White Papers

BRANDS OF PMO GLOBAL ALLIANCE

The PMO Global Alliance brands, PMO VALUE RING, PMO-CC, PMO-CP, PMO-CT, and associated logos
and symbols are licensed and protected by copyright, and any change, modification or use without the
prior authorization of PMO GLOBAL ALLIANCE is completely forbidden.

SOFTWARE PMO VALUE RING

PMO Global Alliance is the sole developer and sole proprietor of the PMO VALUE RING software. Copyright
2015 - 2017, All Rights Reserved.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The PMO VALUE RING method is licensed under a Creative Commons - 4.0 International License. This
license permits its use and creation of derivative content, when licensed under identical terms, even for
commercial purposes and, provided that due credit is attributed to PMO Global Alliance.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For more information or questions about this document, the PMO Global Alliance,
PMO VALUE RING or the methodology, please contact:

Matters relating to PMO Global Alliance

customercare@pmoga.com

Matters relating to PMO VALUE RING and its Methodology

customercare@pmovaluering.com

This document was last updated on April 11, 2017.

White Papers

How to align the PMO with stakeholders’

expectations

How an innovative model will help your PMO assess the needs of its stakeholders and
define the best functions to meet their expectations.
It is very common to find PMOs performing functions that do not fit the expectations of
their stakeholders, apparently showing little commitment to generating effective results
and creating value. Thus, these PMOs quickly lose support because they fail to generate
perceived value for their stakeholders and organizations.
The PMO can be seen as a kind of "service provider" in which it has stakeholders with
specific needs. Within these stakeholders, we can name, for example, executives,
project managers, functional managers, and team members, each with their own
demands and expectations.
The most important question shared by a significant portion of PMO leaders is: Are the
functions of our PMOs truly generating value for our stakeholders? The answer to this
key question is not as simple as it may seem.
Are PMOs really generating perceived value for their stakeholders?
At first, asking the stakeholders directly what functions they expect the PMO to perform
may seem like a good idea, but unfortunately the "PMO language" is not the same as
that spoken by its stakeholders. While the PMO talks about "what functions should be
performed," stakeholders say "what benefits and results interest me and my
organization."
Therefore, the answer to this dilemma would be to speak the same language as the PMO
stakeholders, focusing on benefits and results.
The PMO VALUE RING methodology presents, in its first step, a model that was created
to help define the PMO's priority functions, considering the expectations of its
stakeholders. This step will support PMO function prioritization, considering stakeholder
needs, based on the experience of mature PMO leaders.
Speak the language of your stakeholders, focused on benefits and results.
A senior executive could say that one of his priorities would be to better control projects,
but he would rarely say how best to achieve that objective.
Could implementing a methodology in project management improve project control?
Does supporting project planning contribute to more effective project control? Finally,
which set of functions could be performed by the PMO to maximize the possibility of
generating these benefits expected by its stakeholders?

1
White Papers

The answer lies in identifying cause and effect relationships between functions and
benefits. The probability that each PMO function has of generating the benefits
expected by its stakeholders.
The success of the PMO also involves its continued ability to readjust and reconfigure
itself.
From surveys with 288 experienced PMO leaders and interviews with 84 PMO
stakeholders, we have proposed two lists: The 26 potential PMO functions, and the 30
potential benefits expected by the PMO stakeholders. After that, we conducted a survey
with PMO leaders to understand their perceptions about the correlations between PMO
functions and PMO benefits.
The first step in applying this benchmarking model to a specific PMO is identifying its
stakeholders and their individual priorities in terms of expected benefits , by using the
list of the 30 potential benefits mentioned above. Based on this information, the model
will be able to suggest the relevance of each function to meet the benefit expectations
of the stakeholders.
The first functions are supposed to contribute the most to the benefits expected by the
PMO stakeholders, while those at the end of the table are the ones that have the least
contribution potential.
These relevancies will support the prioritization and definition of the mix of PMO
functions.
Since each PMO has different stakeholders with different benefit expectations, we can
conclude that the relevance will be different in each case, resulting in different priorities
for each PMO and different mix of functions.
It is important to note that each function has a probability of meeting the expectations
informed by the PMO stakeholders. By selecting only a few of these functions into the
mix, a new total probability of meeting these expectations will be reached.
This indicator is called "Adherence to Stakeholder Expectations," and the higher its rate,
the greater the likelihood of stakeholders perceiving the value of a PMO.
Another important factor to consider is the complexity of keeping the PMO aligned with
expectations, since the organization and its stakeholders are always changing depending
on business scenarios, strategic decisions, or simply by the evolution of the maturity of
its stakeholders.
All of these factors will, over time, directly affect the needs of the PMO stakeholders.
The best way to avoid failure is to understand that this process of transformation is
natural and continuous.
The success of a PMO is not only related to its ability to understand who its stakeholders
are, their expectations and how to serve them, but also the ability to create clear
benefits and generate perceived value.

2
White Papers

The greater the PMO's ability to meet the needs of stakeholders, the greater the
perceived value they hold over the PMO.
This model is one of the steps of PMO VALUE RING, an innovative methodology and
benchmarking tool for creating, evaluating, and managing PMOs.
PMO VALUE RING has been developed in collaboration with experienced PMO leaders
from around the world, and more than 4,500 professionals in 65 countries have been
using it.

3
www.pmoga.com