Analyzing PMO and Management Systems with Agency Theory & CMMI

This essay examines the differences between a Project Management Office (PMO) and a regular management system, focusing on the PMO's role in transition management, organizational structure, and other processes. It leverages Agency Theory to identify stakeholders and manage conflicts, and the CMMI framework for consistent monitoring and performance improvement. The essay highlights the PMO's significance in providing an objective viewpoint, facilitating policy decisions, and resolving day-to-day problems, ultimately contributing to an organization's ability to achieve its goals effectively. It concludes that PMOs are integral for planning, policy making, and swift problem-solving.

Question
"Also PMO can be internal to a program or external; there can be multiple PMO’s working in
a single program.” Is the first statement, another statement says that “there are lots of
varieties of PMO’s, some are small and managed by single individuals and others are quite
large with multiple layers of management and support along with “Bench of PM’s”.
Examine the difference between a regular management system and PMO under the light of
the above two statements. We are aware of the fact that PMO is a complex exercise, what is
its significance in certain organizational functions like “transition management,
organizational structure, and other processes. Please explain your answer under the concepts
of “Agency Theory” and CMMI framework.”
Answer
The difference between PMO and Regular Management system
On the merit of the Size and roles of PMO in an organization
The primary difference between a PMO and management system is related to the output of
the actions that they are taking respectively. PMO can be an addition to the main system.
Smaller organizations prefer to enable a part of their team to function as a PMO. Many
organizations prefer to install a separate PMO with an intention to keep a check on the
growth and other prospects of an organization (Jose, 2016).
When we cast a look upon the management systems from the viewpoint of a PMO, we find
that management teams generally work to achieve a repetitive output from given resources.
PMO on the fixes the route for the operation facilities and integrate the functioning of all the
departments that are working under a singular umbrella to achieve organizational goals.

The enabler of transition management and operational profile changes
The concepts like transition management and others make an entry in the processes when the
policy makers and planners want to alter the outputs or fix a new standard for the outputs. For
a better understanding, we can also say that PMO is an office with an advantage point where
managers can have a look at the processes with objectivity and control them for the best
output in the terms of quality and volume (Salameh, 2015) .
CMMI acts as a tool of consistent monitoring
In terms of the organizational structure, we can place PMO as an intermediary link between
the operation management teams and Policymakers. The CMMI model ensures penetration of
command for the PMO where it can monitor the operations with the help of quality and
quantity based indicators. In the case of the failure in achieving an indicator or
underperformance of the system, PMO can define; Key Performance Areas or KPI’s to direct
an operational team. CMMI model ensures that operations of an organization are heading
towards gaining the status of “a project on autopilot.” After the achievement of this status,
with the help of CMMI, a PMO can raise the bar of the achievements and standards for the
operational team (Verma, 2016).
Agency theory to identify the stakeholders and conflict management
Agency theory is a framework that enables a PMO to identify the stakeholders and define
their roles in the operational facility. The organizational structure and the organizational
power matrices enable a PMO to understand the conflicts that may occur in the operational
management teams because of proximity-based myopia or sometimes because of the policy
based myopia. The agency theory can act as a model where PMO can redesign various
responsibility matrixes and introduce a lean and mean reporting culture. The agency theory

also enables a PMO to stay connected with the loop of the feedbacks and allow them to come
up with the right injunctions with the help of right transition management techniques (Kiema,
2014).
Conclusion
PMO is an integral part of an organization or operational facility. Every organization needs a
team that can act as PMO and has a look at the proceedings from an objective point of view.
They can take all the policy based decisions and collect the feedbacks more actively.
Planning and policy making is a slow process, it requires a long term vision and a futuristic
understanding based upon PESTALS and other analysis. A PMO can take swift actions to
resolve day to day problems and come up with short term policies.
Bibliography
Jose, A. (2016). Project Management Office (PMO):Typologies and Models. MGI,
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b154/eac18d837cee74f2be80344a8cd417d19f45.pdf.
Kiema, K. (2014). The Effect of Project Management Office Role in the Delivery of
Technology. Internaional Jounral of Humanities and Social Science ,
http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_4_No_3_February_2014/20.pdf.
Salameh, H. (2015). A Framework to Establish a Project Management Office . European
Journal of Business & Management ,
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6d58/3dfc9317d8ec694dc76bca1de49b8692a16a.pdf.
Verma, E. (2016). The Difference Between Project Management and General Operations
Management. Simply Learn , https://www.simplilearn.com/project-management-vs-
general-operations-management-article.