breakout session overview
The Circle of Life: Experiences in the Evolution of a PMO
Presentation Description
Executives typically decide to invest in a PMO because there is a gap in the
company’s ability to execute projects effectively, negatively impacting
their ability to deliver on key business objectives. The key objective of a
PMO leader in this early stage is to assess the critical gaps and implement
the right level of structure to enable projects to run effectively -
delivering predictably within schedule, quality, resource, and budget
constraints. As the business and PMO evolve, there are opportunities for
the program and project managers to contribute beyond managing tasks,
schedules, risks, and dependencies. This requires the PMO leader to
re-evaluate the critical gaps in execution and evaluate opportunities to
capitalize on best-practices and other organizational strengths, in order to
establish new PMO objectives and goals that continue to enhance the
organization’s ability to deliver on key business objectives.
This presentation will look at 10 years in the evolution of a PMO, examining
how the needs of the PMO changed over time, how to strategically plan for
your PMO to maximize business success, and how to provide career growth
opportunities that maximize your program and project managers’ ability to
contribute as business leaders, as well as experts in tactical execution.
About the Presenter
Yvonne Murray has over 20 years of experience in program management and
engineering. She is currently Vice President of Program Management for
Apollo Group, where she is building out a PMO for the Product Strategy and
Development team. Prior to joining Apollo, Yvonne spent 10 years in various
program management roles at Adobe, including leading the PMO responsible for
delivering Adobe’s Creative Suite – comprised of 14 individual products and
100+ underlying shared technologies. Yvonne has experience across a breadth
of program management environments: working directly for engineering in a
pre-PMO environment, establishing a PMO to help build organizational
maturity in a young business, and leading a well-established, high-impact
PMO in a mature business. Yvonne also spent 10 years in as an engineer and
engineering manager at Hewlett-Packard. Yvonne has PgMP and Stanford
Advanced Project Management certifications, a BS degree in Computer Science
from the University of Minnesota, and an MBA from UC Berkeley.
