Is Your PMO Too Passive?

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.

  PMO   Strategy  

If you had told me a decade ago that many—perhaps most—PMOs at the start of 2025 would be more focused on optimizing value through project delivery than on governance and reporting, I’m not sure that I would have believed you. It’s a wonderful development, and it means that many PMOs are living up to their potential and helping their employers to succeed.

But pleased as I am by this evolution of the PMO function, I’m still not satisfied. I think that many PMOs still need to do more. Specifically, they are too passive when it comes to the strategic planning activities that lead to the goals and objectives that define the value that must be delivered through projects.

Getting to goals and objectives
The core of strategic planning is the establishment of the organization’s priorities for the next business cycle, and the setting of goals and objectives for each of those priorities. That then leads to the consideration of various investments—projects, epics, and so on—to collectively achieve those objectives.

Inevitably, there will be more proposed initiatives than can be delivered, requiring prioritization; and there will be a need to model and assess different options in order to determine the best fit portfolio mix given the limitations of time, money, people, risk tolerance, and so on.

At the end of the process, the …

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