I just ran into someone essentially doing PMO who called herself a "cross functional team lead".

I have to wonder how many PMOers get away with this stuff and have listeners actually believe them

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I mean much of being a lead is project management work. Status reporting and trackers not so much - but building execution plans, resourcing, and providing a vision are.

Frankly - sometimes having a good PM as a lead is better than someone with expertise - especially when you have people supporting who have the knowledge just lack direction.

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I see - in that case I’ll say per my second point there are situations when she could be valuable as connective tissue - but obviously if she’s just updating status reports then not so much.

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A great PMO has clear in mind what lies ahead and plans accordingly. Technical people know their stuff, but let's be honest they would spend the whole day looking at the ceiling if not for the PMO who pings telling them what to do.

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Lmao m2 this is in the context of a tech firm. PMO is a distant third, behind even bizops/strategy people, in terms of proximity to the revenue.

And looking at all the criticism of PMO being characterized sTrAtEgIc on FB, plenty would disagree with your premise even in non tech companies.

There's a huge difference between managers leading core biz related ops and PMO people (most PMO who make that their profession without the functional or technical background) who have no power and in fact answer to everyone else.

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I mean, it’s not really that far off…

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Just because someone is in a PMO role doesn’t mean they don’t have expertise outside of PMO. I mean I get what you’re saying about this person but that’s not a fair characterization of everyone doing PMO work

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Team lead is PMO regardless of how strategic the vision is

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Exactly, we’re debating semantics. I think there are far less team leads being strategic then we would be led to believe.

Heck if she’s a cross-functional pmo she’s definitely driving/steering change.

OP- it sounds like you need more work experience to understand that PMO can be a variety of things, with different responsibilities. In M&A the PMO leads cross functional teams, for multi billion $ deals. In many tech projects, PMO leads cross functional teams.

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Where is the lie though? That’s essentially what a PM does

likefunny

I've worked with some PMO who are cross-functional leads. I've also worked with PMO who only does PMO. It's dependent on the project, client/ department, and scope of work.

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The beauty of PMO roles is that you can kinda make it what you want depending on your skill set and your desire to get your hands a little dirty. I would say the same as your colleague did about myself

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PMO can mean a lot of things. Could strictly be managing a roster, status reports, etc., repeatable processes easily pushed offshore. Could also be driving the work, removing blockers, etc and having some cross functional understanding and client relationship management helps with that. Having strategic vision is cute and all but someone has to make it happen.

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I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re exaggerating what their role is, though many probably do.

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Most PMO people I'be dealt with are the essence of Consultants: They don't know how to do Anything but will tell you how to do Everything.

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Lots of people get away with this - some folks say they les a team in work (a team of 1, themselves) or the same way people on LinkedIn say they are “Angel Investors” because they put money to some go fund me project

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It’s a fine line. Both are interacting with the teams often and are keeping progress on track.

Of course, a true cross functional lead is far more literate in the technical and business specs and often has more of a hand in actually executing tasks, but how much is required before you’re no longer considered PMO?

Tbh I guess the oddest thing to me, more than anything, is that "team lead" implies that there are people who are direct reports to her. Having direct reports is supposed to come with serious decision-making responsibilities, expertise, and conflict management. But in our organization direct reports are ostensibly structured under tech leads and practice managers, and really have zero connection with this PMO person.

And the trouble is that I can see many PMO people marketing themselves as people with DRs when they don't actually have any.

Lol M2 this what I've gathered from everyone I've talked to who works in PMO. They all (sample size ~10, across multiple orgs and firms, and many more here on FB) complain about the boredom and lack of real influence and they liken it to being a Jira monkey.

Just look at the hundreds of posts on FB bashing PMO.

To be sure, I know it depends on the org, but the more influence someone has the more likely they are to be just managers (and called as such) who do PMO as part of their job but are truly designated as people who have direct reports and drive results.

Since when did the PMO profession full of recent grads with little to no experience actually supersede normal management pathways that do PMO anyway?

That’s what you’re supposed to do

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