The Importance of the PMO During a Crisis

The Importance of the PMO During a Crisis

Nabeel Shahid

– March 24, 2020

Nabeel is a Project Manager, PMO in Saudi Arabia.

No one knows how severe the COVID-19 pandemic will ultimately end up being; we are still learning things every day. But it has already had a massive impact worldwide. Businesses need to be prepared to balance the health and protection of their employees while continuing to serve the needs of their clients. I shared my practical approach as a PMO head within my organization, which may help the project management community during these uncertain times.

There’s no definitive playbook for how to best preserve our businesses; this is uncharted territory for most organizations, governments and individuals.  A lot of action is being taken, but nobody knows if it is the right action.

But being in a PMO and experiencing organizational transformations from top to bottom, I truly understand the DNA of my organization to deal with this crisis. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I was recently called for an emergency meeting by our risk department for a brainstorming session on how to deal with the situation, including risks and having staff work from home.

The department chief was of the view that each department needed to assess its current state (with respect to this year’s targets), chalk down high priority tasks for the next month, and provide HR with a list of resources that could work from home full- or part-time.

The risk department was happy to conclude …

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Published at Tue, 24 Mar 2020 04:00:00 +0000