Insights into iQIYI's PMO: Enhancing Project Delivery Efficiency and Value

Facing work challenges with courage and a willingness to experiment, Elva transitioned from a technical background to project management, discovering a true passion for guiding large‑scale initiatives at iQIYI. Over three years she has helped manage nearly 100 parallel projects, ranging from infrastructure and backend services to user‑facing products.

Elva explains that a PMO (Project Management Office) functions like a conductor, aligning roles and adjusting tempo based on project goals, progress, and risks. While each company defines the PMO differently, its core purpose is to raise organizational maturity and improve project efficiency.

iQIYI’s PMO focuses on two main responsibilities:

Driving strategic execution by standardizing processes, establishing a project‑management framework, and ensuring complex projects are delivered on time and with quality.

Boosting delivery efficiency through continuous method refinement, tool integration, and training that empower teams to deliver value rapidly.

The team supports a wide variety of initiatives, including over 100 concurrent projects across infrastructure, product, and four‑terminal user experiences, as well as high‑profile live‑streaming events such as Spring Festival Gala broadcasts.

To meet growing business demands, the PMO adopts flexible management approaches—standard Scrum, Kanban, trimmed‑down Scrum, and waterfall—tailored to project type (research‑development vs. non‑R&D, versioned vs. non‑versioned). Depending on complexity, they provide deep involvement, light support, or enable self‑organizing teams, thereby increasing project throughput without expanding headcount.

For live‑streaming projects, the PMO has refined end‑to‑end processes covering initiation, planning, task breakdown, requirement rollout, risk handling, functional rehearsals, disaster‑recovery drills, live monitoring, and data analysis, ensuring smooth execution of major events.

Elva emphasizes that effective project management relies on a solid workflow covering initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure, combined with strong communication, risk mitigation, and quality control.

The team also promotes standardized processes such as app release, independent app launch, and requirement rollout, visualizing approvals to reduce risk and communication overhead. Ongoing efforts aim to extend these practices across more business units.

Beyond technical skills, PMO members must possess high overall competence—technical expertise, project‑management knowledge, execution ability, stress tolerance, big‑picture thinking, cross‑department coordination, rapid learning, and knowledge transfer.

Elva encourages continuous learning, sharing project‑management insights within the team, and exploring external best practices. She also recommends a reading list covering psychology, sociology, history, organizational behavior, and productivity.