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Management Office
Introduction
In the early days of its adoption, the Agile methodology seemed to be diametrically opposed to
the process-driven project management office (PMO), which most often corresponded to a
Waterfall-style planning and delivery methodology. Agile was a more nimble approach to project
management while Waterfall stipulated a rigid, document-driven structure. The same is true
today, but in the past few years, a growing partnership between Agile practitioners and the PMO
has emerged. The two are no longer mutually exclusive. In fact, the discipline of project
management has evolved to actively include both methodologies in the enterprise.
Organizations often see a need for a blended approach to project delivery, moving away from the
traditional project management to a hybrid Agile-Waterfall methodology. Selecting certain
elements from the Agile approach such as writing story-based requirements, holding daily standup meetings or targeting shorter development cycles allows organizations to alter their original
milestone-driven approach to build in more planning and feedback loops, which in turn gives
them more flexibility to react to changes in project requirements. The redefined PMO has begun
to integrate itself into this approach by providing resource support where necessary, by acting in
the role of change enablement, and by clearing roadblocks in the progress of projects and
programs by incorporating elements of the servant-leadership model into day-to-day operations.
ESI research indicates that Agile projects tend to be large and complex, emphasising a particular
need for specialist resource support at critical points in the project, a coordination task which the
PMO can naturally fulfill. In fact, in terms of planning, the PMO is heavily involved with the top
three levels of Agile project planning (strategic, portfolio and project planning), while the project
team itself provides the basis for the release, iteration, and daily planning cycles. The illustration
above depicts the top-down and bottom-up interplay of these planning activities.
According to a recent ESI survey on the global state of the PMO, 80 percent of all Agile projects
were medium-to-large in scale with a medium-to-high risk profile. Over half of those surveyed
said their Agile projects were complex in nature. At present the PMOs major role in Agile project
management appears to center around coaching and mentoring support for Agile teams. The
PMO has some way to go in most organizations before fully integrating itself in the Agile
landscape and will most likely take on increasing importance as a resource warehouse,
interproject coordinator, and translator of strategic direction into actionable project objectives.
The Research
According to a PMI/Forrester survey in 2011, about three out of four PMOs still favor the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) as their primary methodology. Reflecting traditional
planning practices, the PMBOK provides an adaptable framework for a wide variety of project
needs. Nonetheless, it is not nearly as flexible as Agile. The 2011 survey also showed that only
one out of three PMOs fully supports Agile, Scrum or Lean practices.
ESIs global PMO study from 2013 revealed that 42 percent claimed their organization delivers
projects using Agile methods while 40 percent claimed they do not. It appears Agile usage is on
the rise, even if it is not as pervasive as many think. All told only 9 percent claimed they used
Agile in over half their projects. Agile is clearly not a silver bullet for all projects.
Not surprisingly, Agile projects are typically IT-related in nature with an even distribution of
projects amongst either the entire enterprise (38 percent), division (24 percent) or department
(29 percent). In the Middle East and Africa (35 percent), Agile was used most commonly for
process improvement projects as compared to the global mean (13 percent).
In many cases, the PMO acts as a centralized coordinating function for a cluster of Agile projects.
The management of a group of projects under Agile offers improved risk management due the
nature of its real-time reporting, offering better insight into the projects status than traditional
project management methods.
The PMO often aggregates information such as the velocity and burn rate of each project,
thereby treating complex projects with many sub-projects like an entire program. Because of its
position as a supervising and coordinating body, the PMO can reallocate resources as necessary
in a nimble, Agile fashion. By helping to determine what the team needs, the PMO acts as a
partner instead of being viewed as an executive body with little idea as to what is happening on
the ground. In this way, the PMO can function as a go-to resource to point teams in the right
direction, gather resources and bring in specialists as required. The PMO has evolved into a
body that orchestrates just in-time management of critical resources that it can shift between
projects, thereby taking a specific Agile approach to its resource allocation.
Interdependencies between projects are a focal point for the PMO. Whether for an Agile or more
traditional project, the PMO is responsible for program and portfolio cost management and
planning. It acts as the financial intermediary and financial buffer, setting aside necessary
reserves to cover potential risks.
Hybrid projects such as the US Coast Guards Response Boat-Medium development program
represent a great example of the concert between Agile and Waterfall. While the hull of the ship
was built based upon a set of fixed requirements and a traditional project management
approach, the ship-board electronic systems were developed using Agile approaches. This tactic
helped in saving development time and cost as the parallel approach to the sub-projects within
the overall program led to faster overall results in the development of this vessel.
The Solution
If Agile is so essential for certain types of projects, how can the PMO optimize its support?
Formalizing industry practices such as certifications that reflect the increasing need for Agile skill
sets is one step toward bringing the traditional PMO and Agile practitioners together. Industry
standards have been raised to recognize the different and somewhat higher skill sets that an
Agile project requires. By the beginning of 2013, over 2000 Agile project management
certifications (PMI-ACP) had already been granted in just 18 months since it was first introduced,
illustrating the general recognition that some specialized form of training and certification was
needed across all communities of the PMI.
Another PMI report entitled "The High Cost of Low Performance" indicates that high-performing
organizations provide well-structured, consistent training opportunities for project managers,
which directly and positively impact project success. In terms of on-time, on-budget, within-scope
project delivery, the success rate of those organizations surveyed that offered professional
development for its project management professionals far exceeded that of their counterparts
who did not provide such learning opportunities. As the Agile PMP becomes more prevalent, we
predict PMOs will become more involved in ensuring PMs receive the training they need in this
area too.
The PMO must also show a willingness to forfeit some level of control by stepping out of the way
of the Agile teams path. Lean project management requires a more hands-off approach than
more traditional PMOs are accustomed to. A give and take needs to take place in order for both
Agile teams and the PMOs that support them to work together.
Summary
In the end, Agile teams and PMOs need one another more than ever. Although they may work at
a different operational focus from one another, they can learn to collaborate if they keep the
successful delivery of working products by means of the project delivery teams in mind. When
both parties adopt innovative communication styles, enormous roadblocks can be overcome.
Recognizing the immense value of transparency and access to outside resources can contribute
greatly to the Agile teams acceptance of the PMO itself. In addition, the PMO must recognize its
critical place as a change agent and strategic enabler in the overall scheme of things. It cannot
be all things to all people, and most every enterprise will need to develop a unique definition of
how the PMO will add the greatest value to the successful delivery of products and projects.
Finally, the PMO must remain current on evolving best practices in the industry to stay on top of
what is needed to deliver successful projects today and into the future.
Agile and the PMO can indeed coexist. With the right mix, they can enrich each others existence
to maximize their respective value to the enterprise without pulling each other down in the mire of
conflicting priorities.
Very thorough and detailed upfront planning to justify the ROI on projects
to support rigorous project/product portfolio management decisions
Rigid control of project execution to ensure that projects meet their cost
and schedule goals and deliver the expected ROI
There is no doubt that some PMOs have played that kind of role to some extent in
the past; however, it is a stereotype to believe that is the only possible role for a
PMO to play.
And, the right approach is to fit the methodology to your projects and business
environment rather than going in the other direction and attempting to force-fit your
projects and business to some kind of canned approach whatever it might be (Agile
or not). For more on that, check out my blog post on Making Agile Work for Your
Business.
Some organizations may choose to implement a relatively complete topto-bottom Agile transformation for their business Dean Leffingwells Scaled
Agile Framework (SAFe) is an example of such a model. However, that can be
a very ambitious and gut-wrenching change for many organizations and it
may also may not be the best solution
If you accept the notion that you need to tailor the approach to fit your business, it
should be evident that the design of a PMO should be consistent with that approach
and there isnt a single canned solution for what an Agile PMO is. However, I think
that there are some general guidelines that should be useful.
The source of the above material is from my book Making Sense of Agile Project
Management published in 2011 by Wiley.
Heres what I think some of the key differences are as an organization moves
towards more of an adaptive approach:
The role of the PMO becomes more of an advisory role and a consultative
role rather than a controlling role. The function of the PMO should be to put in
place well-trained people coupled with the right process and tools to make the
process most effective and efficient and to keep it well-aligned with the
companys business
This model can be a very big change for many businesses because it puts a lot more
responsibility on the business side of the organization to provide direction to projects
and the business organization may not be well-prepared to take on that
responsibility. It also relies much more heavily on self-organizing teams.
For those reasons and others, a totally adaptive approach may not be the right
approach for all businesses and even if it is, it may take time to migrate an existing
organization to that kind of approach. Fortunately, there are many ways to develop a
hybrid approach to blend a traditional plan-driven approach with a more adaptive
approach to fit a given business and project environment.
Overall Summary
The role of the PMO should be aligned with supporting whatever that overall strategy
is. For example,
The PMO may still be the focal point for Project/Product Portfolio
Management, but a more agile approach might be used to perform that
function. Instead of very rigorous upfront planning that might be required to
analyze project ROI to support a more traditional, plan-driven project/product
portfolio management approach, a more dynamic decision-making process
might be used at that level with a much more limited amount of upfront
planning and less detailed ROI analysis.
In summary,
Agile certainly forces some rethinking of the role of a PMO but it doesnt
necessarily make the whole concept of a PMO obsolete and irrelevant, and
The important thing to recognize is that this is not a one size fits all decision. What
is the right approach for one company may not be the best approach for another.
Although its called the project management office, the PMO has
tremendous influence on the people involved in a Scrum transition. An
agile PMO should do the following:
Develop a training program. There is much to adopting Scrum that
will be new and unfamiliar to many team members. The PMO can be
of tremendous assistance in putting together a training program,
selecting outside trainers to deliver the training, or delivering the
training themselves.
Provide coaching. Beyond training people, individual and smallgroup coaching is incredibly helpful. In a training class, the instructor
says, Heres how to do a sprint planning meeting, for example, and
perhaps runs the class through an exercise to practice it. With
coaching, someone with deep experience sits with the team and helps
team members through their own real sprint planning meeting (or
whatever skill is being coached). Early on, members of the PMO
might not have these skills themselves, but they should focus on
acquiring them from outside coaches and then do the hands-on
coaching themselves.
Select and train coaches. A successful Scrum initiative will
eventually lead to more coaching needs than the PMO can manage
on its own. Members of the PMO should identify and develop coaches
by watching the scrum teams they help and then providing training or
assistance to help selected individuals become skilled coaches.
These coaches usually retain their current jobs but are given
additional responsibilities, such as spending up to five hours per week
helping a specific team.
Challenge existing behaviors. When the organization begins to
adopt Scrum, the members of the PMO look for scrum teams who are
falling back into old habits or whose old habits are preventing them
from becoming agile. Later, members of the Project Management
Office can remind teams that Scrum is about continuous improvement
and can help prevent the onset of complacency.
The Project Management Office And Projects
can be started. The agile PMO can serve as gatekeeper and help the
organization resist the temptation to start projects too quickly.
The Project Management Office And Process
As keepers of the process, members of the PMO will work closely with
the organizations ScrumMasters to make sure Scrum is implemented
as well as it can be. These process-related activities include the
following:
Assist in establishing and collecting metrics. As it did before
becoming agile, the PMO can identify and collect metrics. Scrum
teams are even more leery of metrics programs than traditional
teams, so this is an area where the PMO should proceed cautiously.
One thing an agile PMO should collect is information on how well
teams are doing at delivering value.
Reduce waste. The PMO should aggressively help the team
eliminate all wasteful activities and artifacts from its process. An agile
PMO should avoid introducing documents, meetings, approvals, and
so on unless absolutely necessary. It should also help teams look for
things that they are doing that might not be adding value.
Help establish and support communities of practice. A community
of practice is a group of liked-minded or like-skilled individuals. One of
the most important things an agile PMO can do is to help encourage
the formation of these communities and then support them after they
begin. Not only do communities of practice help Scrum spread
through the organization, they also help spread any good idea from
one team to another.
Create an appropriate amount of consistency across teams. Most
teams, especially Scrum ones, bristle at the thought of consistency
good PMO will work with human resources to remove from the annual
review process questions that discourage teamwork.
Renaming the Project Management Office