The Agile Evolution of the PMO

Carleton Chinner is the Managing Director of MagniStrat, a Brisbane, Australia-based project consultancy specializing in program capability maturity improvement. Carleton works on large complex projects and is often called upon to speak about his experiences.

  Agile   Change Management   PMO  

We live in a world of accelerating change that forces a range of new pressures on the PMO. These are pressures that the traditional PMO is ill-equipped to deal with. Most operational PMOs were designed around the need for predictability and control. Today’s business environment demands speed and adaptability.

If you work in a more traditional PMO, then you are likely to have heard complaints such as, “Why does everything take so long to get through the PMO?” or “What does the PMO actually do for us?” Predictability can be difficult to manage in these situations. The usual sign of this is numerous scope change requests, as the business tries to be flexible in response to changing market conditions.

At this point, many businesses decide on agile as a solution. “We don’t need a PMO,” they say. “Let’s create agile teams that are empowered to be flexible in delivering value.”

Agile can have great value in these situations. I have seen workplaces where it is applied across the breadth of the organization. Executives were heavily invested in the process, and teams worked to unlock value.

However, I’ve also worked in organizations that have agile teams working on sprint after sprint of the same project—while not delivering anything of any value for years. The question then is, if the traditional …

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