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PMO set-up
Are you looking for a PMO to be set up — and set up properly?
A capital programme approved without a controls function. A portfolio that has outgrown its spreadsheets. A joint venture with two sets of reporting. A project already in recovery. If the honest answer to “who holds the single, reconciled view?” is “nobody yet”, you need a project management office — and the first ninety days decide whether it becomes a control function or an administration desk.
We design and mobilise the PMO as one controlled operating system: the charter and operating model, the governance and gates, the integrated controls with their management plans, the reporting cycle, overlays for your contract form, sector and country, and a ready-to-use folder structure with its templates — built on recognised standards and handed over to your people.
The diagnostic runs in your browser: 63 controls, scored as in PCA-154. Nothing is sent or tracked.How it is built
One operating system, not a box of templates
The PMO is deployed as one controlled system: a charter and operating model, governance tiers from the investment board to the work package, management plans and registers, one monthly reporting cycle, and overlays for your contract form, sector and country. Your organisation moves through it in six steps.
- Diagnose
Measure what is in place: the controls, the evidence behind them and the gaps, scored before anything is designed.
PCA-154 · PCA-048 - Stabilise
Close the critical gaps first, through a funded roadmap and a ninety-day mobilisation.
PCA-168 · PCA-008 - Control
Management plans for cost, schedule, risk, change and configuration, run on one monthly cycle.
PCA-146 to PCA-149 · PCA-178 · PCA-039 - Integrate
One portfolio view: common coding, one data governance plan, one executive decision pack each month.
PCA-151 · PCA-020 · PCA-044 - Assure
Your PMO and functions run health checks, gate reviews and specialist controls assurance, and close every finding to evidence.
PCA-027 · PCA-153 - Optimise
Lessons, benchmarks and the improvement backlog feed the next controlled release of the standard.
PCA-049 · PCA-166 · PCA-007
The completeness of the framework and the maturity of your organisation are measured separately: maturity is earned through operating evidence, consistency and verification, not because templates have been handed over. The assurance at step five is your second line. Independent assurance of a PMO we have set up always comes from someone else.
The PMO diagnostic
How well does your PMO work in practice?
63 controls from the PCA-154 maturity standard, in 21 disciplines. For each one, say whether it applies, then rate three things from 0 to 5: how established it is, how strong the evidence is and how consistently it operates. The lowest of the three is what counts. The result places your organisation on the six steps above and sets out the actions in order.
This is a self-assessment, not a certification or an assurance opinion. A high score does not outweigh a critical gap, and the windows in the roadmap are indicative. Choose one scope — the organisation, a programme or a project — and keep to it throughout.
How the scoring works
Each applicable control earns its weight times its effective level, which is the lowest of the three ratings. Mandatory controls carry a weight of 3 and conditional ones 2, as in PCA-154. A control left unanswered, or marked “not sure”, stays in the total and earns nothing. “Not applicable” removes a control only with a reason, and only as a proposal to be reviewed.
0 means not assessed, 1 ad hoc, 2 designed, 3 implemented, 4 measured, and 5 sustained and assured. Templates alone do not reach level 3: a control has to operate and leave a record.
The score places you on the journey: Diagnose below 30, Stabilise from 30, Control from 55, Integrate from 75, Assure from 90 and Optimise from 98. The step is shown only once every control is resolved.
Your answers stay in this browser. Nothing is sent, recorded or tracked. “Save on this device” keeps a copy in this browser only. A downloaded file includes your notes, so keep confidential detail out of them.
What is set up
Eighteen functions, in four service lines
Each function is given a named owner, a procedure in the PMO Handbook, a register or system of record, and a fixed folder. Depth is tailored to the size, risk and regulatory exposure of the portfolio, and every tailoring decision is written down.
Strategy and portfolio
- Portfolio management: intake, prioritisation, capacity
- Business case and benefits
- Governance and assurance: boards, gates, delegated authority
Planning and controls
- Scope, WBS and requirements
- Planning and scheduling: the integrated master schedule
- Cost estimating and control, earned value
- Risk and quantitative risk analysis
- Change control
- Issues, actions and decisions
- Performance reporting
Delivery enablement
- Commercial and procurement
- Quality management
- HSE and sustainability
- Resources and capability
- Stakeholders and communications
Knowledge, information and improvement
- Information and document control
- Lessons learned and knowledge
- Methods, tools and training — the Centre of Excellence
Core
The mandatory standard and its templates, issued to every project.
Supported
PMO staff help project teams apply the standard and produce the outputs.
Delivered
PMO staff perform the function for the project — normal on capital projects for planning, cost and document control.
Every function can be bought at one of three levels, so the charter pays for what the portfolio actually needs — and adds levels as capacity grows. We design and mobilise the PMO, lead it through its first ninety days and hand it over; the team that runs it at Supported or Delivered level is yours, recruited or seconded with our help.
One standard, local compliance
Choosing the model
Supportive, controlling or directive
The authority a PMO holds is a decision, not an accident. It is set in the charter for each portfolio and reviewed every year. Most organisations working across several sites or countries run a controlling hub — permanent standards and assurance at the centre, temporary project offices on each asset — and hold directive capability in reserve for recovery.
| Model | Control | What it does | Use when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supportive | Low | Templates, training, lessons, administration | Experienced teams, low risk |
| Controlling | Medium | Mandates methods, reviews compliance, consolidates reporting | Mixed capability; group-wide reporting needed |
| Directive | High | Owns and manages the projects directly | Recovery, high-risk capital, new markets, weak local capability |
Mobilisation
The first ninety days
Thirty-two actions in four phases, each phase closing at a gate the executive sponsor signs. The PMO does not move on with a gate's criteria unmet.
| Days | Phase | What is put in place | Evidence at the gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – 10 | Establish ownership | Sponsor and PMO lead appointed; PMO type and authority confirmed; draft charter; inventory of every live and proposed project; interim reporting template and cut-off; the folder structure built on your platform; the P3M3 baseline scheduled | Named owners, portfolio register, top exceptions, interim reporting agreed |
| 11 – 30 | Stabilise controls | First project health reviews; baseline gaps recorded; common IDs, cut-off and minimum dataset; opening cost position reconciled; tolerances and authority map approved; charter signed | Signed opening position, gaps assigned, reporting calendar |
| 31 – 60 | Operate one full cycle | Integrated cost and programme reviews; first validated portfolio dashboard; portfolio board held; recovery plans for red projects; duplicate reports retired; Handbook and Service Catalogue issued | Reconciled portfolio report, decision and action records |
| 61 – 90 | Prove and improve | Second reporting cycle; source-to-dashboard traceability tested; change approvals and risk releases sampled; permanent organisation and funding agreed; service levels measured | Sponsor acceptance of the PMO, priority gaps closed, funded resource plan |
The folder structure
Ready on day one — and the same everywhere
Two parts: a permanent PMO library, and a standard project template copied for every project. Folder numbers never change, so every project in every country files the same item in the same place, and an auditor knows where to look before opening anything.
Start with PCA-180, the Start Here guide at the top of the library. Only PCA-numbered controlled masters are listed here; reference material is held apart and never presented as a PCA master, and a project's working copy never changes the corporate master. The library is released under change control (PCA-177), and this page is checked against it before it changes.
Rules that keep it working
- Folder numbers never change. Where a function does not apply, the folder stays, with a one-line “not applicable” note, so an audit can see it was considered.
- A project folder is the project code and a short name —
PRJ-0042_Utilities_Upgrade. Country folders use ISO 3166 codes: GBR, IRQ, SAU. - File names follow one numbering convention, with the revision in the name and the status in the metadata.
- Working drafts live in the document system or team workspace; only issued revisions are filed here.
- Access is by role: governance, cost and legal are restricted, and joint-venture folders are partner-restricted.
- At the final gate the project folder is locked read-only and moved to the archive, with its retention date recorded.
Works on the platform you already have
SharePoint and Teams, Aconex, ProjectWise or a plain file server. The structure, the numbering and the coding are set by the PMO and do not depend on any one tool. Tools are chosen by function — scheduling, cost, risk, documents, reporting — never the other way round.
The templates are written in English, the default working language of the PMO unless a joint venture or local law requires otherwise.
Standards
Built on recognised standards, not a house method
The ISO 21500 family is the neutral spine. Method detail comes from PMI and PeopleCert, competence from APM and IPMA, and capital-project rigour from AACE and government practice. No single method is imposed on your projects: the PMO mandates outcomes, controls and evidence, and lets each project tailor a method within them.
| Standard | What the PMO takes from it |
|---|---|
| ISO 21500, 21502, 21503, 21504, 21505 | Shared vocabulary; project, programme and portfolio practice; governance and decision rights |
| ISO 21508 earned value management | Earned value method and measures, monthly at control-account level |
| PMBOK Guide, eighth edition (PMI) | Performance domains and process detail, including PMO and AI guidance |
| PRINCE2 7, MSP, P3O (PeopleCert) | Management by stages and exception, tolerances, programme benefits, PMO models and service catalogue |
| P3M3 maturity model | A measured baseline, and the route to Level 3 |
| APM Body of Knowledge, eighth edition; IPMA ICB 4 | Project controls practice, and the competence standard for the PMO's people |
| GovS 002 Project delivery | Senior Responsible Owner accountability and the assurance model |
| AACE 18R-97 and front-end loading | Estimate classes 5 to 1, gated definition before the final investment decision |
| ISO 31000, ISO 19650 | One risk process across the portfolio; information management on capital projects |
Who does the work
Built by someone whose recurring work has been recovery
Recovering an overrun site capital portfolio at a vaccine manufacturer by building its PMO and project-control environment from scratch; building the project and risk management systems across a circa $200m API capital portfolio; and establishing the programme and project management processes, and the interface protocols between infrastructure, brownfield, greenfield and operations, for a joint venture running a multi-billion-dollar rehabilitation programme in southern Iraq.
Thirty years in capital delivery across life sciences, oil and gas, energy and infrastructure. PMP. Primavera P6 hands-on. Based in Cheshire; site presence during mobilisation is agreed at the outset.
Set-up and assurance are kept apart
The PMO we set up is your second line: it manages and reports on your organisation's work. Independent assurance is the third line, and it only means something if it is not marking its own work.
So we do not provide independent assurance on any project or portfolio where we have set up the PMO. If you want both, one of them goes to someone else — and we say so at the outset.
Questions
PMO set-up — common questions
How long does it take to set up a PMO?
The first monthly report across the portfolio is issued within 90 days, and the standard is normally embedded across all projects within six months. Reaching P3M3 Level 3 — one defined process across the whole organisation — typically takes 12 to 18 months.
Do we need to buy PMO software first?
No. The folder structure, numbering, coding and templates work on the platform you already have — SharePoint, Aconex, ProjectWise or a file server. Tools are chosen afterwards, by function, and the data model stays owned by the PMO rather than by a vendor.
What kind of PMO do we need?
That depends on the authority the PMO needs to hold. A supportive PMO provides templates and training; a controlling PMO mandates methods and consolidates reporting; a directive PMO manages the projects. The PMO diagnostic on this page shows where the controls are weakest, which is where the PMO needs authority first, and the charter records the decision.
Can you set up a PMO for a joint venture or across several countries?
Yes. The rule is one standard with local compliance: the controls, data definitions and gates are identical everywhere, and a country overlay records every local deviation — law, permits, local content, tax, security and language. Joint-venture approval stages are mapped to the PMO's gates, so there is one decision rather than two, and one reporting pack rather than two.
Is this the same as your independent assurance service?
No. Setting up a PMO is a separate engagement; the PMO it creates is your second line. Independent assurance is third line and reports to the sponsor from outside the project. We do not do both on the same project or portfolio.
Is it just a set of templates?
No. The templates are the evidence that the system exists, not the system itself. Each function has an owner, a procedure, a register and a reporting route; overlays adapt it to your contract form, sector and country; and the library is released under change control, so a project's working copy never changes the standard everyone else uses.
How is a PMO funded?
One of three ways, stated in the charter: as a central overhead, as a percentage charge on project budgets, or as a fee for each service. A capital project PMO is normally funded within the project's approved indirect costs.
Contact
Start with what you have
The most useful first conversation is thirty minutes on the portfolio as it is: how many projects, what they report today, and what the board cannot currently see.
enquiry@projectcentralassurance.com
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