Insights into Maturity Models for PMOs - Arthur Goetsch

Project portfolio maturity assessments play a pivotal role in evaluating project portfolio management capabilities, providing insights, benchmarks, and improvement plans. With the rise of PMO bodies like AIPMO and the Global Alliance, PMOs have gained global prominence. The quest is to determine what constitutes one or more high-performing PMOs and how to optimize them continuously for individual and collective maximum benefit.

PMOs and projects inherently differ; PMOs require adaptability, while projects demand repeatability. Traditional maturity models miss up to 75% of PMO dynamics, leading to misleading scores, known as a Type II error. They excessively emphasize processes over principles, limiting progress at higher maturity levels. Even the PMO maturity cube that is sometimes used has only 7% of the PMO success factors fully covered.

Recognizing this challenge, we present three years of research on a principle-based PMO maturity framework capable of adapting to evolving needs. It assesses not only individual PMOs but also the collective assessment of multiple PMOs within an organization.

Join us to explore the future of PMO maturity and impact assessments, including parallels with Agile's principle-driven approach, so PMOs can understand their contribution to project management excellence and their impact.