The standard for project management

6.6 AGILE AND THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO)

The PMO exists to shepherd business value throughout the organization. It might do this by helping projects achieve 

their goals. Sometimes, the PMO educates teams (or arranges for training) and supports projects. Sometimes, the PMO 

advises management about the relative business value for a given project or set of projects.

Because agile creates cultural change, over time, the organization might need to change, including the PMO. For 

example, managers make decisions about which projects to fund and when, and teams decide what they need for 

training or advice.

6.6.1 AN AGILE PMO IS VALUE-DRIVEN

Any project should deliver the right value, to the right audience, at the right time. The PMO’s objective is to facilitate 

and enable this goal. An agile-based PMO approach is based on a customer-collaboration mindset and is present in 

all PMO programs. In many cases, this means the PMO operates as if it were a consulting business, tailoring its efforts 

to meet specific needs requested by a given project. Some projects may need tools and templates, while others may 

benefit from executive coaching. The PMO should strive to deliver what is needed and keep the pulse on its customers 

to ensure that it knows and is able to adapt to their needs. This intrapreneur approach focuses on the PMO activities 

that are perceived as the most valuable to the projects it supports.

6.6.2 AN AGILE PMO IS INVITATION-ORIENTED

In order to accelerate progress on a value-based charter, a PMO may be tempted to mandate certain solutions or 

approaches, for example, to make everyone do it the same way to get some quick wins. However, a more deliberate 

perspective incorporates the desire for employee engagement. This is achieved by inviting only those interested to 

engage with PMO services. Higher engagement with PMO practices makes it easier for those practices to be “sticky.” 

If the PMO is delivering value to its clients, it is more likely that clients will request its services and adopt its practices.

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Section 6 

6.6.3 AN AGILE PMO IS MULTIDISCIPLINARY

In order to support project-specific needs, the PMO needs to be conversant in several competencies beyond 

project management itself, because different projects require distinct capabilities. For instance, one project may need 

organizational design to address staffing challenges while another may require organizational change management 

techniques for stakeholder engagement or unique business models to support customer goals.

Some organizations have been transforming their PMOs into agile centers of excellence that provide such services as:

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