In some organizations, the project management office turns out more rules, regulations and forms than the IRS. The anal retentive, nit pickers in the Project Management Office want to correct all project work, challenge every assumption and risk but be responsible for nothing. What is often the result is the PMO drives projects underground. Efforts that would normally be called Projects are now renamed and called; task forces, study groups, committees or water cooler meetings in a desperate attempt to avoid the bureaucracy of the Project Management Office.
In other organizations, the project office teaches a lean, scalable methodology that everyone can use. It gathers data is data, resolves resource conflicts and gives top management a high level view of the state and status of all projects. This is a far more valuable project office but also a difficult one to implement, as we need to fight off the "Big Brother" mentality that often surrounds the PMO.
What kind of project office do you have and how does it work
