December 3, 2025 • 52 mins
The pace of change has outgrown old PMO playbooks—so it’s time for a new one. In this future-focused episode, we unpack five key trends reshaping the PMO by 2026 and share practical ways to shift from performative reporting to real value delivery.
We explore what it means to reframe the PMO as a capability architect—moving the conversation from headcount to a heat-mapped view of people, process, tools, and decision flow. That simple shift helps expose gaps, justify investment, and prioritise work that actually reduces friction.
From there, we dive into the PMO’s evolving role as an AI custodian—setting guardrails, lifting data quality, and embedding just enough training to make AI both useful and safe. You'll hear real examples of where AI can save time right now, from summarising risks to drafting reports—without compromising trust or confidentiality.
We also look at how PMOs translate change into action using microchanges—small, focused wins delivered quickly to build trust and momentum—alongside their growing role as regulatory integrators coordinating risk, compliance, and delivery in increasingly complex environments.
And finally, we come back to simplification. From minimum viable governance to smarter intake and prioritisation, we offer a toolkit to help PMOs cut noise, clarify accountability, and deliver at the speed of strategy.
🎧 Whether you’re leading a PMO, working inside one, or rethinking the way your organisation delivers value—this episode offers a concrete playbook to help you get ahead of the curve.
Curious about our PMO Capability Workshops launching next year? Reach out to learn more—or share this episode with your team to kickstart the conversation.
In this episode, I cover:
01:51 Global PMO Shifts and Conference Insights (The PMO Leader Global Conference)
04:18 This Years Anchor: Clarity and Capability
09:47 What Listeners Want: AI and Governance
13:24 Poll Findings: Value Delivered As North Star
30:30 PMOs As Capability Architects
36:55 PMOs As AI Custodians
43:12 PMOs As Translators of Change
49:08 PMOs As Regulatory Integrators
And more...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fatimah Abbouchi (00:00):
You're listening to Agile Ideas the
Podcast, hosted by Fatimah Abbouchi.
For anyone listening out therenot having a good day, please
know there is help out there.
Let's just start by addressingthe fact that PMOs are
definitely changing and there isa lot of changes happening in
(00:20):
the PMO space globally.
And a lot of the changes inPMOs are evident as a result of
some of the insights I'll sharewith you today, which have come
off the back of a global virtualconference that my team and I
held in October last uh lastmonth that had about 1,500 or
(00:41):
1600 people join us globally.
So I will be sharing insightsfrom that directly from all
regions and 30 countries,thousands of practitioners,
executives, consultants, techproviders, and hopefully some of
these insights will help you inyour journey moving forward.
(01:01):
The common thread this year isaround clarity, capability,
governance, and delivery.
And all of these things tieback to the key word for today,
and that is clarity.
So again, welcome to everyonejoining.
Thank you.
Let me know where you're from,and um we'll try to get through
(01:22):
this and hopefully you'll getsome really good insights from
it.
For those of you that don'tknow, I spend my time helping
organizations close theirexecution gaps, capability,
governance, and clarity, andthat's what I'm going to be
sharing a lot about today.
Uh, we will be recording thissession and it will be made
available next week.
Uh, so I'll send not only therecording, but you'll also get
(01:43):
access to the detailed PMOTrends 2026 blog as well, which
I um annually write andsummarise all of the insights
that I'm seeing through that.
Um, the reason I can bring thisto you today is my background,
but also as a co-founder of thePMO leader community, where
we've got a really large globalum community of people that are
(02:06):
sharing their insights and whatthey're seeing across the world
as well.
Today isn't just about PMO,it's a it's a reset because the
world and where PMOs are todayneeds to change.
Things are changing rapidly.
You're going to hear that wordthat everybody's talking about
at some point today, AI.
(02:27):
Um, but our operatingenvironment and the way that we
are as PMOs and alsostakeholders and supporters to
the PMOs is actually changing.
It's changed a lot in the last18 months than I think it has in
the last 18 years.
And yes, AI is coming and it'salready starting to rewrite
(02:47):
playbooks and how things areoperating.
And there was a big emphasis onthat.
And when you registered, Iasked what you wanted to hear
about, and a lot of you talkedabout AI.
So, as PMO leaders, we have theopportunity to decide how we
move forward and how we uhrespond as opposed to react to
the future, and we'll do that,um, do that together today.
(03:08):
So, you've told me through yourum responses that you're hungry
for three key things.
So, one of them is how tointegrate AI into real PMO work,
so not theory, but more dailyexecution.
You also asked about what PMOis going to look like for 2026,
and then also how to simplifygovernance.
So, I'm going to try to takeyou behind the scenes and give
(03:31):
you some examples of that aswell to help you understand
what's actually happening inthat landscape.
Um, so again, thank you forjoining me.
It means a lot for me to havethis uh with you here today.
So, some of the questions youasked.
One of the key themes of theconference last month was around
minimum viable governance.
We've probably all heard theterm MVP, uh, but minimum viable
(03:55):
governance was something thatwas discussed quite a lot in the
conference, as well asresourcing capability.
I had a question this morningfrom someone in the community
asking how they help to justifythe resources needed for their
function with their CFO, as oneexample.
And so balancing resource andcapability is going to be key.
And then also we're starting tosee how changing uh changing
(04:19):
pace around us is affecting thework that we do and the work we
should stop doing as well.
We ran some polls over the lastfour to six weeks on LinkedIn,
and you can see from the pollquestions and the highlighted
green being the highest rated.
Interestingly, um, some ofthese things here may not
(04:40):
surprise you.
One example of that thatprobably won't surprise you is
that PMOs will primarily be seenas strategic partners.
So the fourth uh box on theleft side.
Now we say that every year.
I've been in this space forover 20 years and I hear that
every year, and it has notchanged and it'll continue to be
(05:00):
the drive that we need.
But also, in addition to beinga strategic partner where we're
focused on the executives, wealso need to support our
delivery teams so that we canhelp them unblock and help them
to deliver more value.
And so this goes to the bottomright corner where it talks
about how should PMO success bemeasured in 2026?
And 76% of respondents saidvalue delivered.
(05:23):
But what does value mean?
It means different things todifferent people.
So I have a question for you.
If value delivered is thenumber one measure in PMO, then
thinking about your teams oryour functions, whether you're
running a function yourself oryou um employ people who do, or
maybe you're an executive leaderthat runs uh PMO teams, what's
(05:45):
one behavior that a PMO needs tostop doing to increase value?
And think about it that fromthe perspective of your own
personal situation.
What could your PMO stop doingthat will then actually drive
value?
So have a think about that umand we'll we'll continue to um
elaborate on some of these as wego through as well.
(06:06):
Lots of good progress.
So every time I I host awebinar like this, I like to
share and congratulate my peersin the industry because there's
been so much good progress inthe last 12 months alone.
These are just very smallsnippets of what's happening in
industry for those that aren'talready in the know.
(06:27):
Um, one of the really excitingthings that we've um co-founded
is the PMO Leader MentoringProgram.
It's first of its kind.
We have hundreds of mentors andmentees that are paired
together to help progress, andit's a it's a free service
that's been provided.
We had our conference lastyear.
You had the uh the PMO GlobalAlliance being acquired or
(06:49):
partnered with PMI.
There's a lot of thingshappening in the project
management and agile alliancespace.
There's so much great work, andI have to say it's moving at an
exceptional speed, and that'sbecause of our um great
colleagues that have been thosethat were before me, and some of
you today, we're doing somereally good things to really
drive that moving forward.
(07:09):
So, what did we say last year?
So, if you've been followingalong, you know that we um
constantly do a PMO trends blogevery year, usually around
October, November.
And this year it coincided verynicely with the end of our
global conference.
And we talked about the trendsfor last year, and I really do
feel that a lot of these thingsdid progress.
(07:33):
One of the really good examplesof that is ESG.
So, environmental and socialgovernance.
So, that aspect of ESG isbecome even more prominent with
the recent acquisition by PMI ofGreen Project Management as an
example.
And I reference that becausethey are the biggest.
There's been an influx of AI,and every PPM provider that I
(07:56):
think I know of now that reachesout has got something new in
terms of um AI integrations.
Some of it is just a cover andnot really much thought behind
what is the integrations, butotherwise, there are some that
are really going that extramile.
And so there's a lot of thatreally happening.
So it's sort of decipheringwhat is actually going to add
(08:17):
value for your teams and whatthings are maybe not yet matured
enough.
PMOs are re-establishing atexecutive level.
I'm speaking to an executivethis afternoon, and I've had
about three conversations in thelast month alone where
executives are not really surehow their PMOs are driving their
strategic objectives and thevalue for their strategy.
(08:38):
So helping them to connect thedots between what the executives
want and the PMOs is reallyimportant.
And so that continues to be arecurring theme.
So AI went mainstream,governance evolved, and I think
one of the big um overarchingtrends is transformation.
Continuously, it hasn'tchanged, and there's some
fatigue starting to set in aswell, and people are going to
(09:00):
continuously be fatigued.
So PMOs, we really have anopportunity to help uh support
our stakeholders and ourdelivery to see the value of the
things that are coming acrossus at a fast pace as well.
The key theme of 2025 has beenfocusing on what's within your
control and adapting faster thanyour environment.
(09:21):
And doing that is going to helpsupport all of the
transformation agendas that yourorganizations that you work for
have.
So I'm keen to know, pleasefeel free to put it into the
chat.
Is there anything here thatactually surprises you?
Um, or if you were in the PMOTrends discussion last year, was
there anything there that stoodout?
Or maybe there's something onthere that you think you have
(09:44):
not heard of or seen and ithasn't really made waves.
Um, so please, yeah, feel freeto join in on the conversation
in the chat as we move forward,we'll look into 2026.
I am managing a couple ofscreens, so I am going to try to
pay attention to your commentsas we go as well.
Um, and if there's anyquestions, I'll try to get to
them throughout.
(10:05):
So, 2026.
What do we think is on thehorizon?
So, as I said, I could standhere and will sit here and sort
of say it's this and it's that,but it's only one person's
opinion.
So instead, I've garneredinsights from the global
community through the conferenceand through numerous other
(10:26):
avenues to understand whatactually is trending when it
comes to PMO and what I thinkmaybe would be the major trends.
That being said, we know PMO,depending on the organization
and the maturity, can be quitecomplex and varies
significantly.
And so, unlike projectmanagement, which is a bit
self-explanatory, PMOs vary verydifferently across organization
(10:48):
and industry.
So the trends today that we'regoing to cover are based on a
few different um insights thatI've that I've sort of gleaned.
And there's five key ones thatwe're going to cover off.
Each of these five PMO trendsin no particular order reflect a
shift from just activity toactually making um driving
(11:11):
value.
And also, as I mentionedearlier, it's not just about
driving value for ourexecutives.
We all understand, um, and Iwas talking to someone about an
hour ago actually, and we weredebating why is it that the
executives who fund oftenmillions of dollars of projects
don't really understand the roleor the power of PMO.
(11:31):
And that's often because it'snot directly tied to their KPIs.
And so there's a really goodopportunity for PMOs to move
from just being passiveobservers to strategy to more
orchestrators.
And some of you might alreadydo that, and that's really
great.
So in 2026, when we think aboutthe key themes and these five
(11:52):
here, we'll go into them one byone.
Again, you're going to see andhear me talk about clarity and
maturity and then measuredadaptability.
Adaptive governance issomething I've been living and
breathing, and I will talk alittle bit about that also
shortly.
So let's get into the first onetogether.
So PMR is capabilityarchitects.
(12:13):
Now, I know that some um somepeople might read the word
architect and think I'm talkingabout IT, um, and I'm not, and
I'm not suggesting there's anyrelation there.
But when we think about it,it's it's about building the
foundations, it's about not justthinking about not just
thinking about what we oftenfocus on is capacity and
(12:34):
resourcing, but actually thecapabilities needed for our
organizations and our PMOs tosucceed.
I often find that in almostevery conversation with any
client, the one of the firstprobably top three things that
people discuss with me is thelack of resources.
We don't have enough resources,we don't have enough resources,
(12:56):
we don't have enough resources.
But the truth is, if you haveclarity on the capabilities that
you have in your organizationand you have the right people in
the right positions and theright processes and tools to
support the capabilities thatyou uh employ in your teams,
that's going to be moreimportant than just continuously
adding headcount.
I had an executive discussionrecently where I requested
(13:19):
additional resources, and thefirst response usually is no, we
don't have budget for that.
But when you can actually showyour capability map and show
your executive or your sponsorwhat the capabilities you have
and where your PMO itself ismaybe stalled or held back
because of these capabilitygaps, it makes it a lot more
(13:40):
easier to justify resourcing.
But first, to do that, you needto assess, map, and understand
what it is that you're trying touplift.
So if you don't have thatfoundation, it makes it really,
really difficult.
We saw this theme a lot in theconference last month, and we
found that, and even in theglobal awards, PMO awards that
that's run by PMI, the strongestPMOs actually measure the
(14:03):
capability, not just capacity.
So we probably all know aboutresource management and
workforce management and measurecapacity, but do you actually
measure capability?
And the capability is theability to do whatever it is
that we're trying to do, notjust about people's skills and
people's capabilities, but yourteam, your organization, the
programs and projects that wesupport.
(14:25):
So doing so, as an actually oneexample I remember.
So Matt, um Matt Dragen fromMatt Tay reminded us that when
we think about like changemanagement as an example, um,
one of the things that they'rethinking about is that not only
the capacity needed in BAU oroperations when a program is
going live, but actually thecapabilities needed to sustain
(14:47):
the change that is happening inan organization.
It's very similar in PMOs.
PMOs themselves can define notonly when we're ready to deliver
by understanding the capabilitylandscape, but also what we
want to deliver.
And the stats speak forthemselves.
Um, you're more likely toachieve your goals when you map
(15:08):
to strategic objectives.
And the capabilities can bedone that way as well.
So define your capability maps,clarifying the roles,
responsibilities, decisionrights, governance, you'd be
amazed how just fixing thosesorts of things would really
make a big difference.
And then not thinking aboutresource planning purely as a
head count, but actually aboutcapabilities as well.
And this is why PMO ascapability architects is one of
(15:33):
the key themes that I'm speakingabout today.
When we think about PMOs aswell, if you don't have a clear
capability map, don't worry,organizations, many
organizations we speak to don't,but it's the fastest way to
reduce friction and improvedelivery.
Because when you've gotsomething visual that you can
point to to talk to, it reallyhelps executives, especially
(15:57):
when you've sort of heat mappedit, to really understand where
the gaps that you have are andalso helps you to push back
sometimes when maybe there isn'tenough capacity to deliver or
take on additional work.
So thinking about how we canuse concepts of architecture and
capability together can reallyhelp and it will provide that
clarity, which I mentioned is akey theme at the beginning.
(16:20):
If you have any comments orthoughts on that, please do
share it in the chat.
I'm keen to hear it, even if Iread them all later as well.
So the second key theme is PMOsas AI custodians.
Now, this one might get peoplea little bit offside.
This isn't AI is not a PMOtrend.
(16:41):
I've just let me be clear onthat.
But the operating cadence andrhythm around it is AI is not
just a tech change, um, it's awhole of business um
transformation, usually.
It may start in IT, but itreally is needing um
organizational functions,including PMOs, to use it,
experiment with it.
But more importantly, a big gapat the moment that I'm seeing
(17:04):
is governance to support AI.
And let me ground this with aquick example.
So one of the really, reallylarge clients we've been working
with it recently, they went outand they introduced Microsoft
Copilot.
They rolled our MicrosoftCo-Pilot across their
organization, and then after afew months, it was gone.
(17:25):
Nobody knew why.
As we delve deeper andunderstood the reasoning behind
it, is because the governance tosupport the AI use wasn't
actually defined.
It wasn't ready.
So once again, just introducinga tool for tools' sake is not
going to add any value.
So then they brought inclarity, they defined some
training, they introducedtraining into their learning
(17:46):
management systems, they put insome guardrails to protect the
company, and then adoption nowis absolutely skyrocketed.
And the activities associatedwith AI and the governance can
really is a really bigopportunity for PMIs to put
their hand up and get involved,particularly if you're at an
enterprise level, because youusually see these things on the
horizon.
(18:06):
So one of the other key thingswhen it comes to AI is data.
And if you're running a PMOthat's leveraging PPM tools and
other tools that hold a lot ofdata, you understand that data
quality is absolutely essential.
And so helping to frame up howwe do governance better to
support making sure that theright information is there to be
(18:28):
used and integrated with AI isreally important.
And so again, I go back toclarity, then accountability,
and obviously the oversight.
So it's not just about tech.
AI is coming, but withoutguardrails, it's going to be
chaotic.
It's already starting to bethat way in a number of
organizations.
And so it's an opportunity forPMOs to step up and help to
(18:50):
support balancingexperimentation, innovation, but
also driving accountability andgovernance as well.
So knowing where AI fits withindelivery, how delivery teams
may use it, how they potentiallycould increase the way that
they work and supporteliminating some of those low,
(19:12):
low-value activities may thenincrease the capacity for your
delivery teams as well.
And another thing is training.
So we often find that PMOs andchange management work together
really well.
And those teams might beinvolved in supporting the
rollout of AI.
So helping to actually beinvolved in that and helping to
(19:32):
define training or provide inputto trainings that would be
better use, better use cases fordelivery teams who you best
understand could be reallysupportive.
So AI custodians potentially, Ikind of see that there will be
an opportunity here.
And this is predominantlybecause I feel that there isn't
really a specific home for itanywhere else.
(19:55):
And this is why I feel like asAI adoption grows, AI maybe
becomes something that PMOsspend a bit more time in, and
particularly with the expertisewe bring around governance and
accountability.
So maybe this could be acompetitive advantage if you're
trying to.
Maybe you're really efficientin a lot of other areas and
you're looking for moreinnovative ways to grow your
(20:15):
PMO.
Well, this is one of the thingsI'm seeing some of those more
mature PMOs do.
So that was number two.
Now, the third one is PMOs astranslators of change.
Now, I speak to a lot of changepeople.
We had a huge emphasis onchange management last year.
(20:36):
We had a huge emphasis onchange management in our
conference last month.
And people are starting to seethat there is many organizations
out there that are not gettingchange right.
In the absence of changemanagement practices and
functions and maturity thatchange management professionals
bring, where there is that gap,it's an opportunity for PMOs to
(20:59):
step up and get involved.
One of the skills that I wish Ilearned early in my career that
is being invaluable for me isunderstanding change management.
Because although PMOs aresupporting change, they're not
necessarily the change managers,but understanding the skills
that change management brings isactually really important
consistently becausetransformations are always on
(21:21):
the horizon.
So one of the things I talkedabout last year was micro
change.
So this is something we implorewith a lot of clients where we
will get them to think about acadence, it might be a weekly
cadence, and we introduce microchanges where we think of them
as like really short, sharp miniprojects as really clear scope,
(21:42):
this is defined timeline, andyou've got a dedicated squad
team, if you like, and you'reimplementing microchange that
then improves the outcomes fordelivery stakeholders and better
aligns what the organization istrying to achieve.
Renee in our um conference lastmonth, she's um was just
recently the VP at one of theVPs at McDonald's.
(22:04):
She talked about telling yourstory as well and thinking like
a consultant.
And so as a consultant, wewould typically come in and
identify some changes that anorganization needs to make.
We would then makerecommendations for how to get
there and then we'll helpexecute.
You could do the same thing asyour own PMO.
That would be something that Ithink we could add a lot of
(22:25):
value quite quickly, especiallybecause a microchange can be
done fairly quickly, and you canstart seeing value going back
to what we talked about earlier.
So when we had one of oursenior execs at our conference,
Bashaki, she talked aboutstarting where your stakeholders
are, reducing fear and knowingwhen to act.
So when we think about thesethings, it's about understanding
(22:48):
what stakeholders actually needand then helping to derive the
plan and plan of action to getus there.
So it's a really goodopportunity.
Again, this is why this hascome back into the themes this
year.
I really do feel like thatchange management is
undervalued, underappreciated,and underestimated.
I know PMOs were there maybefive years ago, and we're
starting to change that.
(23:08):
And I'm hoping that with someof the work PMOs and change can
do together, we'll be able totranslate more strategy into
action, we'll be able tointroduce more storytelling, and
we'll be able to helpexecutives understand the impact
and value that some of thesethings can bring.
And this is why I'm suggestingthat PMO translators of change
is a theme for this year aswell.
(23:29):
There are some there are manystats out there when it comes to
this space.
But one thing I can say isstats aside, in the circles that
I am part of that relate tochange management, there
definitely is an appetite forchange and PMOs to work
together.
Change, as I talk about often,managing stakeholders
(23:52):
externally, externally todelivery and externally to an
organization, and then also thePMOs working into delivery.
And being the two together handin glove can actually drive
really great outcomes.
So it's definitely anopportunity if you're thinking
about capabilities and areaswhere you can grow, I would
highly recommend you think aboutchange.
So this next one, uh, PMO asregulatory integrators.
(24:20):
So the reason I'm mentioningthis, so if you're if you're in
Australia at the moment, youmight have heard about the
Australian Financial ServicesLicence or AFSL.
There's a number of differentum number of different
governance regulations that arecoming out that relates to the
payments domain or financialservices.
And a lot of companies, notjust banks, not just financial
(24:41):
service companies themselves, dopayments activities and
payments work.
So, as an example, there'sgoing to be hundreds of
companies that are needing tosecure an AFSL license.
Why is that relevant?
It's one example that is whereregulatory change, which we
can't get around, actually meetsan opportunity because when we
(25:05):
think about regulatory change,people often think it's it's
something that's only managed inthe risk and compliance teams.
But what I found in the lastcouple of years doing some of
this work with clients is thatit's a whole of business change,
particularly when I talk aboutsome of these recent reforms
more locally.
But the the things don't changewhen we talk about global as
(25:25):
well, because there aredefinitely similar engagements
where regulatory change isrequired and the PMOs can step
up and actually take the leadand actually helping to
coordinate and support thiswhole of business change by
working with program managers,working with risk teams, working
with compliance teams.
I'll give you a real example.
So supporting a really largemajor regulatory program of work
(25:50):
for a large retailer.
Initially, the thinking wasthis is compliance work, which
means the assumption is that theregulatory work will be done in
the risk and compliant teams.
But as we sort of delve deeper,what we found is it's actually
was much broader.
So I've spent a lot like lastlarge portion of the last couple
(26:11):
of years helping anorganization to map this
regulatory change and integrateit into the organization.
That's looking at how itaffects HR, how it affects
marketing, how it affectsfinance, how it affects
treasury, how it affects thegovernance teams, how it affects
delivery, and so forth and soforth.
So connecting compliance, risk,transformation, and putting in
(26:35):
really strong deliveryfoundations really, really can
make a big difference.
And so, although someorganizations have dedicated
PMOs that come in to support aregulatory program, depending on
where you're sitting in theorganization, it's you can use
some of those same principles toreally make sure that the
regulatory change that's neededcan be better managed, it has
(26:59):
the right data insights,prioritise well, reporting is
better, accountability isbetter.
And really, I think this is onethat with more and more
regulation, particularly inAustralia at the moment, I'm
finding that there's a bigopportunity here because someone
needs to coordinate and manageall this.
And who better than the PMOs?
Um, and so I really do feellike this would be a good
(27:21):
opportunity.
Um, and this is why I thinkthat it's uh an opportunity for
PMOs to sort of delve into andalso an opportunity for PMOs to
help uplift organizationalmaturity because we need to get
better so we can make sure thatwe're very able to support the
new capabilities we have tobring in.
And this is why I suggest thatthe regulatory integrator uh
(27:41):
integrators as one of thethemes.
And then when I talk aboutthis, um, some examples is
embedding frameworks, it iscoordinating with uh change
teams in terms of what trainingmight be required, it might be
putting in document managementfoundations to support scaling
(28:01):
of the governance associatedwith programs, it might be
mapping the strategic objectiveswith the regulatory
requirements, it might be awhole raft of new capabilities
that need to be brought in toactually better help that
organization manage thatregulatory change and sustain
it.
That's a big gap I see inregulatory programs.
We work so hard to deliver andmeet the regulatory requirements
(28:25):
of the government or thegovernance body, but then
actually embedding it long termis a real big gap.
So I think there's anopportunity there for PMOs as
well.
So that's probably the fourthone, and I again I'm keen to see
how this is um balancing withyour thoughts.
And this is the fifth one.
So as I talk you through thislast of five, I'm keen to just
(28:48):
understand if any one of thefive resonated with you, and if
there is one that you feel morestrongly, have more strong
affinity with.
So please do let me know.
Number five, and again, noparticular order, is the PMOs
are simplifiers of governance.
I mentioned very early on atthe top of this is minimum
viable governance.
It's not a new term, it's notsomething I created, but it
(29:13):
really is something we need toconsider.
When we talk about, I'll giveyou a really good example
actually.
There's a large program of workthat my team and I were
managing recently.
We had 35 stakeholder groups,not stakeholders, groups.
So we were managing, and thisrelates to regulatory, but just
(29:35):
to give you the context, we'retalking about banks, we're
talking about scheme partners,we're talking about industry
regulators, we're talking aboutinternal departments and
functions within anorganization, as well as tech
partners.
All of those 35 groups had tobe coordinated, had to be
aligned on what we were tryingto deliver, how we were going to
deliver it.
And the outcome was we wereable to do all of that with.
(29:59):
One and a half FTE.
That's right, a programmanagement resource and support
resource managed and coordinated35 stakeholder groups through
Clarity with a 90% PIR resultfrom the whole program, internal
and external stakeholders.
You're probably thinking, well,how was that possible?
(30:20):
It's possible because we hadthe right foundations.
We had the minimum viablegovernance needed.
We had removed all of thecomplexity.
We set the right foundationsearly on.
We also made sure weright-sized the governance that
was needed for the organizationbased on their maturity at the
time.
A lot of mistakes that PMOsmake, and I've made this many
times in my past, is you go intoan organization and you assume
(30:43):
that what you did previously isgoing to work for this
organization.
And I can tell you thatorganizations that are large
scale may have sometimes greatermaturity.
And if you try to bring thatinto a smaller organization, you
will fail.
Whereas if you have worked insmaller organizations and then
you go and try to implement thatin a large organization, the
(31:04):
complexity is very chaotic andit becomes something that gets
out of control quite easily.
So you need to have just enoughgovernance, which is where the
minimum viable governance comesin.
And you need to simplify yourprocesses, and you should make
sure that every single aspect ofyour governance is there as an
enabler, not as something thatrestricts you.
(31:26):
When I think about the key, thethree key things that really
worked for us when it comes tominimum viable governance, is we
eliminated anything that wasnot adding value.
And I'll give you a realexample.
We stopped doing certainreports to see if anyone
noticed.
And I talk about that a lot.
And many people didn't notice.
So what do you think happened?
(31:46):
We eliminated them.
We had very cleardecision-making frameworks.
So yes, we had a race here, wehad our governance cadence, we
had three levels of governance.
We had your program level, wehad your head of or general
manager level, and we had your Clevel.
Every single decision, risk,action, change, document,
(32:08):
dependency, everything we didtraversed to one of those three
levels.
What that meant was we couldtailor the governance depending
on the audience, because it'sdifferent audiences and
different governance needs.
And this is again going back tothinking about removing the
complexity.
And then in addition to that,we also made sure that our
(32:29):
change in comms was as effectiveas we could make it by making
sure people got the informationthey needed.
And I'm not talking aboutreports.
Reports was one of many of thethings we did.
We introduced drop-inopportunities where people can
come along and ask questions.
That is something that we madea standard.
We made sure that we hadpre-briefings before reports
(32:51):
went out so that when we went tosteering committees, when we
went to board meetings, therelevant people had already
briefed their executives.
So we continued to drive thatcommunication and change.
So again, we thought about it,we strategically planned it, and
we were able to get somesignificantly beneficial
results.
And so I'm all big insimplifying governance.
(33:12):
I'm all big about adaptivenessand agility, not in terms of
frameworks, methods, all ofthat, but in terms of agility
and the speed and theresponsiveness that we have.
And also about making sure it'svery clear what is your PMO
doing that is needed for yourorganization at this point in
(33:32):
time.
Don't go into an organizationand assume, make sure you take
the time to speak tostakeholders to actually
understand.
So you can eliminate theintroduction of overwhelm and
bureaucracy and all those notfun things that happen.
When you have clarity in place,everything else moves faster.
And so this is why the fifthone is PMO simplifiers of
(33:57):
governance.
That is our job.
Our job is to simplifygovernance.
It's not to add complexity, itis not to just keep introducing
it.
If you're adding something,think about what you can remove.
And so just to quickly recap usbefore I move into some um
recommendations.
I will remind you, we had firstis PMOs capability architects.
(34:20):
We had PMOs as AI custodians,PMOs as translators with change,
PMOs as regulatory integrators,and PMOs as simplifiers of
governance.
Keen to know if there is anyone of those, and I'll just
bring them back up so you canquickly have a look.
One, one, two, three, four, orfive.
(34:40):
What resonated the most?
Um, and I'm very happy, thankyou, AM, to uh Avijet to say all
of them.
Is there one of these thatstood out to you the most?
Or maybe was a surprise?
Um feel free to add that intothe chat.
Okay, so let me take you howlet me take you forward.
(35:03):
Let's talk about bringing itall together.
So translat, yes, translatorsof change.
Translator change, yeah.
It's so important.
If we can get that right, um,one change management change
management will be betterbecause they'll be happier um
and they'll get the the the umshared visibility that they
(35:23):
deserve, but also maybe it'llhelp to um to grow that
relationship further.
So thinking about bringing itall together, um, I want you to
think about something um whileI'm explaining and sharing some
some insights.
Just to answer this question,take 20 seconds, write it down.
If you had to remove one thingtoday from your PMO that would
(35:47):
free up the most capability,what would that be?
So take take 20 seconds andthink about it.
What could you remove thatwould free up the most
capability?
I'm really um challenge you tothink about that.
And there's got to besomething, right?
Because remember,simplification starts with
subtracting things, not addingthings.
(36:08):
Sometimes we think we add moreand more and more and more and
more, but that doesn't actuallyum help.
Simplifying things meansremoving things.
So if your PMO wants to movefaster in 2026, it's not about
adding new frameworks and moreprocesses.
No, it's not about that.
It's about removing friction.
If you don't know where thefriction is, go and ask your
stakeholders, go and find out.
(36:29):
The first couple of weeks, two,three, four weeks of any
engagement I do is talking topeople and listening to
understand where the frictionis.
There's things that PMOs needto do when it comes to their own
personal capabilities and thethings that I think would really
be supportive.
Just some examples for you.
So one of them would beadaptive governance.
(36:51):
One of them is having someinsight around what AI is
actually doing and meaning, andjust so you can have confidence
to talk to it.
Go play around with it, trialit, use Chat GPT, copilot some
of these other tools.
Um, understand your data, startto get like clarity if you're
not already clear on what datayou have available, make sure
it's clean, because that's whatthe broader teams are going to
(37:12):
use when we think about AI.
And then also that changetranslation.
So, how do you bring in, if youdon't have the skills and
capabilities of changemanagement, how do you bring
that in?
How do you supplement your ownskills and bring that in?
So if you think about buildingcapability and you want to
future proof your PMO in 2026,think about those sort of three
or four things because I thinkthey'll be really supportive for
(37:34):
you.
So, my key message is um for2026 practical, not
performative.
So, what this means is don't gobuild a PMO for the optics of
it and also um don't do whatmany of us do.
And I'll admit I've done thisin the past early in my career,
where we build a PMO based onour egos.
Unfortunately, that's not goingto work, it won't sustain you.
(37:55):
You'll be one of those statsthat keeps being thrown around.
But build one that actuallyhelps people to deliver.
So if it doesn't move workforward, it is noise and remove
it.
And the way you'll know if it'snoise is you will keep hearing
people complaining about it.
And you want to be the one thathears about it, as opposed to
people talking about it and younot knowing.
Truth and trust.
(38:15):
Um, Renee spoke about this inthe conference last month.
Truth and trust means that youwill build not only success in
execution, but success in thetrust that you'll get with your
executives.
Executives don't need 30-pageglossy reports, although
sometimes they demand it.
They need the truth early.
They need the, I need thisinformation now, not just in
(38:37):
case, but just in time.
They need to know that theinformation you're providing
them is built on trust.
Stakeholder management is aprocess.
It's it's not a process, sorry,um, it's everyday.
Uh, Kathy, one of our umspeakers last month said that.
Stakeholder management isn't aprocess.
People think of it as it's aprocess.
No, it's something we have todo every day and embed in our
(39:00):
work.
And then clarity is the newcapability.
So clarity will outperformheadcounts, tools, processes,
any of that.
If your people don't know whoowns what, how decisions are
made, where they findinformation, how they get stuff
done, then nothing will actuallymove.
So if you only leave today withone belief, think about the
(39:20):
fact that PMOs don't failbecause of lack of effort,
because some of you are workingmore than ever before, but it's
because they fail because oflack of clarity at the executive
level.
And they'll also fail becauseof lack of clarity in their
stakeholder community, in theirdelivery teams that they're
supporting.
So they're my they're sort ofmy four key messages.
(39:40):
And I also want to quicklyshare with you when PIMOs say to
me, where do I start?
I will say to you, start withcapability clarity.
If you don't know yourreadiness, you don't know your
roadmap, you should have that,you should have visibility of
that.
Your teams need to understandit.
And so here are some things tothink about.
(40:02):
When you think about PIMO,think of it as like an
intelligence system, right?
Think of it not as an adminfunction, although there is
aspects of that.
Think about it as the custodianof decision flow and
adaptability and the one thatunderstands the information and
then disseminates thatinformation first.
Think about moving from justreporting to actually helping
delivery teams to be better atwhat they do.
(40:24):
If your PMO isn't running inthat sort of cadence, then it
will be replaced by a lot of AIand also replaced by one that is
more effective.
So it's not about embedding newinformation, it's about
reframing and reshaping theidentity that your PMO brings.
And the way that you do that isby getting more stakeholders on
site.
Doing less, but doing itbetter.
(40:46):
That's essential.
So here's some steps that Iwill um talk you through to the
leap to help you move forward.
Um these are things that Iwould literally be doing, and I
have done and will continue todo.
So mapping your currentcapabilities.
Again, people will assumecapability means the people's
(41:07):
skills and the people'scapabilities.
I'm not just talking aboutthat.
I'm actually talking aboutpeople, process, tools,
including technology.
So you need to map your currentcapabilities and understand
where your strengths are, notjust for you, but for the teams
that you'll support in yourorganization.
You will also understand thegaps.
By having those conversations,what it will enable you to do is
(41:32):
actually go through a processwhere you can identify the gaps
that you have and then work outhow you eliminate them.
You might identify this, youdefine your capabilities, and
then you start thinking aboutthose microprojects that I
mentioned earlier.
But also, as you're goingthrough the process, you might
find that there's a gap becausethere's a decision bottleneck.
I'll give you an example ofthat.
So one organization in themanufacturing space that I was
(41:56):
working with in recent years,they uh had a had a view that
they had full oversight of allof their projects.
Little to their surprise or tothe managing director's
surprise, they actually didn't.
So they only had a few milliondollars budget, but they had
over 96 projects running when wedid a little bit of a uh
(42:20):
project amnesty and actuallywent and sourced that
information.
But what was happening wasbecause the decision making um
process wasn't clear around theintake process of new ideas and
getting them validated andapproved and funded, operational
teams in the business just wentaway and started introducing
new projects after projectsafter projects after projects.
And then what happened is asthey started to introduce uh
(42:43):
PMO, the PMO itself startedrealizing that it was going to
be near impossible to put insome foundations to improve and
uplift project managementbecause there was no decision,
um, there wasn't no decisionauthority or decision-making
capability around how projectswould be identified, mapped,
etc.
So the first thing they startedwith above anything else was
(43:05):
about defining and managing andrefining a demand and pipeline
process that they they then theygot all of the functions in the
organization, so all of yourequivalent GM or heads of to
actually support and be part of.
That made such a significantdifference, and they would not
have known that if they didn'ttake the time to start mapping
their capabilities.
(43:26):
Second one, simplifying onegovernance process.
So this is where you can removefriction.
I'll give you another example.
So working with an energycompany, they were spending,
their product managers werespending an inordinate amount of
time, or product owners rather,an inordinate amount of time
going out to individualstakeholder or stakeholder
(43:47):
groups and presenting what theirthe product maps were, what
they were thinking of designing,um, how they were planning on
delivering, and getting feedbackfrom that.
When we added up how mucheffort that was taking, on
average, it was about 20 to 20to 30 hours per product owner
just to do that exercise.
(44:08):
So we flipped the switch, weseeked feedback from our
stakeholders, and what we did iswe put in a two-hour
placeholder and a certaincadence where the product owners
could then each take in termsto present that information out
to the stakeholder groupscollectively.
That eliminated over 20 hoursof work for them per month.
(44:28):
And so that was a significantway to remove friction for the
product owners who were thenable to deliver more.
This is a really simpleexample, but it really makes it
real and it's based on practice,not just theory.
Clarifying roles andresponsibilities.
You would be amazed at how manyclientele that we've worked
with over the last 10 years,whose one of the biggest
(44:50):
deliverables they ask for is aracy.
And for those that don't knowwhat a racy is, um, responsible,
accountable, sometimes there'san S supporter, consultant,
informed.
Just defining the racy can makea significant difference.
I've got a client that we'vebeen working with recently who
has people with similar roletitles.
(45:10):
So they're very confused inthis organization at the moment,
and that the HR conversationwith me is we've got people that
have similar role titles, andso they don't know where their
role starts, and that rolestops.
There's confusion simply justbecause of role titles.
Now they're not going to go andchange the role titles as
they've just gone through awhole restructure, but instead,
(45:30):
what they're going to do isthey're going to build a racing,
and actually, we're going tomap out throughout the teams
where the basically the valuechain of work is across those
areas.
And then we'll map the rolesand responsibilities and the
people and the role, and it willmake a lot a lot clearer.
So that's that's another um oneto think about.
The fourth one, exploring safeAI opportunities.
(45:51):
So when I say safe, I'm talkingabout one of the biggest things
companies care about the mostis that you're not sharing
sensitive data or any data, infact, that relates to your
environment or the businessyou're in.
Um same in my business.
I don't want my teams sharingdata about our business or any
clients outside of our business.
(46:11):
So doing that into say a publictool is not the right path.
And that's why to make sureit's safe, organizations are
starting to put in guardrails.
And there's some really goodactually guardrails that have
been rolled out by thegovernment.
Um, I can't remember the titleof it, but if anyone wants it,
let me know and I can look itup.
And also, Atlassian's releasedsomething really um, really
smart around responsible AI.
(46:33):
But organizations are startingto do that.
So you want to make sure you'reusing um AI within the
responsible guardrails of yourorganization.
But simple things might be umautomating reporting or report
highlights, it might be creatingum outlines for uh uh
stakeholder packs, it might beum, for example, streamlining um
(46:55):
streamlining the mapping ofgaps that you've identified once
you've gone through thatexercise in step one.
Just small things like that canreally save you a lot of time.
Number five, resetting yourprioritization lens.
So as I said, um I gave anexample earlier, out of every
single engagement, probablyabout 30 different clients over
the last however many years, thenumber one, number one without
(47:20):
fail, doesn't matter what therequirement is, is all around
pipeline management, demand,intake process, prioritization.
And this is why a lot of PPMproviders actually spend such a
significant amount of timerefining that part of their
platform.
That and resource managementare two of the most common ones.
And so this is really, reallyimportant.
(47:41):
And then the last one iscreating a 30, 60, 90-day uplift
plan.
Small incremental actions.
One of the things that's reallyprominent in agile ways of
working is actually to gothrough a process where you may
have, you know, six 90-dayincrements or a 30-day sprint,
whatever works for yourorganization's size and scale,
(48:01):
but start to introduce somethings, get stakeholder input
through the process.
And these are things that youcan do with absolutely zero
budget.
You don't need any money to dothis, you don't need no more
resources.
You can do it withoutpermission.
It's small steps that will thenmake um a great down in the
clarity that you need that willthen drive capability shifts.
And so they would be some ofthe things that I would highly
(48:24):
recommend that you could startwith today.
There is a uh podcast I wrote,I launched two days, sorry, a
podcast episode a couple ofweeks ago, I think.
The team can share it with youaround capability, um,
capability gaps and and um whatto do in that space that I think
could help, give you some morecontext and also capability in
(48:44):
terms of delivery, or you canjust find it um on the Agile
Ideas podcast.
Now, if you've heard me say allthese things and you thought,
oh, maybe I need help, ofcourse, I'm gonna leave you with
this.
So if you're thinking um you'vegone tried, attempted some of
the steps mentioned, maybe yourorganization's new, maybe it's
(49:04):
immature, maybe it's toocomplicated.
Um, I am launching the PMOcapability workshops, which we
will be doing next year.
We've developed our capabilityin a box model, and we've got
these really cool cards, andwe've got persona mappings and
governance pathways, and allthese amazing things.
And it's really perfect fororganizations that want clarity,
(49:25):
don't know where to startperhaps, want something that's
fast, practical.
Typically, these are runusually in one day or two days,
and if it's online remotely,then it's run for teams over a
period of weeks.
But it will help you diagnosewhere your execution gaps are
and also map it to industrystandards so we can kind of give
you insights for your industryand then give you a blueprint
(49:46):
for your capabilities, so yourcapability map, and then a
90-day plan to actually takestraight to leaders and say,
like, this is my roadmap, andthat might include um
opportunities for you to requestresources if you're trying to
grow and scale your PMO.
So nothing big, no bigengagement, no fancy anything,
but it might be something thatcould be valuable for you.
So if you're interested insomething like that, just um
(50:07):
reach out to me or any of theteam, and we're um very happy to
do that and help you.
Now we are at the end of ourmeetup.
Um, there's been a lot ofinformation.
What I will say is we willshare the recording of this next
week.
There's also a full detailedPMO Trends blog that will be
(50:27):
released next week.
You'll also get that becauseyou've registered today.
And I want to leave you with uha key message, and that is
remember to focus on what'swithin your control, um, adapt
faster than your environment.
I know that sounds a bit crazy,but we need to do that so we're
not replaced.
And then also lead withclarity.
(50:48):
Those key three things, if youtake anything from today, are
really essential, and they'll bethe building box to really help
you move forward.
Um, these lines came uprepeatedly during our 2025
conference, um, and the videosfor that are all online on
YouTube as well, but it reallycaptures for me what 2026 is
about.
(51:08):
Remember, clarity isn't aboutlike removing necessarily and
not having any complexitybecause there will be lots of
that, but actually really themastery of it.
And so if anything from todayresonated, I'm I implore you to
please share the video once it'sout, share the blog, um, and
reach out to me if you've gotany um questions, comments, and
(51:29):
yeah, I'd love to help you outif you need anything.
But otherwise, thank you.
Thank you so much for listeningto this podcast.
Please share this with someoneor write it if you enjoyed it.
Don't forget to follow us onsocial media and to stay up to
date with all things AgileIdeas.
Go to our websiteat www.agilemanagementoffice.com.
(51:52):
I hopeyou've been able to learn, feel, or
be inspired today. Until next time, what's your Agile Idea?
You're listening to Agile Ideas the
Podcast, hosted by Fatimah Abbouchi.
For anyone listening out therenot having a good day, please
know there is help out there.
Let's just start by addressingthe fact that PMOs are
definitely changing and there isa lot of changes happening in
(00:20):
the PMO space globally.
And a lot of the changes inPMOs are evident as a result of
some of the insights I'll sharewith you today, which have come
off the back of a global virtualconference that my team and I
held in October last uh lastmonth that had about 1,500 or
(00:41):
1600 people join us globally.
So I will be sharing insightsfrom that directly from all
regions and 30 countries,thousands of practitioners,
executives, consultants, techproviders, and hopefully some of
these insights will help you inyour journey moving forward.
(01:01):
The common thread this year isaround clarity, capability,
governance, and delivery.
And all of these things tieback to the key word for today,
and that is clarity.
So again, welcome to everyonejoining.
Thank you.
Let me know where you're from,and um we'll try to get through
(01:22):
this and hopefully you'll getsome really good insights from
it.
For those of you that don'tknow, I spend my time helping
organizations close theirexecution gaps, capability,
governance, and clarity, andthat's what I'm going to be
sharing a lot about today.
Uh, we will be recording thissession and it will be made
available next week.
Uh, so I'll send not only therecording, but you'll also get
(01:43):
access to the detailed PMOTrends 2026 blog as well, which
I um annually write andsummarise all of the insights
that I'm seeing through that.
Um, the reason I can bring thisto you today is my background,
but also as a co-founder of thePMO leader community, where
we've got a really large globalum community of people that are
(02:06):
sharing their insights and whatthey're seeing across the world
as well.
Today isn't just about PMO,it's a it's a reset because the
world and where PMOs are todayneeds to change.
Things are changing rapidly.
You're going to hear that wordthat everybody's talking about
at some point today, AI.
(02:27):
Um, but our operatingenvironment and the way that we
are as PMOs and alsostakeholders and supporters to
the PMOs is actually changing.
It's changed a lot in the last18 months than I think it has in
the last 18 years.
And yes, AI is coming and it'salready starting to rewrite
(02:47):
playbooks and how things areoperating.
And there was a big emphasis onthat.
And when you registered, Iasked what you wanted to hear
about, and a lot of you talkedabout AI.
So, as PMO leaders, we have theopportunity to decide how we
move forward and how we uhrespond as opposed to react to
the future, and we'll do that,um, do that together today.
(03:08):
So, you've told me through yourum responses that you're hungry
for three key things.
So, one of them is how tointegrate AI into real PMO work,
so not theory, but more dailyexecution.
You also asked about what PMOis going to look like for 2026,
and then also how to simplifygovernance.
So, I'm going to try to takeyou behind the scenes and give
(03:31):
you some examples of that aswell to help you understand
what's actually happening inthat landscape.
Um, so again, thank you forjoining me.
It means a lot for me to havethis uh with you here today.
So, some of the questions youasked.
One of the key themes of theconference last month was around
minimum viable governance.
We've probably all heard theterm MVP, uh, but minimum viable
(03:55):
governance was something thatwas discussed quite a lot in the
conference, as well asresourcing capability.
I had a question this morningfrom someone in the community
asking how they help to justifythe resources needed for their
function with their CFO, as oneexample.
And so balancing resource andcapability is going to be key.
And then also we're starting tosee how changing uh changing
(04:19):
pace around us is affecting thework that we do and the work we
should stop doing as well.
We ran some polls over the lastfour to six weeks on LinkedIn,
and you can see from the pollquestions and the highlighted
green being the highest rated.
Interestingly, um, some ofthese things here may not
(04:40):
surprise you.
One example of that thatprobably won't surprise you is
that PMOs will primarily be seenas strategic partners.
So the fourth uh box on theleft side.
Now we say that every year.
I've been in this space forover 20 years and I hear that
every year, and it has notchanged and it'll continue to be
(05:00):
the drive that we need.
But also, in addition to beinga strategic partner where we're
focused on the executives, wealso need to support our
delivery teams so that we canhelp them unblock and help them
to deliver more value.
And so this goes to the bottomright corner where it talks
about how should PMO success bemeasured in 2026?
And 76% of respondents saidvalue delivered.
(05:23):
But what does value mean?
It means different things todifferent people.
So I have a question for you.
If value delivered is thenumber one measure in PMO, then
thinking about your teams oryour functions, whether you're
running a function yourself oryou um employ people who do, or
maybe you're an executive leaderthat runs uh PMO teams, what's
(05:45):
one behavior that a PMO needs tostop doing to increase value?
And think about it that fromthe perspective of your own
personal situation.
What could your PMO stop doingthat will then actually drive
value?
So have a think about that umand we'll we'll continue to um
elaborate on some of these as wego through as well.
(06:06):
Lots of good progress.
So every time I I host awebinar like this, I like to
share and congratulate my peersin the industry because there's
been so much good progress inthe last 12 months alone.
These are just very smallsnippets of what's happening in
industry for those that aren'talready in the know.
(06:27):
Um, one of the really excitingthings that we've um co-founded
is the PMO Leader MentoringProgram.
It's first of its kind.
We have hundreds of mentors andmentees that are paired
together to help progress, andit's a it's a free service
that's been provided.
We had our conference lastyear.
You had the uh the PMO GlobalAlliance being acquired or
(06:49):
partnered with PMI.
There's a lot of thingshappening in the project
management and agile alliancespace.
There's so much great work, andI have to say it's moving at an
exceptional speed, and that'sbecause of our um great
colleagues that have been thosethat were before me, and some of
you today, we're doing somereally good things to really
drive that moving forward.
(07:09):
So, what did we say last year?
So, if you've been followingalong, you know that we um
constantly do a PMO trends blogevery year, usually around
October, November.
And this year it coincided verynicely with the end of our
global conference.
And we talked about the trendsfor last year, and I really do
feel that a lot of these thingsdid progress.
(07:33):
One of the really good examplesof that is ESG.
So, environmental and socialgovernance.
So, that aspect of ESG isbecome even more prominent with
the recent acquisition by PMI ofGreen Project Management as an
example.
And I reference that becausethey are the biggest.
There's been an influx of AI,and every PPM provider that I
(07:56):
think I know of now that reachesout has got something new in
terms of um AI integrations.
Some of it is just a cover andnot really much thought behind
what is the integrations, butotherwise, there are some that
are really going that extramile.
And so there's a lot of thatreally happening.
So it's sort of decipheringwhat is actually going to add
(08:17):
value for your teams and whatthings are maybe not yet matured
enough.
PMOs are re-establishing atexecutive level.
I'm speaking to an executivethis afternoon, and I've had
about three conversations in thelast month alone where
executives are not really surehow their PMOs are driving their
strategic objectives and thevalue for their strategy.
(08:38):
So helping them to connect thedots between what the executives
want and the PMOs is reallyimportant.
And so that continues to be arecurring theme.
So AI went mainstream,governance evolved, and I think
one of the big um overarchingtrends is transformation.
Continuously, it hasn'tchanged, and there's some
fatigue starting to set in aswell, and people are going to
(09:00):
continuously be fatigued.
So PMOs, we really have anopportunity to help uh support
our stakeholders and ourdelivery to see the value of the
things that are coming acrossus at a fast pace as well.
The key theme of 2025 has beenfocusing on what's within your
control and adapting faster thanyour environment.
(09:21):
And doing that is going to helpsupport all of the
transformation agendas that yourorganizations that you work for
have.
So I'm keen to know, pleasefeel free to put it into the
chat.
Is there anything here thatactually surprises you?
Um, or if you were in the PMOTrends discussion last year, was
there anything there that stoodout?
Or maybe there's something onthere that you think you have
(09:44):
not heard of or seen and ithasn't really made waves.
Um, so please, yeah, feel freeto join in on the conversation
in the chat as we move forward,we'll look into 2026.
I am managing a couple ofscreens, so I am going to try to
pay attention to your commentsas we go as well.
Um, and if there's anyquestions, I'll try to get to
them throughout.
(10:05):
So, 2026.
What do we think is on thehorizon?
So, as I said, I could standhere and will sit here and sort
of say it's this and it's that,but it's only one person's
opinion.
So instead, I've garneredinsights from the global
community through the conferenceand through numerous other
(10:26):
avenues to understand whatactually is trending when it
comes to PMO and what I thinkmaybe would be the major trends.
That being said, we know PMO,depending on the organization
and the maturity, can be quitecomplex and varies
significantly.
And so, unlike projectmanagement, which is a bit
self-explanatory, PMOs vary verydifferently across organization
(10:48):
and industry.
So the trends today that we'regoing to cover are based on a
few different um insights thatI've that I've sort of gleaned.
And there's five key ones thatwe're going to cover off.
Each of these five PMO trendsin no particular order reflect a
shift from just activity toactually making um driving
(11:11):
value.
And also, as I mentionedearlier, it's not just about
driving value for ourexecutives.
We all understand, um, and Iwas talking to someone about an
hour ago actually, and we weredebating why is it that the
executives who fund oftenmillions of dollars of projects
don't really understand the roleor the power of PMO.
(11:31):
And that's often because it'snot directly tied to their KPIs.
And so there's a really goodopportunity for PMOs to move
from just being passiveobservers to strategy to more
orchestrators.
And some of you might alreadydo that, and that's really
great.
So in 2026, when we think aboutthe key themes and these five
(11:52):
here, we'll go into them one byone.
Again, you're going to see andhear me talk about clarity and
maturity and then measuredadaptability.
Adaptive governance issomething I've been living and
breathing, and I will talk alittle bit about that also
shortly.
So let's get into the first onetogether.
So PMR is capabilityarchitects.
(12:13):
Now, I know that some um somepeople might read the word
architect and think I'm talkingabout IT, um, and I'm not, and
I'm not suggesting there's anyrelation there.
But when we think about it,it's it's about building the
foundations, it's about not justthinking about not just
thinking about what we oftenfocus on is capacity and
(12:34):
resourcing, but actually thecapabilities needed for our
organizations and our PMOs tosucceed.
I often find that in almostevery conversation with any
client, the one of the firstprobably top three things that
people discuss with me is thelack of resources.
We don't have enough resources,we don't have enough resources,
(12:56):
we don't have enough resources.
But the truth is, if you haveclarity on the capabilities that
you have in your organizationand you have the right people in
the right positions and theright processes and tools to
support the capabilities thatyou uh employ in your teams,
that's going to be moreimportant than just continuously
adding headcount.
I had an executive discussionrecently where I requested
(13:19):
additional resources, and thefirst response usually is no, we
don't have budget for that.
But when you can actually showyour capability map and show
your executive or your sponsorwhat the capabilities you have
and where your PMO itself ismaybe stalled or held back
because of these capabilitygaps, it makes it a lot more
(13:40):
easier to justify resourcing.
But first, to do that, you needto assess, map, and understand
what it is that you're trying touplift.
So if you don't have thatfoundation, it makes it really,
really difficult.
We saw this theme a lot in theconference last month, and we
found that, and even in theglobal awards, PMO awards that
that's run by PMI, the strongestPMOs actually measure the
(14:03):
capability, not just capacity.
So we probably all know aboutresource management and
workforce management and measurecapacity, but do you actually
measure capability?
And the capability is theability to do whatever it is
that we're trying to do, notjust about people's skills and
people's capabilities, but yourteam, your organization, the
programs and projects that wesupport.
(14:25):
So doing so, as an actually oneexample I remember.
So Matt, um Matt Dragen fromMatt Tay reminded us that when
we think about like changemanagement as an example, um,
one of the things that they'rethinking about is that not only
the capacity needed in BAU oroperations when a program is
going live, but actually thecapabilities needed to sustain
(14:47):
the change that is happening inan organization.
It's very similar in PMOs.
PMOs themselves can define notonly when we're ready to deliver
by understanding the capabilitylandscape, but also what we
want to deliver.
And the stats speak forthemselves.
Um, you're more likely toachieve your goals when you map
(15:08):
to strategic objectives.
And the capabilities can bedone that way as well.
So define your capability maps,clarifying the roles,
responsibilities, decisionrights, governance, you'd be
amazed how just fixing thosesorts of things would really
make a big difference.
And then not thinking aboutresource planning purely as a
head count, but actually aboutcapabilities as well.
And this is why PMO ascapability architects is one of
(15:33):
the key themes that I'm speakingabout today.
When we think about PMOs aswell, if you don't have a clear
capability map, don't worry,organizations, many
organizations we speak to don't,but it's the fastest way to
reduce friction and improvedelivery.
Because when you've gotsomething visual that you can
point to to talk to, it reallyhelps executives, especially
(15:57):
when you've sort of heat mappedit, to really understand where
the gaps that you have are andalso helps you to push back
sometimes when maybe there isn'tenough capacity to deliver or
take on additional work.
So thinking about how we canuse concepts of architecture and
capability together can reallyhelp and it will provide that
clarity, which I mentioned is akey theme at the beginning.
(16:20):
If you have any comments orthoughts on that, please do
share it in the chat.
I'm keen to hear it, even if Iread them all later as well.
So the second key theme is PMOsas AI custodians.
Now, this one might get peoplea little bit offside.
This isn't AI is not a PMOtrend.
(16:41):
I've just let me be clear onthat.
But the operating cadence andrhythm around it is AI is not
just a tech change, um, it's awhole of business um
transformation, usually.
It may start in IT, but itreally is needing um
organizational functions,including PMOs, to use it,
experiment with it.
But more importantly, a big gapat the moment that I'm seeing
(17:04):
is governance to support AI.
And let me ground this with aquick example.
So one of the really, reallylarge clients we've been working
with it recently, they went outand they introduced Microsoft
Copilot.
They rolled our MicrosoftCo-Pilot across their
organization, and then after afew months, it was gone.
(17:25):
Nobody knew why.
As we delve deeper andunderstood the reasoning behind
it, is because the governance tosupport the AI use wasn't
actually defined.
It wasn't ready.
So once again, just introducinga tool for tools' sake is not
going to add any value.
So then they brought inclarity, they defined some
training, they introducedtraining into their learning
(17:46):
management systems, they put insome guardrails to protect the
company, and then adoption nowis absolutely skyrocketed.
And the activities associatedwith AI and the governance can
really is a really bigopportunity for PMIs to put
their hand up and get involved,particularly if you're at an
enterprise level, because youusually see these things on the
horizon.
(18:06):
So one of the other key thingswhen it comes to AI is data.
And if you're running a PMOthat's leveraging PPM tools and
other tools that hold a lot ofdata, you understand that data
quality is absolutely essential.
And so helping to frame up howwe do governance better to
support making sure that theright information is there to be
(18:28):
used and integrated with AI isreally important.
And so again, I go back toclarity, then accountability,
and obviously the oversight.
So it's not just about tech.
AI is coming, but withoutguardrails, it's going to be
chaotic.
It's already starting to bethat way in a number of
organizations.
And so it's an opportunity forPMOs to step up and help to
(18:50):
support balancingexperimentation, innovation, but
also driving accountability andgovernance as well.
So knowing where AI fits withindelivery, how delivery teams
may use it, how they potentiallycould increase the way that
they work and supporteliminating some of those low,
(19:12):
low-value activities may thenincrease the capacity for your
delivery teams as well.
And another thing is training.
So we often find that PMOs andchange management work together
really well.
And those teams might beinvolved in supporting the
rollout of AI.
So helping to actually beinvolved in that and helping to
(19:32):
define training or provide inputto trainings that would be
better use, better use cases fordelivery teams who you best
understand could be reallysupportive.
So AI custodians potentially, Ikind of see that there will be
an opportunity here.
And this is predominantlybecause I feel that there isn't
really a specific home for itanywhere else.
(19:55):
And this is why I feel like asAI adoption grows, AI maybe
becomes something that PMOsspend a bit more time in, and
particularly with the expertisewe bring around governance and
accountability.
So maybe this could be acompetitive advantage if you're
trying to.
Maybe you're really efficientin a lot of other areas and
you're looking for moreinnovative ways to grow your
(20:15):
PMO.
Well, this is one of the thingsI'm seeing some of those more
mature PMOs do.
So that was number two.
Now, the third one is PMOs astranslators of change.
Now, I speak to a lot of changepeople.
We had a huge emphasis onchange management last year.
(20:36):
We had a huge emphasis onchange management in our
conference last month.
And people are starting to seethat there is many organizations
out there that are not gettingchange right.
In the absence of changemanagement practices and
functions and maturity thatchange management professionals
bring, where there is that gap,it's an opportunity for PMOs to
(20:59):
step up and get involved.
One of the skills that I wish Ilearned early in my career that
is being invaluable for me isunderstanding change management.
Because although PMOs aresupporting change, they're not
necessarily the change managers,but understanding the skills
that change management brings isactually really important
consistently becausetransformations are always on
(21:21):
the horizon.
So one of the things I talkedabout last year was micro
change.
So this is something we implorewith a lot of clients where we
will get them to think about acadence, it might be a weekly
cadence, and we introduce microchanges where we think of them
as like really short, sharp miniprojects as really clear scope,
(21:42):
this is defined timeline, andyou've got a dedicated squad
team, if you like, and you'reimplementing microchange that
then improves the outcomes fordelivery stakeholders and better
aligns what the organization istrying to achieve.
Renee in our um conference lastmonth, she's um was just
recently the VP at one of theVPs at McDonald's.
(22:04):
She talked about telling yourstory as well and thinking like
a consultant.
And so as a consultant, wewould typically come in and
identify some changes that anorganization needs to make.
We would then makerecommendations for how to get
there and then we'll helpexecute.
You could do the same thing asyour own PMO.
That would be something that Ithink we could add a lot of
(22:25):
value quite quickly, especiallybecause a microchange can be
done fairly quickly, and you canstart seeing value going back
to what we talked about earlier.
So when we had one of oursenior execs at our conference,
Bashaki, she talked aboutstarting where your stakeholders
are, reducing fear and knowingwhen to act.
So when we think about thesethings, it's about understanding
(22:48):
what stakeholders actually needand then helping to derive the
plan and plan of action to getus there.
So it's a really goodopportunity.
Again, this is why this hascome back into the themes this
year.
I really do feel like thatchange management is
undervalued, underappreciated,and underestimated.
I know PMOs were there maybefive years ago, and we're
starting to change that.
(23:08):
And I'm hoping that with someof the work PMOs and change can
do together, we'll be able totranslate more strategy into
action, we'll be able tointroduce more storytelling, and
we'll be able to helpexecutives understand the impact
and value that some of thesethings can bring.
And this is why I'm suggestingthat PMO translators of change
is a theme for this year aswell.
(23:29):
There are some there are manystats out there when it comes to
this space.
But one thing I can say isstats aside, in the circles that
I am part of that relate tochange management, there
definitely is an appetite forchange and PMOs to work
together.
Change, as I talk about often,managing stakeholders
(23:52):
externally, externally todelivery and externally to an
organization, and then also thePMOs working into delivery.
And being the two together handin glove can actually drive
really great outcomes.
So it's definitely anopportunity if you're thinking
about capabilities and areaswhere you can grow, I would
highly recommend you think aboutchange.
So this next one, uh, PMO asregulatory integrators.
(24:20):
So the reason I'm mentioningthis, so if you're if you're in
Australia at the moment, youmight have heard about the
Australian Financial ServicesLicence or AFSL.
There's a number of differentum number of different
governance regulations that arecoming out that relates to the
payments domain or financialservices.
And a lot of companies, notjust banks, not just financial
(24:41):
service companies themselves, dopayments activities and
payments work.
So, as an example, there'sgoing to be hundreds of
companies that are needing tosecure an AFSL license.
Why is that relevant?
It's one example that is whereregulatory change, which we
can't get around, actually meetsan opportunity because when we
(25:05):
think about regulatory change,people often think it's it's
something that's only managed inthe risk and compliance teams.
But what I found in the lastcouple of years doing some of
this work with clients is thatit's a whole of business change,
particularly when I talk aboutsome of these recent reforms
more locally.
But the the things don't changewhen we talk about global as
(25:25):
well, because there aredefinitely similar engagements
where regulatory change isrequired and the PMOs can step
up and actually take the leadand actually helping to
coordinate and support thiswhole of business change by
working with program managers,working with risk teams, working
with compliance teams.
I'll give you a real example.
So supporting a really largemajor regulatory program of work
(25:50):
for a large retailer.
Initially, the thinking wasthis is compliance work, which
means the assumption is that theregulatory work will be done in
the risk and compliant teams.
But as we sort of delve deeper,what we found is it's actually
was much broader.
So I've spent a lot like lastlarge portion of the last couple
(26:11):
of years helping anorganization to map this
regulatory change and integrateit into the organization.
That's looking at how itaffects HR, how it affects
marketing, how it affectsfinance, how it affects
treasury, how it affects thegovernance teams, how it affects
delivery, and so forth and soforth.
So connecting compliance, risk,transformation, and putting in
(26:35):
really strong deliveryfoundations really, really can
make a big difference.
And so, although someorganizations have dedicated
PMOs that come in to support aregulatory program, depending on
where you're sitting in theorganization, it's you can use
some of those same principles toreally make sure that the
regulatory change that's neededcan be better managed, it has
(26:59):
the right data insights,prioritise well, reporting is
better, accountability isbetter.
And really, I think this is onethat with more and more
regulation, particularly inAustralia at the moment, I'm
finding that there's a bigopportunity here because someone
needs to coordinate and manageall this.
And who better than the PMOs?
Um, and so I really do feellike this would be a good
(27:21):
opportunity.
Um, and this is why I thinkthat it's uh an opportunity for
PMOs to sort of delve into andalso an opportunity for PMOs to
help uplift organizationalmaturity because we need to get
better so we can make sure thatwe're very able to support the
new capabilities we have tobring in.
And this is why I suggest thatthe regulatory integrator uh
(27:41):
integrators as one of thethemes.
And then when I talk aboutthis, um, some examples is
embedding frameworks, it iscoordinating with uh change
teams in terms of what trainingmight be required, it might be
putting in document managementfoundations to support scaling
(28:01):
of the governance associatedwith programs, it might be
mapping the strategic objectiveswith the regulatory
requirements, it might be awhole raft of new capabilities
that need to be brought in toactually better help that
organization manage thatregulatory change and sustain
it.
That's a big gap I see inregulatory programs.
We work so hard to deliver andmeet the regulatory requirements
(28:25):
of the government or thegovernance body, but then
actually embedding it long termis a real big gap.
So I think there's anopportunity there for PMOs as
well.
So that's probably the fourthone, and I again I'm keen to see
how this is um balancing withyour thoughts.
And this is the fifth one.
So as I talk you through thislast of five, I'm keen to just
(28:48):
understand if any one of thefive resonated with you, and if
there is one that you feel morestrongly, have more strong
affinity with.
So please do let me know.
Number five, and again, noparticular order, is the PMOs
are simplifiers of governance.
I mentioned very early on atthe top of this is minimum
viable governance.
It's not a new term, it's notsomething I created, but it
(29:13):
really is something we need toconsider.
When we talk about, I'll giveyou a really good example
actually.
There's a large program of workthat my team and I were
managing recently.
We had 35 stakeholder groups,not stakeholders, groups.
So we were managing, and thisrelates to regulatory, but just
(29:35):
to give you the context, we'retalking about banks, we're
talking about scheme partners,we're talking about industry
regulators, we're talking aboutinternal departments and
functions within anorganization, as well as tech
partners.
All of those 35 groups had tobe coordinated, had to be
aligned on what we were tryingto deliver, how we were going to
deliver it.
And the outcome was we wereable to do all of that with.
(29:59):
One and a half FTE.
That's right, a programmanagement resource and support
resource managed and coordinated35 stakeholder groups through
Clarity with a 90% PIR resultfrom the whole program, internal
and external stakeholders.
You're probably thinking, well,how was that possible?
(30:20):
It's possible because we hadthe right foundations.
We had the minimum viablegovernance needed.
We had removed all of thecomplexity.
We set the right foundationsearly on.
We also made sure weright-sized the governance that
was needed for the organizationbased on their maturity at the
time.
A lot of mistakes that PMOsmake, and I've made this many
times in my past, is you go intoan organization and you assume
(30:43):
that what you did previously isgoing to work for this
organization.
And I can tell you thatorganizations that are large
scale may have sometimes greatermaturity.
And if you try to bring thatinto a smaller organization, you
will fail.
Whereas if you have worked insmaller organizations and then
you go and try to implement thatin a large organization, the
(31:04):
complexity is very chaotic andit becomes something that gets
out of control quite easily.
So you need to have just enoughgovernance, which is where the
minimum viable governance comesin.
And you need to simplify yourprocesses, and you should make
sure that every single aspect ofyour governance is there as an
enabler, not as something thatrestricts you.
(31:26):
When I think about the key, thethree key things that really
worked for us when it comes tominimum viable governance, is we
eliminated anything that wasnot adding value.
And I'll give you a realexample.
We stopped doing certainreports to see if anyone
noticed.
And I talk about that a lot.
And many people didn't notice.
So what do you think happened?
(31:46):
We eliminated them.
We had very cleardecision-making frameworks.
So yes, we had a race here, wehad our governance cadence, we
had three levels of governance.
We had your program level, wehad your head of or general
manager level, and we had your Clevel.
Every single decision, risk,action, change, document,
(32:08):
dependency, everything we didtraversed to one of those three
levels.
What that meant was we couldtailor the governance depending
on the audience, because it'sdifferent audiences and
different governance needs.
And this is again going back tothinking about removing the
complexity.
And then in addition to that,we also made sure that our
(32:29):
change in comms was as effectiveas we could make it by making
sure people got the informationthey needed.
And I'm not talking aboutreports.
Reports was one of many of thethings we did.
We introduced drop-inopportunities where people can
come along and ask questions.
That is something that we madea standard.
We made sure that we hadpre-briefings before reports
(32:51):
went out so that when we went tosteering committees, when we
went to board meetings, therelevant people had already
briefed their executives.
So we continued to drive thatcommunication and change.
So again, we thought about it,we strategically planned it, and
we were able to get somesignificantly beneficial
results.
And so I'm all big insimplifying governance.
(33:12):
I'm all big about adaptivenessand agility, not in terms of
frameworks, methods, all ofthat, but in terms of agility
and the speed and theresponsiveness that we have.
And also about making sure it'svery clear what is your PMO
doing that is needed for yourorganization at this point in
(33:32):
time.
Don't go into an organizationand assume, make sure you take
the time to speak tostakeholders to actually
understand.
So you can eliminate theintroduction of overwhelm and
bureaucracy and all those notfun things that happen.
When you have clarity in place,everything else moves faster.
And so this is why the fifthone is PMO simplifiers of
(33:57):
governance.
That is our job.
Our job is to simplifygovernance.
It's not to add complexity, itis not to just keep introducing
it.
If you're adding something,think about what you can remove.
And so just to quickly recap usbefore I move into some um
recommendations.
I will remind you, we had firstis PMOs capability architects.
(34:20):
We had PMOs as AI custodians,PMOs as translators with change,
PMOs as regulatory integrators,and PMOs as simplifiers of
governance.
Keen to know if there is anyone of those, and I'll just
bring them back up so you canquickly have a look.
One, one, two, three, four, orfive.
(34:40):
What resonated the most?
Um, and I'm very happy, thankyou, AM, to uh Avijet to say all
of them.
Is there one of these thatstood out to you the most?
Or maybe was a surprise?
Um feel free to add that intothe chat.
Okay, so let me take you howlet me take you forward.
(35:03):
Let's talk about bringing itall together.
So translat, yes, translatorsof change.
Translator change, yeah.
It's so important.
If we can get that right, um,one change management change
management will be betterbecause they'll be happier um
and they'll get the the the umshared visibility that they
(35:23):
deserve, but also maybe it'llhelp to um to grow that
relationship further.
So thinking about bringing itall together, um, I want you to
think about something um whileI'm explaining and sharing some
some insights.
Just to answer this question,take 20 seconds, write it down.
If you had to remove one thingtoday from your PMO that would
(35:47):
free up the most capability,what would that be?
So take take 20 seconds andthink about it.
What could you remove thatwould free up the most
capability?
I'm really um challenge you tothink about that.
And there's got to besomething, right?
Because remember,simplification starts with
subtracting things, not addingthings.
(36:08):
Sometimes we think we add moreand more and more and more and
more, but that doesn't actuallyum help.
Simplifying things meansremoving things.
So if your PMO wants to movefaster in 2026, it's not about
adding new frameworks and moreprocesses.
No, it's not about that.
It's about removing friction.
If you don't know where thefriction is, go and ask your
stakeholders, go and find out.
(36:29):
The first couple of weeks, two,three, four weeks of any
engagement I do is talking topeople and listening to
understand where the frictionis.
There's things that PMOs needto do when it comes to their own
personal capabilities and thethings that I think would really
be supportive.
Just some examples for you.
So one of them would beadaptive governance.
(36:51):
One of them is having someinsight around what AI is
actually doing and meaning, andjust so you can have confidence
to talk to it.
Go play around with it, trialit, use Chat GPT, copilot some
of these other tools.
Um, understand your data, startto get like clarity if you're
not already clear on what datayou have available, make sure
it's clean, because that's whatthe broader teams are going to
(37:12):
use when we think about AI.
And then also that changetranslation.
So, how do you bring in, if youdon't have the skills and
capabilities of changemanagement, how do you bring
that in?
How do you supplement your ownskills and bring that in?
So if you think about buildingcapability and you want to
future proof your PMO in 2026,think about those sort of three
or four things because I thinkthey'll be really supportive for
(37:34):
you.
So, my key message is um for2026 practical, not
performative.
So, what this means is don't gobuild a PMO for the optics of
it and also um don't do whatmany of us do.
And I'll admit I've done thisin the past early in my career,
where we build a PMO based onour egos.
Unfortunately, that's not goingto work, it won't sustain you.
(37:55):
You'll be one of those statsthat keeps being thrown around.
But build one that actuallyhelps people to deliver.
So if it doesn't move workforward, it is noise and remove
it.
And the way you'll know if it'snoise is you will keep hearing
people complaining about it.
And you want to be the one thathears about it, as opposed to
people talking about it and younot knowing.
Truth and trust.
(38:15):
Um, Renee spoke about this inthe conference last month.
Truth and trust means that youwill build not only success in
execution, but success in thetrust that you'll get with your
executives.
Executives don't need 30-pageglossy reports, although
sometimes they demand it.
They need the truth early.
They need the, I need thisinformation now, not just in
(38:37):
case, but just in time.
They need to know that theinformation you're providing
them is built on trust.
Stakeholder management is aprocess.
It's it's not a process, sorry,um, it's everyday.
Uh, Kathy, one of our umspeakers last month said that.
Stakeholder management isn't aprocess.
People think of it as it's aprocess.
No, it's something we have todo every day and embed in our
(39:00):
work.
And then clarity is the newcapability.
So clarity will outperformheadcounts, tools, processes,
any of that.
If your people don't know whoowns what, how decisions are
made, where they findinformation, how they get stuff
done, then nothing will actuallymove.
So if you only leave today withone belief, think about the
(39:20):
fact that PMOs don't failbecause of lack of effort,
because some of you are workingmore than ever before, but it's
because they fail because oflack of clarity at the executive
level.
And they'll also fail becauseof lack of clarity in their
stakeholder community, in theirdelivery teams that they're
supporting.
So they're my they're sort ofmy four key messages.
(39:40):
And I also want to quicklyshare with you when PIMOs say to
me, where do I start?
I will say to you, start withcapability clarity.
If you don't know yourreadiness, you don't know your
roadmap, you should have that,you should have visibility of
that.
Your teams need to understandit.
And so here are some things tothink about.
(40:02):
When you think about PIMO,think of it as like an
intelligence system, right?
Think of it not as an adminfunction, although there is
aspects of that.
Think about it as the custodianof decision flow and
adaptability and the one thatunderstands the information and
then disseminates thatinformation first.
Think about moving from justreporting to actually helping
delivery teams to be better atwhat they do.
(40:24):
If your PMO isn't running inthat sort of cadence, then it
will be replaced by a lot of AIand also replaced by one that is
more effective.
So it's not about embedding newinformation, it's about
reframing and reshaping theidentity that your PMO brings.
And the way that you do that isby getting more stakeholders on
site.
Doing less, but doing itbetter.
(40:46):
That's essential.
So here's some steps that Iwill um talk you through to the
leap to help you move forward.
Um these are things that Iwould literally be doing, and I
have done and will continue todo.
So mapping your currentcapabilities.
Again, people will assumecapability means the people's
(41:07):
skills and the people'scapabilities.
I'm not just talking aboutthat.
I'm actually talking aboutpeople, process, tools,
including technology.
So you need to map your currentcapabilities and understand
where your strengths are, notjust for you, but for the teams
that you'll support in yourorganization.
You will also understand thegaps.
By having those conversations,what it will enable you to do is
(41:32):
actually go through a processwhere you can identify the gaps
that you have and then work outhow you eliminate them.
You might identify this, youdefine your capabilities, and
then you start thinking aboutthose microprojects that I
mentioned earlier.
But also, as you're goingthrough the process, you might
find that there's a gap becausethere's a decision bottleneck.
I'll give you an example ofthat.
So one organization in themanufacturing space that I was
(41:56):
working with in recent years,they uh had a had a view that
they had full oversight of allof their projects.
Little to their surprise or tothe managing director's
surprise, they actually didn't.
So they only had a few milliondollars budget, but they had
over 96 projects running when wedid a little bit of a uh
(42:20):
project amnesty and actuallywent and sourced that
information.
But what was happening wasbecause the decision making um
process wasn't clear around theintake process of new ideas and
getting them validated andapproved and funded, operational
teams in the business just wentaway and started introducing
new projects after projectsafter projects after projects.
And then what happened is asthey started to introduce uh
(42:43):
PMO, the PMO itself startedrealizing that it was going to
be near impossible to put insome foundations to improve and
uplift project managementbecause there was no decision,
um, there wasn't no decisionauthority or decision-making
capability around how projectswould be identified, mapped,
etc.
So the first thing they startedwith above anything else was
(43:05):
about defining and managing andrefining a demand and pipeline
process that they they then theygot all of the functions in the
organization, so all of yourequivalent GM or heads of to
actually support and be part of.
That made such a significantdifference, and they would not
have known that if they didn'ttake the time to start mapping
their capabilities.
(43:26):
Second one, simplifying onegovernance process.
So this is where you can removefriction.
I'll give you another example.
So working with an energycompany, they were spending,
their product managers werespending an inordinate amount of
time, or product owners rather,an inordinate amount of time
going out to individualstakeholder or stakeholder
(43:47):
groups and presenting what theirthe product maps were, what
they were thinking of designing,um, how they were planning on
delivering, and getting feedbackfrom that.
When we added up how mucheffort that was taking, on
average, it was about 20 to 20to 30 hours per product owner
just to do that exercise.
(44:08):
So we flipped the switch, weseeked feedback from our
stakeholders, and what we did iswe put in a two-hour
placeholder and a certaincadence where the product owners
could then each take in termsto present that information out
to the stakeholder groupscollectively.
That eliminated over 20 hoursof work for them per month.
(44:28):
And so that was a significantway to remove friction for the
product owners who were thenable to deliver more.
This is a really simpleexample, but it really makes it
real and it's based on practice,not just theory.
Clarifying roles andresponsibilities.
You would be amazed at how manyclientele that we've worked
with over the last 10 years,whose one of the biggest
(44:50):
deliverables they ask for is aracy.
And for those that don't knowwhat a racy is, um, responsible,
accountable, sometimes there'san S supporter, consultant,
informed.
Just defining the racy can makea significant difference.
I've got a client that we'vebeen working with recently who
has people with similar roletitles.
(45:10):
So they're very confused inthis organization at the moment,
and that the HR conversationwith me is we've got people that
have similar role titles, andso they don't know where their
role starts, and that rolestops.
There's confusion simply justbecause of role titles.
Now they're not going to go andchange the role titles as
they've just gone through awhole restructure, but instead,
(45:30):
what they're going to do isthey're going to build a racing,
and actually, we're going tomap out throughout the teams
where the basically the valuechain of work is across those
areas.
And then we'll map the rolesand responsibilities and the
people and the role, and it willmake a lot a lot clearer.
So that's that's another um oneto think about.
The fourth one, exploring safeAI opportunities.
(45:51):
So when I say safe, I'm talkingabout one of the biggest things
companies care about the mostis that you're not sharing
sensitive data or any data, infact, that relates to your
environment or the businessyou're in.
Um same in my business.
I don't want my teams sharingdata about our business or any
clients outside of our business.
(46:11):
So doing that into say a publictool is not the right path.
And that's why to make sureit's safe, organizations are
starting to put in guardrails.
And there's some really goodactually guardrails that have
been rolled out by thegovernment.
Um, I can't remember the titleof it, but if anyone wants it,
let me know and I can look itup.
And also, Atlassian's releasedsomething really um, really
smart around responsible AI.
(46:33):
But organizations are startingto do that.
So you want to make sure you'reusing um AI within the
responsible guardrails of yourorganization.
But simple things might be umautomating reporting or report
highlights, it might be creatingum outlines for uh uh
stakeholder packs, it might beum, for example, streamlining um
(46:55):
streamlining the mapping ofgaps that you've identified once
you've gone through thatexercise in step one.
Just small things like that canreally save you a lot of time.
Number five, resetting yourprioritization lens.
So as I said, um I gave anexample earlier, out of every
single engagement, probablyabout 30 different clients over
the last however many years, thenumber one, number one without
(47:20):
fail, doesn't matter what therequirement is, is all around
pipeline management, demand,intake process, prioritization.
And this is why a lot of PPMproviders actually spend such a
significant amount of timerefining that part of their
platform.
That and resource managementare two of the most common ones.
And so this is really, reallyimportant.
(47:41):
And then the last one iscreating a 30, 60, 90-day uplift
plan.
Small incremental actions.
One of the things that's reallyprominent in agile ways of
working is actually to gothrough a process where you may
have, you know, six 90-dayincrements or a 30-day sprint,
whatever works for yourorganization's size and scale,
(48:01):
but start to introduce somethings, get stakeholder input
through the process.
And these are things that youcan do with absolutely zero
budget.
You don't need any money to dothis, you don't need no more
resources.
You can do it withoutpermission.
It's small steps that will thenmake um a great down in the
clarity that you need that willthen drive capability shifts.
And so they would be some ofthe things that I would highly
(48:24):
recommend that you could startwith today.
There is a uh podcast I wrote,I launched two days, sorry, a
podcast episode a couple ofweeks ago, I think.
The team can share it with youaround capability, um,
capability gaps and and um whatto do in that space that I think
could help, give you some morecontext and also capability in
(48:44):
terms of delivery, or you canjust find it um on the Agile
Ideas podcast.
Now, if you've heard me say allthese things and you thought,
oh, maybe I need help, ofcourse, I'm gonna leave you with
this.
So if you're thinking um you'vegone tried, attempted some of
the steps mentioned, maybe yourorganization's new, maybe it's
(49:04):
immature, maybe it's toocomplicated.
Um, I am launching the PMOcapability workshops, which we
will be doing next year.
We've developed our capabilityin a box model, and we've got
these really cool cards, andwe've got persona mappings and
governance pathways, and allthese amazing things.
And it's really perfect fororganizations that want clarity,
(49:25):
don't know where to startperhaps, want something that's
fast, practical.
Typically, these are runusually in one day or two days,
and if it's online remotely,then it's run for teams over a
period of weeks.
But it will help you diagnosewhere your execution gaps are
and also map it to industrystandards so we can kind of give
you insights for your industryand then give you a blueprint
(49:46):
for your capabilities, so yourcapability map, and then a
90-day plan to actually takestraight to leaders and say,
like, this is my roadmap, andthat might include um
opportunities for you to requestresources if you're trying to
grow and scale your PMO.
So nothing big, no bigengagement, no fancy anything,
but it might be something thatcould be valuable for you.
So if you're interested insomething like that, just um
(50:07):
reach out to me or any of theteam, and we're um very happy to
do that and help you.
Now we are at the end of ourmeetup.
Um, there's been a lot ofinformation.
What I will say is we willshare the recording of this next
week.
There's also a full detailedPMO Trends blog that will be
(50:27):
released next week.
You'll also get that becauseyou've registered today.
And I want to leave you with uha key message, and that is
remember to focus on what'swithin your control, um, adapt
faster than your environment.
I know that sounds a bit crazy,but we need to do that so we're
not replaced.
And then also lead withclarity.
(50:48):
Those key three things, if youtake anything from today, are
really essential, and they'll bethe building box to really help
you move forward.
Um, these lines came uprepeatedly during our 2025
conference, um, and the videosfor that are all online on
YouTube as well, but it reallycaptures for me what 2026 is
about.
(51:08):
Remember, clarity isn't aboutlike removing necessarily and
not having any complexitybecause there will be lots of
that, but actually really themastery of it.
And so if anything from todayresonated, I'm I implore you to
please share the video once it'sout, share the blog, um, and
reach out to me if you've gotany um questions, comments, and
(51:29):
yeah, I'd love to help you outif you need anything.
But otherwise, thank you.
Thank you so much for listeningto this podcast.
Please share this with someoneor write it if you enjoyed it.
Don't forget to follow us onsocial media and to stay up to
date with all things AgileIdeas.
Go to our websiteat www.agilemanagementoffice.com.
(51:52):
I hopeyou've been able to learn, feel, or
be inspired today. Until next time, what's your Agile Idea?
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