After an intensive period of work, we often notice in the summer period that there is a bit more space in our agenda. You get some space to pick up things that normally remain unattended in the craziness of the day. MOJEO has put together the ideal top 10 activities you could take up as PMO during this period.

1. Carefully go through the work processes and assess whether they are still in line with practice.

Take a step back and take a helicopter view of whether all the processes/activities you carry out as PMO still match up with the needs in practice. Perhaps certain stakeholders only need a report once a month instead of once a week. Be critical!

2. Review the Business Case for each project and check whether it is still up to date.

Review all business cases of the projects and check them for actuality and whether they still correspond to the current activities within the project. Especially for projects that have been running for a long time, it may happen that the external environment (e.g. legislation, consumer behavior) has changed and that the business case is no longer interesting. In that case it is time to propose to stop the project.

3. Database check for completeness and hygiene.

In case there is a database. it is good to check whether all "fields" have been filled in and whether they have an abnormal value. For example: run a list of all projects and their budgets. Check whether there is a strange value, for example 10. A budget of 10 euro seems very unlikely and should be verified. Do this for all project data. You will probably find some errors!

4. Optimize reports, make them even more beautiful and possibly automate them

You know the drill. Those excel reports that annoy the hell out of you, because you still have to enter everything manually. See if you can "automate" this. Or maybe you're annoyed by the layout that doesn't make sense. Now is your chance to deal with those reports properly.

5. Setting up a virtual project management library

Knowledge is indispensable in an ever-changing world. Find out if your company still has books on project management or PMO or other processes. Collect them, label them and make an overview on SharePoint so employees can borrow them from the PMO. You might be able to request a budget to buy some new books.

6. Find out if there are any interesting seminars or other initiatives available for the PMO or project managers during the upcoming fall.

PMO and project management is a world in itself. A lot happens in this field outside the walls of your company. For example, professional associations organise symposiums or trade fairs. Scour the internet for interesting events that you as project management officer can recommend to your colleagues.

7. Organising a project management / PMO / project managers "day" with the aim of going through the working methods, processes, ideas and wishes. Possibly with speakers.

Draw up an interesting agenda and plan a day to exchange ideas with your colleagues at a nice location. Invite a guest speaker or ask someone from the company to give a presentation about a project. You do need to start organising on time, as agendas fill up quickly!

8. Explore PPM software

Is it interesting to find out if your organization is ready for project management software? If so, those Excel reports would be unnecessary. Take the time to do some internet research on different PPM software. Make a list of specifications and see for yourself what is available.

9. Set up a project management quiz for the PM/PMO day (e.g. Kahoot).

If you have some spare time, sit down and think of some quiz questions. Questions about the business processes or about PMO theory in general. You can use the quiz, for instance, on the PMO/project management day. Add a nice prize to it and you have a nice piece of entertainment.

10. Read professional literature

Professional literature can be many things. Blogs on the web, trade journals that already exist at the workplace, or books. There are a number of Dutch books available on PMO. Check them out and if possible, order them. If so, new ideas may be born.