PMI PMOCP cheat sheet

Authority-based PMO typology: supportive/consultative (low control), controlling (compliance required at defined gates), directive (PMO owns delivery and project managers report to it).

Structural options: centralized, decentralized/embedded, federated or hybrid, and virtual; selection is driven by business-unit autonomy, geographic dispersion, and portfolio complexity.

Scope ladder: project office → program/portfolio office → enterprise PMO; each step widens governance reach and raises operating cost, so scope must match mandate.

PMO charter minimum content: mandate, scope boundaries, authority level, service catalog, reporting line, funding model, performance measures, and review date.

Design sequence: stakeholder needs → value proposition → functions → processes → sizing and skills → performance measures → implementation roadmap.

Funding models: overhead cost center, chargeback per project or per service, and subscription; chargeback raises cost transparency and value scrutiny at higher administrative cost.

Decision rights precede templates: assign who decides, who recommends, and who is consulted for each governance decision before standardizing reports or forms.

RACI rule: exactly one accountable party per activity; the PMO is typically accountable for governance processes and standards, while delivery accountability stays with the project manager.

Service catalog linkage rule: every service maps to at least one documented stakeholder need and one performance measure; unmapped services are candidates for removal.

Sequence rule: baseline the current state - OPM maturity, existing PMO services, stakeholder satisfaction - before designing or redesigning any PMO element.

Maturity models in common use: P3M3 (five levels, awareness to optimized), OPM3 (standardize–measure–control–improve), CMMI; all produce a staged score, not a pass/fail.

Power/interest grid quadrants: manage closely (high power, high interest), keep satisfied (high power, low interest), keep informed (low power, high interest), monitor (low power, low interest).

Salience model attributes: power, legitimacy, urgency; stakeholders holding all three are definitive and take engagement priority.

Data triangulation rule: confirm each assessment finding with at least two independent sources - interviews, surveys, document review, workshops, or benchmarking.

Gap formula: gap = desired capability level − current capability level; rank gaps by impact × feasibility of closure.

Importance–performance analysis: rate each PMO service on importance and performance; high importance with low performance defines the improvement backlog.

Baseline KPI set: project success rate, schedule and budget variance, benefits realization percentage, stakeholder satisfaction score, PMO cost per project.

Scope gate: no new PMO function enters design without a documented stakeholder need and a measurable expected outcome.

Demand intake: one funnel with published screening criteria (strategic fit, value, risk, capacity); each request receives an approve, defer, or reject decision with recorded rationale.

Prioritization scoring: weighted criteria for strategic alignment, financial return, risk, and resource availability; weights are agreed before scoring and weighted totals are ranked.

RAID log fields: risk, assumption, issue, or dependency; description; owner; due date; status - reviewed at every governance cycle.

Governance cadence pattern: weekly delivery review, monthly portfolio review, quarterly benefits and strategy review; each tier has defined entry and exit criteria.

Escalation by exception: only threshold breaches and unresolved cross-project decisions reach senior sponsors; routine decisions stay at project level.

Reporting rule: dashboards carry a small set of headline metrics, each tied to a decision; PMIS data is the single source and no parallel report versions are maintained.

Capacity check: compare demand (FTE hours by skill per period) with supply; a persistent gap triggers re-prioritization, sourcing, or scope reduction.

PMO ROI formula: (quantified benefits − PMO operating cost) ÷ PMO operating cost; hard and soft benefits are reported separately.

Adoption sequencing: use ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) to order PMO communications, training, and reinforcement activities.

Benefits chain: output → outcome → benefit; each benefit in the register carries an owner, metric, baseline, target, and review date.

Leading indicators forecast (milestone adherence, risk closure rate); lagging indicators confirm (realized benefits, cost variance at closure); a value-oriented PMO reports both.

PDCA per service: each PMO service has an owner who runs Plan–Do–Check–Act on a defined cycle, so improvement is continuous rather than episodic.

Value stream mapping classifies each step as value-adding, enabling, or waste; waste steps are removed before new capacity is added.

Balanced scorecard perspectives applied to the PMO: stakeholder/customer, internal process, learning and growth, financial.

Perceived value gap: services rated high importance and low performance form the improvement backlog; services rated low importance are retirement candidates.

Retirement rule: a service whose perceived-value score or usage stays below the agreed threshold for two consecutive review cycles is redesigned or retired.

Financial measures: benefit-cost ratio = total benefits ÷ total costs (>1.0 favorable); NPV = discounted benefits minus discounted costs (positive = value added); payback = time until cumulative benefits equal costs.

Roadmap sequencing: low-effort, high-visibility improvements land inside the first 90 days to build credibility before multi-quarter capability builds.