Implementation of a Strategic PMO

Snapshot

• Industry: Enterprise SaaS/AdTech

• Engagement Type: PMO Build & Implementation

• Scope: Company-wide, built from zero

• Result: 41% reduction in project attrition and 40% drop in over-capacity incidents within 6 months

The Situation

The organization had project managers (PM), but it didn't have a project management function. PMs were embedded across teams, working in isolation, with no shared methodology, no common tooling, and no agreed-upon definition of what a "project" actually was. PMs were managing work, but it wasn’t delivered consistently, and most of it wasn’t aligned to what the business actually cared about. The role of the PM was seen as purely administrative, and partnership with the organization was lacking due to limited trust.

What We Diagnosed

During our current state assessment, we identified that PMs were being treated as order-takers. They were handed work, told to track it, and excluded from the conversations where decisions were being made. There was no shared language for what constituted a project, what "on track" meant, or how competing priorities should be weighed. Every team had its own version of the truth. This made cross-functional coordination nearly impossible and gave leadership no reliable report on whether the organization was achieving meaningful outcomes from the work that was getting done.

What We Built

We built a project management office (PMO) from the ground up, including the operating model, governance structure, and standard of practice. The intake and prioritization framework was the foundation, and every initiative had to connect to a business outcome before it entered the portfolio. That single requirement changed the conversation from "can we do this?" to "should we do this, and what gets shifted to prioritize it?"

We introduced quarterly planning cycles to surface capacity constraints before they became emergencies, and repositioned project managers as strategic partners embedded in business planning, instead of coordinators who showed up after decisions were made. That shift required both structural change and deliberate change management with the PMs themselves, who had previously learned not to engage in strategic planning or negotiation.

What Changed

The organization went from no functioning project management practice to a PMO that leadership actually relied on. Over-capacity incidents dropped 40% in 6 months. Project attrition dropped 41% in year one. Project managers moved from the margins of planning conversations to the center of them, and the business started executing with a consistency it hadn't had before.

The honest part: Changing how PMs saw their own role was as hard as changing how the organization saw them. After years of being treated as order-takers, PMs felt uncertain about when they were allowed to speak up or push back. While the structural changes were straightforward, rebuilding that professional confidence took longer and required more deliberate investment than the framework work did. We tackled that challenge in a separate engagement by creating a PM training program for the organization. See our Organizational Change & Talent services for more information on similar programs.

This engagement falls under our Planning & Delivery practice. If your organization has project managers but no project management function, let's talk.