Will There Be a Need for PMOs in the Future?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Artificial Intelligence   PMO   Strategy  

I recently had a conversation with someone who thought that within a decade or so, there wouldn’t be a need for PMOs. He felt that a number of changes that are currently occurring within project delivery would combine with the result that the function simply couldn’t add value anymore and would become obsolete.

It’s an interesting perspective, and one that I thought was worth exploring.

The death of standardized approaches
His first argument was around the evolution of how projects are managed. With increasing recognition that you can’t use a cookie-cutter approach for every project, he feels that the role of the PMO in understanding process and best practices will become unnecessary.

He wasn’t just talking about hybrid, either. He was referring to the freedom that project managers are now getting to modify their approach based on the needs of each individual project—what PMI refers to as tailoring.

I agree with him that there won’t be a role for PMOs in enforcing standard processes and methodologies, but I would also argue that a PMO that is focused on that today isn’t making much of a contribution to the business anyway. I disagree with him around the idea of best practices. There is a difference between tailoring and changing.

To me, when project managers are not only empowered to adjust how they deliver their …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.