What Is an EPMO? (Enterprise PMO)

In the past 10 years , we’ve seen an explosion in EPMO, both as a method and a profession. Now, businesses are gearing up for the next wave of advancement, as experts predict a faster-growing demand for this position than workers in other roles . But what is EPMO and why does your company need it? We’ll explain all this and more by answering some of your most-asked questions about EPMO, project management , and the tools you need to maximize your investment. Keep reading to discover everything from practical definitions to actionable best practices.

What does Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) mean?

An Enterprise Project Management Office is a strategic and administrative group that assists project managers with ongoing projects at large organizations. In addition to coming up with tactics to increase productivity, they’ll help ensure that all the technical aspects of each assignment are uniform and organized. Some common roles and responsibilities of an enterprise project management office include:

The term EPMO is also used to describe program or portfolio management offices. Program management offices complete many of the same duties as enterprise project management offices, except they also oversee all projects simultaneously. Project management offices also act as a liaison between project managers and project stakeholders, providing useful data, status updates, and reports when needed.

Portfolio management offices, on the other hand, take an even broader view. This team makes sure that each department’s practices align with goals for all projects. They often manage the entire organization’s portfolio of projects (hence the name), but they also provide support for teams along the way.

PMO vs. EPMO: what is the difference?

In the past decade, businesses have been learning about and adopting project management as a standard business practice with great success. But as this fledgling industry continues to blossom, so too must our understanding of where it’s going. While PMO has greatly helped many organizations, EPMO is the way of the future.

Project management offices and enterprise project management offices have one key theme among all their differences: perspective. While PMOs are on the ground taking care of day-to-day activities, EPMOs have a high-level view of the project.

In real life, this can look like a PMO deciding the project needs more funding to succeed, whereas an EPMO may decide that the project spend no longer benefits the business’s main objectives and needs to be readjusted instead. In other words, PMOs look out for their project, and EPMOs look out for the business at large.

Here are some important things EPMOs do that PMOs don’t:

Thanks to their unique perspective, EPMOs can see more, do more, and act more to benefit the organization as a whole than traditional PMOs can.

Does your company need an EPMO?

If your company plans to continue using project management or will soon adopt this method and positions, then yes, you need an EPMO. In an article for CIO, Moira Alexander explains that PMO effectiveness is measured by connecting the dots between project and business objectives, which is what EPMOs do. But instead of just proving a particular assignment fits within the parameters, EPMOs go a step further to ensure proper resource usage, goal alignment, and team performance are all working together.

What are the benefits of an EMPO?

What are the common challenges of an EPMO?

1. Visibility

The term "visibility" refers to how easily team members and stakeholders can view project-related data. EPMOs often deal with diverse teams that are spread out all over the country or the world. Battling different time zones, multiple email chains, and updating those left out of the loop of conversations they need to be part of makes it challenging to keep everyone up to speed.

Staying informed on key updates through visible project channels can help decrease duplicate feedback, shine a spotlight on redundant tasks, and ensure more hands on deck to notice issues before they come up.

Proper visibility also saves time by streamlining communication. For example, instead of emailing or pinging your team for reports, stakeholders can access their view of the project materials and get what they need instantly without all the back and forth.

2. Hierarchy and buy-in

Establishing a new chain of command can take some time for teams to adopt. If they’re used to going to the COO directly or have a system in place that promotes siloed work, the shift will be significant. Once an EPMO joins the team, their role is to act as the liaison between teams and C-level executives. The EPMO will often address comments and resolve issues on their own unless approval is needed for the task . To establish the EPMO as the touchpoint for communications, they’ll need to coordinate with the following:

If teams cannot adopt the new process with speed and enthusiasm, there may be some stumbling blocks during the transition.

3.Misalignment

One of the most important jobs of an EPMO is to find alignment between every project and business goal. But it’s not just about connecting the dots between two ideas. It also means getting the rest of the employees, processes, and established tools involved in alignment. And don’t forget to have a forecasted ROI that is accurate and worthwhile for the business at large.

At any given time, there may be more than a dozen ongoing and on/off projects that affect company spending and overall productivity. Not only will an EPMO have to perform an audit of existing project systems, but they’ll also have to create a method for either checking alignment or empowering others to do so through detailed guidelines.

EPMO best practices

The best EPMO framework includes a balance of outcome-focused strategy and management. Whether you’re hiring someone or working with an EPMO software, you’ll need to check all the following boxes:

What are the roles and responsibilities of an EPMO?

EPMOs are in charge of deciding which projects are approved based on what value they’re predicted to generate and whether or not that value supports big picture goals. As process consulting manager Arvind Rathore puts it, “the emphasis is on doing more with less, and organizations want to review every dollar spent more than they have done in the past.”

They also act as both a mentor and a manager for project managers, keeping the entire team on the same path even if they’re working on different assignments. And when it comes to managing resources and creating standard practices, it’s up to the EPMO to oversee it all.

What does an EPMO project manager do?

Open job listings for EPMO project managers on Google Jobs and ZipRecruiter often include the following requirements for EPMO project managers, which clearly explains what they do:

Why use UDN Task Manager as your EPMO?

UDN Task Manager is experienced in helping enterprise companies overcome common project management challenges , including all the complex responsibilities EPMO project managers deal with on a daily basis. Here’s how:

Ditch old school project management methods

The foundation of project management got us to where we are today, but as we continue to advance our understanding of these practices, it makes sense why new and improved methods like EPMO have emerged. And with more and more businesses expanding their teams and working with people from all over the world, having an EPMO on your side to skillfully align it all is worth the investment.

Just remember: Your EPMO project manager has a lot of balls in the air. Between aligning projects with goals, overseeing project managers, and creating entirely new systems, they’ll need all the support they can get.

That’s where UDN Task Manager comes in. Give our two-week free trial a go and see for yourself how advanced project tools can bring your entire project management strategy up to speed.