PMOs That Elevate Innovation and Power Transformation – Report by PMI Summary & Key Insights

Project Management Offices (PMOs) are essential for helping organizations navigate complexity and deliver value by driving innovation and transformation. The most successful PMOs are those that can adjust their strategies to the unique needs of their organizations. High-performing PMOs achieve success by enhancing agility, promoting digital transformation and aligning projects with the ultimate business goals. This report outlines how these PMOs are at the forefront of digital transformation and how they lead the effort in adopting new technologies. PMOs are redefining value delivery to align with strategic business objectives and whilr over half of project professionals believe their organizations have high-performing PMOs, nearly half of all PMOs are considered underperforming and must demonstrate their value to avoid being disbanded. Let’s check out the key insights from this report to understand this further.

Key Insights:

• More than half of project professionals (54%) say their organizations have high-performing PMOs, which they rated as having “excellent” or “very good” performance.
• Organizations with the most mature PMOs have higher revenue growth and customer satisfaction.
• High-performing PMOs exist in organizations with higher maturity in project, program and portfolio management.
• High-performing PMOs are more likely to support new ways of working and use project management tools and advanced technologies.
• High-performing PMOs are more likely to use technologies like cloud solutions and AI.
• 80% of organizations with high-performing PMOs use technology to enable value, compared to 30% of organizations with other PMOs.
• Organizations with high-performing PMOs are more likely to be further along in their digital transformation journey.
• Organizations with high-performing PMOs are 3.5 times more likely to have completed digital transformations than other organizations.
• High-performing PMOs are twice as likely as other organizations to use AI.
• 80% of organizations with high-performing PMOs use standardized project management practices all or most of the time, compared to 51% of other PMOs.
• High-performing PMOs are more likely to provide support for new ways of working, such as providing training or continuous learning programs.
• 90% of high-performing PMOs have a process to regularly evaluate performance and make adjustments, compared to 68% of other PMOs.
• 63% of respondents from organizations with high-performing PMOs rated their company’s agility as “high,” versus only 30% of other organizations.
• Organizations with high-performing PMOs are much more likely to have high maturity in key areas, including project management (80% vs. 42%), program management (72% vs. 27%), and portfolio management (70% vs. 32%).
• 80% of high-performing PMOs excel at delivering value to customers, compared to 51% of other PMOs.
• When it comes to key functions, high-performing PMOs are significantly more likely to:
  • Contribute to the development of organizational strategy (76% vs. 52%).
  • Manage governance, risk, and compliance issues (66% vs. 32%).
  • Manage project integration across the enterprise (64% vs. 39%).
  • Support teams in choosing the best ways of working (59% vs. 16%).
  • Develop career paths for project managers (46% vs. 3%).
• The European External Action Service (EEAS) PMO was able to reduce the number of projects that were started and then dropped by 25% and new initiatives that overlapped with others by 15%.
• The report’s data focuses on the 1,624 respondents who said their organization has a PMO.

Conclusion

High-performing PMOs are vital to helping organizations thrive amidst constant change. By embracing new technologies and consistently demonstrating their value to stakeholders, PMOs can move from being perceived as a cost center to a revenue driver. This report serves as a guide for PMO leaders to strengthen their role and contribute to sustained, long-term success. Ultimately, PMOs that walk the talk and evolve with their companies are better positioned to support and sustain growth, agility and transformation across the entire enterprise.

You can check out the full report here