Your First Steps as a PMO Analyst

Stepping into the role of a PMO Analyst marks the beginning of an exciting career filled with opportunities, challenges, and growth. The role of the PMO Analyst is pivotal in ensuring the success of projects within an organisation.

This blog hopes to provide you with the essential insights and advice you need to succeed in your new role.

Here are some of the main things you need to think about when looking to navigate your first steps as a PMO Analyst;

Understand what is expected of the PMO analyst role.
Understand what is expected of you to perform the role.
Understand who you work for and report to.
Understand what PMO all is about.

Decoding the Role/Insider Advice

As we are experts in PMO training and experienced PMO practitioners here is some insights into the PMO Analyst role and some insider advice to help you succeed.

The PMO Analyst role is vast, there will be a lot to learn when you first step into the role and it will be up to you to find out that the priorities are. You could be in a role that covers various responsibilities for singular or multiple projects. You will be supporting the PMO Manager and could be doing jobs such a status reporting, maintaining risks and issues, or looking at resource management and working out how best to utilise resources.

Some PMO Analyst roles are more specialised, and you will focus more on one task and become an expert on it. If you want to stand out to senior management and be that person in the office that everyone comes to for advice, go that extra mile and learn as much as you can about the tasks you are performing each day, speak to other people in the organisation that have experience in your field and gain as much knowledge as you can.

You will also need to have great time management skills as you will need to find the balance between delivery support and PMO initiatives. Great PMO Managers are always looking at their PMO and making sure it is fit for purpose. You will work alongside the PMO Manager to future proof your PMO, to ensure the PMO is evolving, improving, and matching the pace of what the organisation needs.

As a PMO Analyst you will work with many people in and around your organisation and its important to always be promoting and championing your PMO.

To find out more about the key roles and responsibilities, click here to read our blog on the role profile of a PMO Analyst.

Transitioning or Entering – Tailoring the journey to you

There are endless opportunities and directions you can go in with a career in PMO, some of these opportunities can include;

Different PMO career pathways – you can aim to work your way into senior management or branch out into other areas such as business analysis, data analysis or change management.
Growth and development in project, programme, and portfolio management.
Learning new technical and soft skills – in the dynamic environment of project management and with new technology such as the introduction of AI, there will always be opportunity to keep updated with new trends and upskill yourself to stay ahead of the curve.
Working with different people, teams, and departments – opportunity to network and see what other roles and jobs are out there.
Opportunities come when you least expect it – keep optimistic and focused and you will succeed in your role and new opportunities will arise, as the world changes there could also be roles which may not exist yet in your business that you could thrive in.

As with any job there are also challenges that you will face, some of these may include;

Doing a lot with little – some PMOs are well-resourced, however you might be in a smaller organisation and are under-resourced in various areas, which means you will need to be resilient in your approach and response to the challenges that you face.
Working across different projects – in a lot of organisations you will be working across different projects which means you will have tight and conflicting deadlines with multiple stakeholders. You will need to have great organisational skills, managing time and workload and figuring out how to prioritise tasks and communicate effectively with other people.
Keeping yourself up to date with skills and knowledge – some specialist skills take formal training, but you will also learn a lot of it on the job. There is no one book or training course that will give you all the answers – it doesn’t exist – as the nature of PMO differs from organisation to organisation. However, there are always opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge in your job by speaking to colleagues, taking that extra time to look at roles you haven’t tried yet, or seeing what eLearning or online resources your company has to offer. There are also there are a variety of certification courses such as the Essentials suite and P3O®, or even specialist courses such as Benefits Management, that can help you along the way.

Ready to embark on your journey as a PMO Analyst? We also have the Essentials for PMO Analysts certification course to give you the essentials knowledge and skills to perform the role successfully. Click here to read more about the course!

Want to know more about the role of a PMO Analyst? Fill in your details below and get access to our ‘How to get started as a PMO Analyst ebook’