Is your PMO a report factory — or the reason projects land?
Most PMOs start with good intentions and end up drowning in status reports. Projects still slip, sponsors still don’t decide, and nobody can say whether the benefits arrived. It’s rarely the project managers’ fault. It’s usually the way the work is governed — and that can be fixed.
Recognise any of these?
- Your status reports stay green until the day they suddenly turn red.
- You can’t say, on one page, which projects are running and what each is for.
- Every project manager plans and reports a little differently.
- Projects finish “successfully” and nobody checks whether the benefits arrived.
- Project managers see the PMO as a reporting chore rather than help.
Recognise even one? Then this page is for you.
What I fix
Late warnings
Stage gates and tolerance-based reporting, so problems surface while there’s still time to act.
No single view
One portfolio register with simple prioritisation, so the steering group can decide what starts, what waits and what stops.
Every project different
A small, tailored standard — a few mandatory artefacts and a one-page playbook — that project managers actually use.
Benefits that never arrive
Named benefit owners and a review after go-live.
A PMO seen as bureaucracy
Redefining the PMO as a service to project managers and sponsors, and cutting the reporting nobody reads.
Sponsors who don’t govern
Clear decision rights and coaching for sponsors and boards.
The PMO Assessment
The quickest way to see where your PMO really stands. I assess your portfolio, programme and project management on a simple five-level maturity scale, and look at a sample of live projects and reports. You get an honest baseline, three or four quick wins, and a roadmap.
What you get
- An honest maturity baseline, in plain English.
- Three or four quick wins, ranked by impact.
- A roadmap to move up a level, in the order that pays back first.
- A lighter governance approach your project managers will use.
Afterwards
Training for your project managers and sponsors — PRINCE2, PRINCE2 Agile and the wider portfolio, programme and risk courses, as the roadmap needs — and coaching for the PMO team. I’m an accredited PeopleCert trainer, so the training and the improvement fit together.
Not sure it’s worth a conversation?
Thirty minutes, no obligation. You’ll leave with two or three things worth fixing first.