An Agile transformation is a strategic endeavour which requires time, effort, money and vision, and considering the advantages of introducing Agile approach in companies, there is no wonder that many companies opted for this project management approach to speed up their time to market, increase revenue or transform their way of working altogether.

Let’s look at some Agile benefits and see why it is the preferred approach for project delivery in some organizations.

Agile has improved delivery timelines, created feedback loops with stakeholders, empowered teams, removed overhead by creating efficient processes.

If we talk about Agile, then we recognize the value delivered to customer, improved communication with customer and faster pace of digitalization.

Below there are the main drivers for adopting Agile in organizations, as presented in two studies conducted by two of the largest consulting companies:  McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group.

 Benefits of Agile

In this context, what role could PMO play?

For couple of years now, PMOs have been challenged on their role and the value they drive.

Research shows that in order to create that direct link between PMO and value for organization, it is important that PMO has access to the strategy and is reporting directly to the C-level executives.

These are the finding of an earlier study conducted by PMI in 2013,  which revealed the fact that 31% versus 17% of the PMOs have a better understanding of their project objectives and direction when reporting directing to executives.

With this premise, PMOs need to act as a change enabler for the organization.

The art of tailoring approaches for project is nothing new, but with the 7^th edition of PMBOK, the focus on tailoring approaches was even more visible.

Taking into account a series of factors such as business environment, profile of organization, successful products, culture, policies, etc, the PMO needs to lead an Agile transformation fit for the organization, creating sustainable results.

Role of PMO in the Agile transformation

As mentioned earlier, Agile has been integrated in Project management to achieve faster results, prioritize on customer needs, shorten the feedback loop and build flexibility around changes for quite some while now, so there is no surprise that the new definition of project success as proposed by Project Management Institute refers to one key aspect of agile, such the value: “delivered value that was worth the effort and the expense” (PMI, 2024).

In this compelling environment, Project management offices also go through a transformation in their effort of providing project and program governance aligned to strategy to increase productivity, return of investment, delivery of competitive products faster to the market.

Bridging the vision of the C-level executives and the teams who are turning this vision into reality, the PMOs are not only paving the new way of work, but also empowering the employees and keeping them engaged, while setting the pace through collaborative roadmaps, processes built bottom-up to facilitate collaboration and building the bigger picture of efficient organization operating with the customer needs in sight.

In the PMI Job trends report from 2024, the most sought after power skills for Project management professionals are the agility and resilience, thus confirming the need to flexibility and adaptability to handle the current multitude of challenges in the business environment.

PMOs may need to handle two different scenarios on how to adopt Agile mindset within organizations.

The first scenario may be that the organization already has Agile teams working according to Agile frameworks and their ways of working need to be aligned to other structures of the organization not (yet) operating in Agile way, hence the PMOs need to bridge these different structures of an organization.

The second scenario may be that the organization is willing to adopt Agile and therefore an entire transformation of processes, ways of working, communication between departments, change in the role and functions is needed and the best drivers for such transformation could be the PMO.

And such PMOs managing Agile transformations differentiate themselves from the other types of PMOs through the activities taken to support the adoption of Agile principles and mindset throughout the organization:

• provide a governance for the projects around Agile concepts, KPIs and metrics to facilitate value delivery;
• educate teams on Agile frameworks and different roles within Agile teams;
• collaborate with C-level executives to drive strategies to enhance the Agile adoption in the organization;
• align the strategic objectives with the projects goals and selection of projects, build a collaborative culture around Agile principles, flexibility and adaptability.

Referring back to the tailoring approach, PMOs need to adopt Agile practices in key dimensions of the organizations and work with the top management on how to successfully influence the organization toward an Agile way of working. 

How PMOs can support C-level executives in Agile transformations

Adopting Agile refers not only to the new roles and responsibilities, but to the adoption of practices which support and grow the Agile mindset within the organization, horizontally and vertically, and to achieve this, a complete organizational change is required.

This is where the PMOs play the most crucial: building the awareness on Agile best practices and mindset, creating a sense of urgency and need of change and supporting the leaders in transforming the organization’s dimensions (culture, strategy, people, technology, processes) starting with their own transformation.

One of the top challenge when implementing Agile is represented by the organizational culture:  a transformation at the level of culture and in-depth change of the ways of working – a truly organizational change which captures all levels (McKinsey, 2017).  

If planning for an Agile transformation, the past competencies may not be so useful here, so the leaders who planned and controlled based on rank may not be successful in Agile transformation and they may fail to empower their teams to enable those values which are going on hand in with Agile – respect, self awareness, flexibility, courage, openness.

PMOs can lead the transformation and create the communication channel between C-level executives and operational teams by aligning expectations, preparing the phases for the change and guiding the participants through the transformation.

Three levels of transformations (McKinsey, 2018) are necessary for both PMOs leaders but also for top management so PMOs leaders need to be the facilitators of this transformation and actually enable the discovery of current capabilities vs. the desired capabilities, such as the following.

Transforming yourself

In this fist level of transformation, the shifting from reactive to creative mind-sets is a must for a leader who wants to embrace agility.

When dealing with stress, multiple priorities and just perhaps when having difficult conversations, we go into this reactive mode.

On the other hand having a creative mind-set is about knowing yourself better, building empathic relationships and projecting our expectations into our daily interactions.

There is research showing that employees are going into reactive mode, especially since majority of organizations were designed to operate on reactive.

But to be able to collaborate in an agile environment, leaders need to change their own mindset and start working in a creative way: if we spent all day answering to requests, maybe even micromanaging to deliver objectives, this would be a reactive way of work.

Instead, leaders should learn how to empower teams, letting them explore new ways of working and not to punish them for mistakes, since the mistakes are inevitable and a way of learning too.

There are 3 areas for improvement here: foster innovation, foster collaboration and foster value creation.

Transforming the team

The second level of transformation is happening at the team level and it could be divided in the themes below.

->Helping teams work in new ways

What does this mean from the Agile perspective?

To help teams work in Agile ways, leaders must focus on building diverse, empowered, and connected teams that can operate independently, trust each other, and align on clear business goals.

Diversity of the teams comes not only from the need of having diverse competencies, but also from having different level of seniority and expertise, cultural background, etc. It has been proved that diverse teams are more creative and produce better results.

This includes forming different types of teams, fostering diverse perspectives, and encouraging rapid cycles of focused work with rigorous prioritization. Leaders also need to create an environment that supports self-managed teams and continuous adjustment, allowing for greater efficiency and value delivery.

->Design thinking and business-model innovation

Leaders in agile organizations must also grasp design thinking and business-model innovation to drive customer-focused innovation and create value. Design thinking involves understanding the entire customer journey and using iterative cycles to generate and test ideas based on customer feedback. Agile teams, viewed as independent businesses, focus on innovating and delivering solutions that meet customer needs while continuously reimagining their business models to create value for all stakeholders.

Transforming the organization

The third level of transformation and the most difficult one refers to the change across the entire organization. For this level there are also three dimensions: having an organizational purpose (the so called “north star”), creating a cohesive design and shaping the culture into an agile culture.

Let’s start with the first one, the ->purpose:

Leaders in agile organizations must develop the skill to create a shared purpose that resonates across the enterprise, acting as the organization’s "north star." This purpose provides coherence and stability within autonomous units and guides both strategic decisions and daily operations.

In order to find the purpose, leaders need to have honest conversations within their organization, top-bottom, and bottom-up, understand the issues across organizations and answer questions such as:

“What are we really trying to achieve? What are our main problems? How do we know we are successful beyond the numbers?”

Another dimension, ->the design, is about using the agile practices into designing the new structure of organization.

Leaders in agile should focus on a distributed, evolving system rather than a centralized one. This involves breaking down large businesses into smaller so building more granular portfolios, creating a lean enabling backbone to support these units, and developing a partner ecosystem to drive innovation. The ecosystem refers to all connections and actors brought in to support the agile way of working: vendors, suppliers, collaborators, etc.

Senior leaders should focus on creating a high-level blueprint, empower experimentation, and allow the organization to adapt quickly based on feedback and evolving needs.

And last, the ->culture dimension which is the most important in the Agile transformation: Leaders in agile organizations must develop the ability to shape a new culture that emphasizes creativity, partnership, with a focus on both fostering new behaviours and eliminating unwanted ones. This culture transformation requires leaders to model the desired behaviours, build understanding and develop capabilities within the organization. The process is multifaceted and central to the success of agile organizations, where culture plays a critical role in enabling openness and freedom.

How to do these?

By doing what they preach or as the saying “walk the talk”: leaders need to change their mind-sets and start to display that behaviour they expect from their employees: transparency in decision and objectives, open communication and accountability for both positive results and mistakes.

Unlike traditional top-down approaches, leaders in agile environments listen, synthesize diverse perspectives, and communicate the emerging vision authentically, often through storytelling.

Another way to build the agile culture is for leaders to foster capability building across all levels, helping everyone develop the mindsets and skills needed in the new environment. This includes nurturing leadership skills in non-managers and developing abilities like influencing, managing conflict, working in ambiguity, and taking initiative.

PMO work does not stop with the implementation of these behavioural characteristics and support of the best Agile practices, but it goes beyond the current objective of transformation and relates to a continuous improvement vision, fostering collaboration and continuous learning on both the top management’s side as well as on operational teams’ level.

Because Agility is more than just applying Agile frameworks, creating iterative cycles and measuring velocity: it is a state of being which encompasses many perspectives on how to achieve success in an organization and to influence from top management to individual contributor.

And here lies the key role played by PMOs in an Agile organization: continuous improvement and adaptation starting from questioning processes, methods and getting feedback on them, and re-adapting them to the needs of organization.

It is also about a culture of change that truly addresses the issues of teams, creating better collaboration, honest and safe environments where everybody’s voice can be heard.

All of these considering a flexibility which responds to change fast and understands the processes and communication strategies in an organization: horizontally and vertically.

In this environment we can say that continuous improvement, continuous learning and development of leadership and teams are not just some fluff words but the concepts by which the organization is governed. All these help organizations to assess their strengths/weaknesses and prepare for the future as in the M.O.R.E framework exposed by Pierre LeManh, CEO of PMI, at PMXPO 2025:

M- manage perception

O- own success beyond project management

R- relentlessly reassess

E- expand perspective.

 

 

References:

1. McKinsey & Co. (2021) The impact of agility: how to shape your organization to compete
2. BCG (2025) Agile at Scale https://www.bcg.com/capabilities/digital-technology-data/agile-at-scale
3. Project management institute. (2013). PMO Frameworks https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/pmo-frameworks
4. PMI (2024) Maximizing Project Success: elevating the impact of the Project Profession. Elevating the impact on our world
5. PMI (2024) Global Project management: Job trends 2024
6. McKinsey & Co. (2017) Gloval survey: How to create an Agile organization
7. McKinsey & Co. (2018) Leading agile transformation: The new capabilities leaders need to build 21st-century organizations