which the Program Management
Office is setup.
 2. Rollup of reporting from
Setup Program Management Office projects/components to
programs.
Appoint

Identify
Program
Manager
Setup
Governance
for PMO
3. Responsibility of project
Need for
PMO manager on component
reporting.
Setup 4. Responsibility of program
Build 18 Management
months
Roadmap
System manager reporting for
programs.
By Puneet Mathur, PMP 24/03/2010 5. Definitions of Traffic light
Figure 2. Process Program Management reporting for executive
Office
dash board.
After this the setting up 6. Common formats for
Governance is very key and vital reporting.
as it would set the pace for
7. Analysis of needs for
building the entire framework. To reporting for executives
setup governance the Program and key stakeholders.
manager should first know what Once the above are in place the
are the projects and programs program manager is all set to
running in the organization. Also is
publish the first governance
she may have to look at if there report for the program
exists a clear definition of what management office.
constitutes a project and a
program. Some organizations Later part of the process is to
have a good setup of Project setup a management system in
management methodologies order for the governance to flow.
however lack the program The management system involves
management methodology. defining how the escalation
Building a framework for Program would happen for Program and
management methodology may project organization and the
also be looked at as part of the performing organization. The
governance process. Project and Governance only provides alerts
program management on project/program performance
framework are some of the for the stakeholders, however the
prerequisites for setting up the actions have to be taken through
governance process. A good a well oiled management system.
governance system for program So unless the functional hierarchy
management office should have is clearly defined the flow of
the following : governance would not happen.
1. Periodic reporting from The subsequent part of the
Projects/components on process comes into play only
triple constraints. when the governance and
management system are
integrated and are in sync with
each other. So after that the
logical step is to build an 18
month roadmap for the program
management office allowing the
executive sponsor and key
stakeholders a view of the major
milestones and deliverables. Even
more mature program
management offices look at
building an audit structure for
projects/components and
programs at a high level. They
could also look at creating the
Benefit realization plans and
Financial reporting plans.
Some people have asked me as
to what is the ideal time of setting
up a Program management
office. This varies and depends on
the size of organization and size
of projects/programs that are to
be the scope of the Program
Management office. A typical
cycle could last for 12 months
and could be customized to
setup key components that the
executive sponsor wishes to see
as part of the Office setup.