View all project delivery career pathways
Understand a role profile by selecting a role
Develop your career plan by comparing two roles
The PMO Manager defines and maintains project management standards within the organisation. This includes implementing and sharing best practices, and developing and applying project procedures, tools, and techniques to standardise methodologies and achieve efficiencies. The PMO Manager provides expert guidance, support, and insight on projects, acting as the source of all project information and metrics.
| Responsibility | Detail |
|---|---|
| Delivery and leadership | Provides visible and effective leadership, collaborating with the Project Manager to deliver business case benefits and outcomes. Leads the PMO by developing a clear vision and standards, championing the use of best practice project management standards and processes, and building strong networks internally and externally. |
| Business case | Supports the Project Manager in developing the business case and aligning it with senior stakeholders. |
| Budget | Develops and agrees budgets for projects and/or programmes and forecast actual costs against them. |
| Resources | Identifies future project, programme, and departmental capability and capacity needs to create and implement strategies for addressing them. |
| Stakeholder management | Manages and influences senior relationships across projects, the department, and government. Builds strategic relationships with internal and external suppliers. |
| Risks and issues | Drives continuous improvement in the risk and issue management process. |
| Governance and Assurance | Establishes and maintains governance arrangements for project delivery. Defines clear roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities that align with organisational practice. Monitors control effectiveness and ensures the implementation of recommendations from external reviews. |
| Change management | Establishes and implements protocols for changing project or programme scopes, and updates configuration documents as needed. |
| Project performance and controls | Develops effective project control frameworks and strategies, fosters a culture of continuous improvement and learning from experience, and identifies interdependencies and opportunities across projects and programmes. Implements shared methods and resources to achieve efficiencies. |
| Guidance and support | Ensures continuous improvement of project management processes and standards within the department, drives innovation, and introduces the latest ideas from professional bodies and academic research. Provides direction and guidance across the department and government. |
| Digital and data | Leads the implementation of digital tools and analytics within the PMO to standardise processes and improve project delivery efficiency. Uses data insight to monitor project performance and provide strategic insights that drive continuous improvement across projects. |
Suitable for individuals with experience managing PMOs for progressively larger and more complex projects.
Generally, not suitable for individuals without previous project delivery experience.
None: No knowledge and no experience.
Awareness: Basic knowledge and limited or no experience. You understand how it can be applied. You can describe the benefits and importance. You may have applied it in a low complexity project under supervision or assisted others in delivering it.
Working: Working knowledge and practical experience. You have a good understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in low complexity projects and/or under supervision in more complex projects.
Practitioner: Detailed knowledge and significant experience. You have a deep understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in medium and/or highly complex projects. You advise and may supervise others in the delivery of this competence. You can adapt your approach to meet the requirements of the project.
Expert: Expert knowledge and experience. You are considered an expert within government and in the wider profession. You have applied this competence in multiple complex projects. You have been responsible for developing unique variations to suit specific situations. You champion capability development in this area.
| Competency area | Level |
|---|---|
Planning
The ability to define the fundamental components of the work in terms of its scope, deliverables, time scales, resource requirements and budget. It also includes the production of broader plans incorporating risk and quality to provide a consolidated overview of the work.
|
Working |
Scheduling
The ability to develop, produce and maintain schedules for activities that take account of dependencies, resource requirements and constraints in order to enable the efficient realisation of benefits.
|
Working |
Resource management
The ability to identify, profile, secure and manage the resources required to deliver the work.
|
Working |
Budgeting and cost management
The ability to estimate costs, produce a budget and control forecasts and actual spend against budget.
|
Working |
Risk and issue management
The ability to systematically identify and monitor risks and issues, planning how to mitigate or respond to those risks and issues and implementing the responses.
|
Working |
Quality management
The ability to plan, develop, maintain and apply quality management processes to ensure adherence to those standards throughout the lifecycle of the work.
|
Awareness |
Business change and implementation
The ability to integrate the solution into operations ensuring that activities are planned and completed to enable the business to implement the change and realise the benefits.
|
Working |
Governance
The ability to clearly define roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and establish controls and approval routes appropriate to each stage of the work to monitor progress and compliance.
|
Working |
Frameworks and methodologies
The ability to identify and amend appropriate frameworks and methodologies to enable a consistent and efficient approach to delivery at all stages of the lifecycle.
|
Working |
Stakeholder engagement
The ability to systematically identify, analyse and communicate with stakeholders, using appropriate channels, to ensure all those impacted by the change are engaged, taking account of their levels of influence and particular interests.
|
Practitioner |
Assurance
The ability to establish, plan and manage reviews at appropriate points through the life cycle to provide confidence that the work can be delivered to the agreed outcomes and benefits within time, cost, quality, and other constraints.
|
Working |
Change control
The ability to establish protocols to manage and document all requests for changes to scope, timescales, costs, benefits or other approved baselines for the work. This includes the capture, evaluation and approval or rejection of change requests.
|
Working |
Business case development
The ability to prepare, develop, commission and update business cases to justify the initiation and continuation of projects in terms of benefits, value for money and risk.
|
Working |
Asset allocation
The ability to recommend how financial and other resources should be allocated between projects in order to optimise the organisation's return on investment (ROI). This includes the determination of which projects should be initiated, continued or closed to best support the organisations strategic objectives.
|
Awareness |
Benefits management
The ability to identify, value, plan and track benefits to justify investment and ensure the expected outcomes and social value are realised.
|
Practitioner |
Knowledge management
The ability to identify, share and promote best practices and lessons learned to create a culture of learning and good practice that supports continuous improvement to optimise project delivery.
|
Practitioner |
Digital and data
The ability to effectively leverage digital tools and data analytics for better project delivery outcomes. Combining an understanding of digital technologies with the ability to manage, interpret and utilise data to make informed decisions, improve efficiency and achieve outcomes and benefits.
|
Practitioner |
Sustainability
The ability to incorporate environmental and social considerations into the strategic objectives of the work and to effectively identify, assess and manage these throughout the lifecycle, seeking to maximise benefits and mitigate negative impacts.
|
Working |
None: No knowledge and no experience.
Awareness: Basic knowledge and limited or no experience. You understand how it can be applied. You can describe the benefits and importance. You may have applied it in a low complexity project under supervision or assisted others in delivering it.
Working: Working knowledge and practical experience. You have a good understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in low complexity projects and/or under supervision in more complex projects.
Practitioner: Detailed knowledge and significant experience. You have a deep understanding of this competence. You have applied this independently in medium and/or highly complex projects. You advise and may supervise others in the delivery of this competence. You can adapt your approach to meet the requirements of the project.
Expert: Expert knowledge and experience. You are considered an expert within government and in the wider profession. You have applied this competence in multiple complex projects. You have been responsible for developing unique variations to suit specific situations. You champion capability development in this area.
| Competency area | Level |
|---|---|
Visible leadership
The ability to engage, motivate and coach others. To act as a role model and inspire and empower others. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Credible action
The ability to promote the wider public good in all actions and to act in a morally, legally and socially appropriate manner at all times. Challenges unacceptable behaviour. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Working with ambiguity
The ability to work in an environment of uncertainty and continual change. Able to feel comfortable making decisions and setting direction without having the full picture and re-focus as details emerge. Can apply knowledge and techniques to reduce ambiguity. Aligned to the making effective decisions Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Collaboration
The ability to establish and develop productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders, bringing people together to benefit the project. Aligned to the working together Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Influencing
The ability to influence, change and impact decisions with both internal and external stakeholders. Aligned to the communicating and influencing Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Conflict resolution
The ability to recognise, anticipate and effectively deal with existing or potential conflicts at an individual, team or strategic level. Aligned to the working together and leadership Civil Service behaviours.
|
Practitioner |
Inspiring others
The ability to create and present a compelling vision and set clear direction, that motivates others to work towards a common goal. Aligned to the leadership Civil Service behaviour.
|
Expert |
Resilience
The ability to adapt to changing circumstances and adverse situations whilst remaining calm, reassuring others and maintaining performance. Aligned to the delivering at pace Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Innovation
The ability to think of, research and apply new ideas and ways of doing things. Encourages and supports innovations from others, is willing to experiment and follow ideas through to implementation. Aligned to the changing and improving Civil Service behaviour.
|
Practitioner |
Culture change
The ability to plan, lead and effect positive cultural change, securing commitment and buy-in, and promoting a positive long term vision. Recognises when broader culture change is necessary to deliver a project. Aligned to the seeing the big picture, and changing and improving Civil Service behaviours.
|
Practitioner |