One PMO World, One Community!
Interview with Mayte Mata Sivera
Head of PMO
Ambassador Americas for the PMO Leader Community
Provo, Utah, USA
Interviewed by Yasmina Khelifi
International Correspondent, PM World Journal
Paris, France
Introduction to the interviewee
Mayte Mata Sivera works as head of the project management office (PMO) for a leading beauty and wellness company based in Provo, Utah, USA. She is a PMP certification holder, and ScrumAtScale Practitioner. She enjoys public speaking engagements and is a passionate volunteer at PMI and some PMI Local Chapters. For six years, she has been a volunteer at TEDxSaltLakeCity. She is also now the Americas Ambassador for the PMO Leader new community (a volunteer role). She has more than 15 years of experience leading teams and programs & projects around the world, and her passion is to share her knowledge and nonstop learning from volunteer opportunities. You can connect with her on LinkedIn
Interview
Q1: First of all, thank you for accepting an interview request from PMWJ. What’s your definition of PMO?
Mayte Mata Sivera (Mata Sivera): The Project Management Institute (PMI) defined a PMO as “An organizational body or entity assigned various responsibilities related to the centralized and coordinated management of those projects under its domain”.
Trying to adapt that to a more chewable definition, the department that defines and maintains project management standards across an organization.
PMOs are becoming increasingly popular for organizations of all sizes, and each organization tailors the mission and the vision of the PMO to adapt to their business strategy and project needs.
For me, the PMO is the subject matter expert in the company that is responsible for governance, guidance, support to the different business units in the organization, to ensure that the business strategy/goals are delivered on time and with quality. The PMO should support the business strategy by bringing transparency and visibility to the activities happening within it.
I believe that the PMO should get involved in some of the day-to-day activities of the project activities, to learn and support the different team members. Also, from my point of view, the PMO should be framework or methodology agnostic. The PMO leaders should learn continually the most common practices, industry-standard methodologies, and use them as a toolkit to support the team needs. As I always say: There isn’t a Project…without People, so the PMO should be able to learn from the people and propose the best tools to ensure that the teams are delivering value in each activity that they perform.
Q2: Have you worked as a PMO or would like to evolve to a PMO role? Why?
Mata Sivera: During my professional career, working in different industries, and companies, I was part of different PMO’s, ePMO. I also participated in the formation of PMO, in some cases we failed, in others we succeed.
My professional career and development are a journey; I never stop to learn. I believe that we need to learn fast, sometimes you will fail others you will succeed, however the key point is learning in each step of your journey.
Nowadays I’m the Head of a PMO. Under the leadership of the VP ePMO, direct and oversee the Core functions and Business Development PMO. Developing and implementing PMO processes and policies in an Agile environment. We will try to ensure that portfolios, programs, and projects meet organization goals and requirements.
In my new role, I will keep learning and developing my skills to become a PMO Leader.
Q3: What is the role of the PMO Leader Community?
More…
To read entire interview, click here
How to cite this interview: Khelifi, Y. (2022). One PMO World, One Community! Interview with Mayte Mata Sivera; PM World Journal, Vol. XI, Issue V, May. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/pmwj117-May2022-Khelifi-Interview-with-Mayte-Mata-Sivera-2.pdf
About the Interviewer
Yasmina Khelifi
Paris, France
Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI- ACP, PMI-PBA is an experienced project manager in the telecom industry. Along with her 20-year career at Orange S.A. (the large French multinational telecommunications corporation), she sharpened her global leadership skills, delivering projects with major manufacturers and SIM makers. Yasmina strives for building collaborative bridges between people to make international projects successful. She relies on three pillars: project management skills, the languages she speaks, and a passion for sharing knowledge.
She is a PMP certification holder since 2013, a PMI- ACP and PMI-PBA certification holder since 2020. She is an active volunteer member at PMI France and PMI UAE, and a member of PMI Germany Chapter. French-native, she can speak German, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and she is learning Arabic. Yasmina loves sharing her knowledge and experiences at work, in her volunteers’ activities at PMI, and in projectmanagement.com as a regular blogger. She is also the host and co-founder of the podcast Global Leaders Talk with Yasmina Khelifi to help people in becoming better international leaders.
Yasmina can be contacted at https://yasminakhelifi.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminakhelifi-pmp-telecom/
Visit her correspondent profile at https://pmworldlibrary.net/yasmina-khelifi/
