About a three years ago, I took a job as a Senior Project Manager on a software design project involving health care delivery to rural Alaska. This project was just up my alley - I was the PM but I also got to be the systems architect and design the system and how to meet the users needs. I worked independently with a Steering Committee, managed my contractors and struggled with the overbearing, heavy-handed traditional project management methodology that the PMO had implemented. I did my best to assist the PMO Manager to promote project management best practices to the distributed Project Managers, but the methodology and associated requirements for project documentation was so onerous and overbearing the methodology was not well adopted. My attempts to "lighten the load" were met initially with scorn and later with some resignation. Eventually, the frustrated PMO Manager left and went to an organization with more acceptance of heavy documentation and prescriptive process, and people managed projects how ever they felt like.
In August of last year, my project's grant ended as did my position. at that time, the only position available was PMO Manager. While this was not a position I aspired to (I prefer a more technical role) I was asked to accept the position and if it didn't work out, I could consider a job move at a later date.
So I inherited a broken PMO, with one full-time PM, and a bunch of distributed PMs, none of who followed the existing, overbearing methodology. Nor did I.
