A PMO brings accountability, visibility, and discipline to projects. The document discusses two case studies where PMOs provided value. For the University of Plymouth's migration to Microsoft Azure, the PMO acted as a buffer between teams and stakeholders and ensured agile practices were not ad-hoc. For Ornua's global transformation, the PMO was key in communicating across boundaries and using dashboards to maintain visibility and prevent issues from falling through cracks. Lessons focused on how organizational, people, and value factors influence a PMO's ability to provide value.

1. What is a PMO?
“a PMO is an anti-willy-
nilly device that brings
accountability, visibility,
and a sense of discipline”

7. University of Plymouth
Microsoft Azure
• Nearly 300 applications
• 400+ servers
• Design, build, refactor, migrate, test
• 15 months
• Dispersed team

11. Ornua

12. • Global Transformation
Programme – New
Operating Model with
associated Process and IT
changes
• 160 Other “BAU” Projects
with IT elements

13. University of Plymouth – Cloud
• People
• PMO acts as buffer between doers and
stakeholders – gives space to allow people to
find their way;
• Scrum Master is not the PM!
• Process
• Agile – ceremonies are key, but don’t become
slave to process;
• PMO ensures Agile does not mean ad-hoc
• Technology
• Comms kit – made remote ceremonies a
challenge at the beginning
• We used post-its for visibility – can’t beat a good
old fashioned PMO “wall”
Ornua Projects Portfolio
• People
• commitment of time on a regular basis – global
org needs a regular cadence for comms
• PMO key bridge between Transformation
Programme to and BAU
• Process
• not many processes that are free of technology
• PMO carries issues across the boundaries
• Technology
• Comms Kit – Ornua – standard model at all sites
made remote working easy right from the outset
• PMO use of dashboards for different stakeholder
groups and use of master risks/ actions/ issues/
decisions ensures visibility and that things don’t
fall between cracks
Lessons learned from PMO

14. Group work
Group 1 – Organisation context – what organisational
factors might influence whether a PMO can provide
value?
Group 2 – People context – what factors need to be
considered when introducing Agile practices to a
strategic portfolio?
Group 3 – Value context – where is most value
derived – from agile delivery and continuous
integration and delivery or the ability to take a whole
portfolio perspective?

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