Is it time to Rebrand the PMO?

In many organizations, Program Management Offices, or the group that some may think is central to organizational change, have been facing many headwinds over the past several years. As an organization grows and takes on new ventures, it’s often the PMO that steps out front to coordinate, implement process management, and report back to leadership along the way.

As our organizations and people change around us, Program Management Offices (PMOs) need to change as well. It’s time we start to ask ourselves, the people who comprise the PMOs, whether it’s time to change. It’s no secret that PMOs get a bad reputation on the street and many people, particularly engineers and agile-minded individuals (like me), cringe at the thought of working with a PMO for this very reason. As mentioned previously, they’re often the ones that are out in front of the change, the projects, and programs, and dictate the execution every step of the way.

From my experience, and through conversations I’ve had with others about the topic, many PMOs and their program managers tend to focus solely on the business, and less about what makes the business successful, the people. Often, we see PMOs lead a command-and-control culture, one where they take requests from leadership, dictate whatever is needed to the individuals responsible, and move on to the next thing. All with little regard for the people, the value, and the priority of whatever it may be.

This isn’t to say that there is no value to PMOs at all, in fact it’s quite the contrary. There are absolutely times where things just “need to get done” and require much more rigor to plan and deliver. Program Managers are exceptional when it comes to connecting the dots, overseeing multiple teams and value streams, and providing status reporting. Furthermore, these program managers, technical or not, are often the unsung heroes of the organization, filling gaps and tackling tasks that are just not suited for anyone else. They tend to be the MVPs of the organization that no one talks about when executing their roles well.

There are still times where the PMO and Program Management mindset isn’t appropriate.

When we take a step back and consider all that is on the PMOs plate, it’s no wonder why the reputation of these groups is what it is. There’s no question that PMOs have too much going on, and because program managers have a knack for getting stuff done, they continue to get inundated with request after request. These individuals love saying “yes” to their leaders, and often don’t seem to take the time to understand the impact their deliverables have. They are so far removed from the individual contributors and the teams that they work in a silo, narrowly focused on their project, with little to no insight into what the broader organization is doing. This doesn’t mean that they don’t care but, that they’re just too busy to do so.

PMOs are the definition of the churn and burn mentality. They are given a task to do or a gap to fill, and they go off and do it. Sometimes it results in road mapping and project management, mindless reporting and status updates, and other times it’s all about establishing a new process or framework. Unfortunately, much of this work is done independently without too much input from those who would ultimately be responsible for carrying the torch going forward. Then, when you consider that a PMO is a group of program managers off doing the same (yet different) things, it creates a lot of churn, competing priorities, and duplicative effort.

So, what can we do about this?

In my opinion, it’s time to change the PMO culture. We need to embrace a kind of change that most would be uncomfortable with, and it all comes down to changing the mentality of these groups. Rather than command and control, we should look to servant leadership and a leadership style where we put the team’s first. Servant leadership needs to run deep, rather than being people serving leaders. Lastly, we need to start embracing agility, so that we truly embrace a lean and lightweight environment where we don’t know all the answers, are constantly seeking to improve, and keep the customers in mind first.

Will it be tough? You bet.
Will it be worth it? Absolutely.

Check out the next installment for what this might look like and, in the meantime, ask yourself this: Is the PMO really fit for purpose?