#49 – The Agile PMO

Authors’ Comments:

Is there a need for a PMO in a fully agile organization? Probably not in the traditional sense, but they could be the ones who ideally drive the agile transformation. Depending on how the organization has chosen to scale their agile ways, there will most likely be self-managing teams and Product Owners who align directly with customers/end-users, internal stakeholders, SAFe Product Management, the Area Product Owner, or similarly.

What would probably not add value is maintaining the old structures of a central PMO that defines, manages and distributes projects across the organization. Though Scrum (contrary to popular belief) can be used to deliver projects, don’t let the projects define the requirements on a very detailed level. Instead, if projects are the means to funding product development, let them describe the desired high-level outcome and have the teams discover the actual details with whomever.

Thus, by having the PMO maintain an overview the funding of products or Value Streams, ensuring that product development efforts are aligned with the company strategy and taking on the responsibility of driving the agile transformation, there is, indeed, a place for a PMO in an agile organization.