A PMO is only as effective as the people who run it. Building a thriving PMO means investing in the right mix of skills, experience, and capacity within the PMO team.
Traditional PMOs were often staffed primarily for administrative coordination. Modern PMOs, however, need a broader and more strategic combination of talents to deliver value across the organisation.
The PMO should include professionals who understand business strategy and can communicate effectively with executives. This may mean hiring individuals with backgrounds in strategy, transformation, or business consulting, or developing existing project managers to take a more strategic outlook.
Strategic thinkers help the PMO translate organisational goals into execution and identify opportunities to add value beyond traditional project tracking.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) highlights the importance of power skills such as communication, problem-solving, leadership, and strategic thinking. Encourage PMO staff to continuously develop these capabilities.
For instance, provide training in facilitation and negotiation to better manage stakeholder conflicts, or in change management to guide teams through transitions. When PMO professionals are strong communicators and leaders, they become more effective ambassadors and coaches across the organisation.
Modern PMOs must combine traditional project management strengths with agile and technical knowledge. The PMO team should collectively include certified practitioners (such as Scrum Masters or AgilePM professionals), risk management experts, and portfolio analytics specialists.
If the organisation is undergoing digital transformation, having team members with IT or digital project experience enhances credibility. As more projects involve technology, this domain knowledge becomes essential.
The PMO should also be adept at using modern Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tools, data analytics, and emerging technologies such as AI in project management. Investing in these capabilities enables the PMO to deliver sophisticated services such as predictive risk analysis and capacity-planning models.
Ensure the PMO is appropriately resourced for its scope of responsibility. One common reason PMOs fail is because they are under-resourced. A small team cannot effectively govern dozens of projects while also driving strategic initiatives.
If expanding headcount is not feasible, consider flexible resourcing options. Some organisations adopt a “fractional PMO” model or engage external partners to augment capacity as needed. Another effective approach is developing a virtual PMO network by involving project professionals from other departments as part-time PMO liaisons. This extends the PMO’s reach without requiring a large central team.
The PMO Director or equivalent leader is pivotal to its success. This individual must have the experience, credibility, and presence to engage with senior executives and champion the PMO’s strategic value.
Strong PMO leadership sets the cultural tone and drives alignment across teams. As studies consistently show, PMOs led by capable, respected leaders are far more successful in earning executive confidence and sustaining long-term influence.
By investing in people, the PMO can provide higher-value services and deeper organisational integration. For example, a skilled benefits realisation analyst can help business units define and measure project outcomes, addressing a major gap in many organisations. Similarly, an expert in change management can support project teams with stakeholder engagement and adoption strategies, directly improving project success rates.
These extended capabilities transform the PMO into a trusted partner and an essential part of the organisation’s strategic delivery engine and not merely an administrative overlay.