55 Years of Purpose: Reflecting on Project Leadership, Mentorship, and the Road Ahead

55 Years of Purpose: Reflecting on Project Leadership, Mentorship, and the Road Ahead

Turning 55 makes me reflect on a journey built not just on time, but on projects, people, and a purpose that has guided me throughout. From a hands-on practitioner to a worldwide mentor directing professionals in navigating their paths in project leadership, this has been a learning-based journey for me.

“A leader is one who knows the way goes the way and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell

Dharam Singh reflects on turning 55 – A journey of purpose, people, and project leadership

“Turning 55 reminds me—great leadership is about knowing the way, going the way, and showing the way.”

 

As the field of project management is evolving rapidly, bringing both complex challenges and exciting opportunities. Professionals often begin their journey with foundational credentials such as CAPM®, PMI Project Management Ready™, and PMI Kickoff™, which provide a solid base for advanced certifications like PMP®. As they grow in expertise and responsibility, many pursue specialized credentials such as PgMP® for program management and PfMP® for strategic portfolio management, emphasizing leadership, strategic thinking, and technical proficiency.

To further strengthen capabilities in PMO management and organizational alignment, PMI has recently launched the PMO Certified Professional (PMOCP)™. Collectively, these certifications offer a structured pathway for developing resilient, future-ready leaders equipped to navigate today’s dynamic project landscape.

Reflecting at 55: A Journey Built on Projects, People, and Purpose

I still find myself thinking about some basic concerns even after all these years of project, program, and portfolio management experience. These are not merely questions; rather, they are reflective thoughts that help me stay grounded, receptive to ongoing learning, and in line with the dynamic nature of our line of work. They remind us that no matter how far we’ve come, growth is an ongoing process. These important questions keep coming to mind:

1.      How do I stay truly relevant in today’s fast-changing project world?

2.      What really makes a mentor different from a practitioner in project leadership?

3.      Can a career build on purpose last longer than one focused only on results?

4.      What kind of mind-set does someone need to succeed in earning PgMP® or PfMP® certification?

5.      How do I keep growing when the industry, tools, and expectations are always evolving?

At 55, Dharam Singh shares timeless reflections on leadership, purpose, and growth in the world of projects, programs, and portfolios.

At 55, Dharam Singh reflects on the timeless questions that continue to shape great project leaders and mentors.

These questions shape the way I lead and mentor. They influence how I train, how I support aspirants, and how I walk alongside them on their certification journey. I believe these are not just personal reflections, but essential questions that every committed project leader must explore as they progress in their professional path.

From Practitioner to Global Mentor: My Evolution in Project Leadership

When I started my journey in project management, my focus was on project delivery. I concentrated on meeting deadlines, achieving goals, and satisfying stakeholders. Over time, as I led diverse teams and handled complex programs across sectors, my perspective began to shift. I started to value the power of strategic alignment and the human side of leadership. One of my most meaningful moments came when a former trainee told me that earning their PgMP® changed their entire career path. That made me realize mentorship was not just support, it was impact.

Becoming a global mentor was never part of a grand plan. It happened as I shared lessons, simplified complex concepts, and helped others unlock their potential. Today, I guide aspirants not only through certification paths but through mind-set transformation. I remind them that leadership is not about control, but about clarity, consistency, and contributing to the growth of others.

PgMP® and PfMP®: More Relevant Than Ever in Today’s Project Economy

Certifications like PgMP® and PfMP® have become increasingly important in today’s dynamic project environment. They not only validate advanced project leadership but also represent a professional’s commitment to driving impactful change in an innovation-driven world. These certifications empower professionals with strategic thinking, cross-functional leadership, and the ability to deliver results aligned with organizational goals.

PgMP® – Program Management Professional

The PgMP® credential is tailored for professionals managing multiple, related projects and achieving strategic objectives. It reflects leadership at a higher level, beyond individual project delivery.

Key aspects are:

• It focuses on managing complex programs and aligning them with strategic goals.

• It emphasizes benefits realization and stakeholder alignment.

• PgMP® is ideal for experienced project managers ready to scale up to program leadership.

Global Impact of vCare Project Management in PgMP® certification are:

1.      North America

• United States: 11.2%

• Canada: 9.7%

• Mexico: 12.0%

2.      Asia & Middle East

• India: 14.5%

• Saudi Arabia: 5.5%

• United Arab Emirates: 13.4%

• Singapore: 14.3%

• Malaysia: 26.0%

• Kuwait: 7.7%

3.      Oceania

• Australia: 35.0%

• New Zealand: 35.0%

4.      Europe

• Germany: 13.75%

• Italy: 17.2%

Dharam Singh mentoring project professionals globally through PgMP and PfMP guidance

From practitioner to global mentor—Dharam Singh reflects on a leadership journey rooted in purpose and impact.

PfMP® – Portfolio Management Professional

The PfMP® credential is designed for senior professionals who manage portfolios of programs and projects aligned with strategic business objectives.

Key Highlights:

• It focuses on portfolio strategy, governance, performance, and risk management.

• It equips leaders to prioritize initiatives and optimize investments.

• It is ideal for executives and portfolio managers driving organizational value.

Global Impact of vCare Project Management in PfMP®:

1.      North America

• United States: 10.0%

• Canada: 12.0%

2.      Asia & Middle East

• Saudi Arabia: 3.4%

• India: 6.0%

• United Arab Emirates: 8.8%

• Qatar: 23.8%

• China, mainland: 1.5%

3.      Oceania

• Australia: 50.0%

• New Zealand: 66.6%

4.      Europe

•  Germany: 18.8%

•  Greece: 33.3%

PfMP Credential Overview and vCare’s Global Portfolio Management Impact

PfMP equips senior professionals to align portfolios with strategy and drive high-impact results—see how vCare supports global leaders in this mission.

These vCare contribution percentages clearly highlight the organization’s strong global presence and its impactful role in shaping certified leaders across continents.

According to the PMI Registry, the global certification landscape shows that China has approximately 2580+ PgMP’s and the United States has approximately 1500+ PgMP’s and these are the top two countries in the world for PgMP® certifications, reflecting their deep investment in advanced program management capabilities. When it comes to PfMP®, the The United States continues to lead globally with approximately 574+ PfMPs, while Saudi Arabia, now in second place with around 564+, is rapidly closing the gap in its push to become the global leader in strategic portfolio management.

Against this global backdrop, vCare’s consistent mentoring excellence continues to empower professionals to not only earn these elite credentials but to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

The Certification Mindset: Forging Resilient, Strategic Leaders for a Complex World

PgMP® and PfMP® certificates can change the way professionals think, which helps them lead with foresight, deal with complexity, and make sure that projects are in line with the goals of the organisation. This way of thinking promotes learning for life, self-control, and being open to change. It also helps people become stronger, by teaching them how to deal with uncertainty, stay focused, and think critically. Certified leaders are renowned for their expertise and the way they use it in a world where things are always evolving, breakdown, and generating new concepts. You must think like this if you want to be a successful leader and remain relevant for a long time.

AI in Project Management: Disruptor, Enabler, or Strategic Partner?

AI is transforming the project management environment across various sectors, with experts unsure whether it is a strategic partner, enabler, or disruptor. However, when approached with knowledge and preparedness, AI becomes a strong facilitator, automating operations, boosting risk management, and streamlining resource planning. This allows project managers to focus on higher-value work, such as strategic decision-making, innovation, and stakeholder engagement.

AI makes consistent decision-making easier, implementation faster, and reduces complexity. Real-time data insights help teams work more efficiently and adapt quickly. Incorporating AI tools into daily project processes is essential for modern project ecosystems, reducing manual errors, improving accuracy, and ensuring on-time delivery.

AI can handle and analyze large amounts of data, but ethical supervision, context, and direction still rely on human leadership. Merging artificial intelligence with human insight leads to better outcomes, imagination, and strong project plans. Project managers must appreciate the possibilities of AI and use it appropriately, as those who see AI as an enabler of smarter, more agile project management rather than a threat will be ideally positioned to lead the next generation of high-performing, technology-driven projects.

Staying Human in the Age of AI: Essential Practices for Project Leaders

The role of a project leader, in my opinion, becomes even more human-centric as AI continues to change the field of project management. I adhere to the following crucial procedures and advise others who want to lead successfully in this AI-driven age:

1. Stress the importance of emotional intelligence and empathy – Make a human connection with your teammates. The emotional depth needed to inspire and establish trust cannot be replaced by technology.

2. Pay attention to stakeholder communication – Leaders need to manage relationships while AI handles data. Communication that is honest, transparent, and compassionate is still essential.

3. Combine judgement and data – Utilise AI-generated insights, but always use human judgement to understand long-term effects, context, and values.

4. Establish a culture of education – Teams should be encouraged to remain inquisitive and receptive to advancements in technology and people.

5. Encourage morality and diversity – Make sure AI-powered decisions are impartial, open, and consistent with moral principles.

6. Set a good example – Exhibit resilience, humility, and flexibility. More than any algorithm, these human qualities motivate teams.

Project Leader Guiding Teams with Empathy and Ethics in the Age of AI

AI is reshaping project management, but empathy, ethics, and human judgement are what set great leaders apart.

The goal of remaining human is not to oppose AI. It involves balancing it with the enduring principles of leadership – vision, integrity, and compassion.

How PMI’s PMO Certification (PMOCP) Is Shaping the Future of Project Management Offices

I consider the PMI-PMOCP™ to be a strategic and timely development for PMO professionals. By coordinating project execution with overarching business objectives, the PMI PMOCP™ certification aims to identify and enable strategic PMO leadership. It emphasises practical, real-world skills like influence, agility, governance, and stakeholder engagement, all of which are critical in today’s changing environments.

By equipping professionals to lead significant organisational change rather than merely concentrating on status updates, it also fills important skill gaps in today’s PMOs. I gave a thorough rundown of the exam structure, application procedure, and efficient study methods in our most recent vCare webinar.

Having the PMOCP™ certification improves one’s reputation internationally and opens doors in various sectors and geographical areas. This certificate helps professionals land important roles and make strategic contributions to their organisations, whether they are creating a new PMO or expanding an existing one.

vCare Project Management is hosting a special webinar on the PMI-PMOCP™. The session features Kim Marcelliano, Senior Product Manager at PMI. She will share strategic insights on the credential’s relevance and target audience, while I will explain the exam structure, application process, and preparation tips. With their combined expertise, the webinar offers a clear path to PMO certification success. Ideal for PMO leaders and aspiring professionals, this session will provide valuable guidance to advance your career and strengthen your PMO’s strategic impact. So, don’t miss this opportunity, do check the webinar if you are interested.

PMI-PMOCP Certification Webinar Featuring Kim Marcelliano and Dharam Singh

PMI-PMOCP is redefining PMO leadership. Learn how this new certification aligns strategy, agility, and impact.

Register Now: https://bit.ly/3Sp9h5l

Date: Wednesday, 02nd July 2025

Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (PDT) / 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (MDT) / 12:00 PM – 01:00 PM (CDT) / 01:00 PM – 02:00 PM (EDT) / 02:00 PM – 03:00 PM (BRT) / 07:00 PM – 08:00 PM (CEST) / 08:00 PM – 09:00 PM (AST) / 09:00 PM – 10:00 PM (GST) / 10:30 PM – 11:30 PM (IST)

Guiding the Next Generation: My Approach to PgMP® and PfMP® Mentoring

Being a mentor is not just what I do, it’s what keeps me growing. Every interaction teaches me something new. While I have had the privilege of guiding over 570 PgMP®s and 177 PfMP®s worldwide, I consider myself a co-learner in this journey, growing alongside every professional I mentor.

PgMP® and PfMP® are more than just certifications. They stand for advanced governance skills, strategic thinking, and the capacity to match organizational objectives with program and portfolio objectives. The need for leaders with this degree of experience is growing as the project economy develops. These qualifications are increasingly crucial indicators of leadership prepared for the future.

Making this journey both meaningful and attainable is our mission at vCare Project Management. With tested mentoring models, organized preparation programs, and continuous support, we give candidates a clear path forward. Our goal is to help you pass, but we also want to help you become more confident and clear-headed in the process.

I provide advice to each person I mentor based on practical difficulties and knowledge gathered over many years of experience. There is no shortcut to success in PgMP® or PfMP®. It all comes down to comprehension, attitude, and steady support.

vCare Project Management can help you make the next big career move with purpose and precision.

The Road Ahead: Lifelong Learning and Collective Growth Beyond 55

As I turn 55, it feels perfectly timed that I have had the privilege of mentoring over 555+ aspirants, one for every year of my life and a few extra for good measure.

But a journey doesn’t end when you turn 55, but it marks the start of a new chapter based on in-depth education, significant mentoring, and a mutual dedication to the advancement of the field. There is a greater need than ever for strategic, forward-thinking leaders as the project landscape changes quickly and artificial intelligence changes how we lead and deliver.

There are still not many PgMP® and PfMP® certified professionals in the world, there are only 2500 PfMP®’s and 7900 PgMP®’s. Aspiring professionals have a significant opportunity here. These certifications represent more than just accomplishments. They serve as indicators of maturity, foresight, and the capacity to influence programs and portfolios.

“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” –  Ralph Nader

Dharam Singh at 55 – Mentoring over 555 Professionals and Advancing Project Leadership

As Dharam Singh turns 55, he reflects on mentoring 555+ leaders and shaping the future of project and portfolio excellence.

Our goal at vCare Project Management is to enable people by providing them with organised mentoring, insightful guidance, and constant encouragement. We assist professionals in developing their leadership skills as well as their knowledge.

Now is a good time to think about your next project leadership move. The world needs competent, qualified individuals who are prepared to lead with clarity and purpose. At vCare, we are ready to provide you with forthright and specialist support during that journey.

Note: The figure of globally certified PgMPs & PfMPs is a guestimate based on available public sources and professional observations. Actual numbers may vary as PMI does not always publish real-time global certification data.

#DharamSingh #55YearsOfPurpose #PgMP #PfMP #PMOCP #ProjectLeadership #vCareProjectManagement #MentorshipMatters #StrategicPMO #AIandLeadership #PMICertification #FutureOfPMO #ProjectEconomy #PortfolioManagement #GlobalMentor #LeadershipReflection #LifelongLearning #EmotionalIntelligence #ProjectManagement

Evolving Nature of PMOs and Governance

Evolving Nature of PMOs and Governance

From a strategic standpoint, the PMO is critical in project management. Unlike project management, which focuses on the day-to-day operations of a project team, the PMO serves as a framework for project managers, offering PMO methodologies and templates for managing programs inside an organization. In addition, it manages the project management resources required to sustain and deliver projects.

Project management offices (PMOs) are evolving from purely administrative to strategic roles. They are rethinking PMO operations, adopting new technology, and implementing new project management operating models. The evolved PMO is a new PMO concept that is gaining traction. A creative, strategic, and adaptive PMO designed to help modern organizations deal with the volatility of today’s market conditions.

Functions Of A Project Management Office

Functions Of A Project Management Office

Functions of a Project Management Office (PMO)

A project management office (PMO) is the foundation of a successful project management strategy in a business. It is a function that gives decision-support information but does not make choices.

A project management office (PMO) supports project delivery mechanisms by ensuring that all business change in a company is controlled. PMOs perform various duties, and their services depend on the department’s maturity and the PMO personnel’s talents. At its most basic, the PMO assists project management teams in making funding, prioritizing, and resource choices. The most mature PMOs provide the following:

1. Governance: The PMO ensures that the appropriate individuals make the correct decisions based on pertinent information. Audits or peer reviews, designing project and program frameworks, and maintaining accountability at all levels are all part of the governance role.

2. Transparency: The PMO delivers information as a source of truth. Information should be relevant and accurate to promote good decision-making and be presented to individuals understandably.

3. Reusability: The PMO fosters knowledge sharing. This aspect prevents project teams from reinventing the wheel and positions the PMO as the hub for lessons learned, templates, and best practices.

4. Delivery support: By minimizing bureaucracy and offering training, coaching, mentoring, and quality assurance, the PMO makes it easier for project teams to accomplish their duties.

5. Traceability: The PMO manages paperwork, project history, and organizational knowledge.

In reality, most PMOs will do various tasks and offer services tailored to the organization’s requirements.

How Business Agility Drives A Shift In Focus For Today’s PMOs

Forward-thinking companies are fast learning that “simply getting the job done” will not equip them for long-term company success. To be successful in business today, firms must provide products and services that satisfy their clients while constantly innovating to grow their markets.

Historically, PMOs were responsible for managing tactical operations that supported project development and implementation. Today’s Corporate leaders recognize that to stay ahead of the market; they need to exploit new possibilities while limiting unanticipated risks – this necessitates a new approach to planning, building, and delivery. Maintaining consistent levels of project success involves more than an organized strategy; it demands a company’s collective attitude to accept required disciplines while staying flexible enough to respond to changes in their business.

1. A major project fails — badly: When an expensive, strategic initiative fails in a competitive market, it compels a company to rethink its strategy. A third of the organizations polled cited a big failure as the impetus for shifting emphasis.

2. A project goes over budget: An underlying driver is cost reduction; project success at higher-than-expected costs decreases profitability and damages customer relationships.

3. A PMO aids a strategic project to succeed: Success, on the other hand, is a catalyst for change. Therefore, the following important reason for building a strategic PMO would be to capitalize on the momentum produced by the successful project.

4. Market competition forces stronger disciplines: Maintaining market share and growing at a controllable rate encouraged larger firms to create consistency to innovate. The capacity to pivot and explore possibilities prompted smaller businesses to establish a strategic PMO.

Key Factors to a Successful PMO Transformation

Established businesses and fast-growing firms are both adapting to changing business environments brought on by competition, acquisitions, developing technology, and new risks. As a result, the importance of alignment, built-in quality, transparency, and the capacity to execute across various project endeavors has never been greater. Innovative design thinking, continuous delivery, excellent quality, and a never-ending drive for improvement are some of the essential characteristics of a modern-day PMO. Here are some causes driving PMO evolution and the seven elements required to turn a typical PMO into a transformation management office (TMO).

Drivers behind the PMO Evolution

Due to increased external business environment constraints, businesses must achieve rapid and substantial value from their projects and initiatives. This aspect means shorter delivery cycles, the adoption of developing technologies, and regularly changed priorities for the PMO. To achieve this transition, the PMO must move its focus from project execution technique to value-driven business results. Change drivers are often aligned with three fundamental needs:

Drivers behind the PMO Evolution

Drivers behind the PMO Evolution

1. Capacity and skills:

  • Specific domain areas of technical expertise required
  • Extra capacity required

2. Rapid Execution:

  • Organizations require rapid execution to address immediate concerns
  • No time to plan, but need to execute now to meet deadlines (e.g., regulatory compliance dates)

3. Innovation:

  • Legacy project management no longer meets expectations
  • Value focus, agility, quality, and continuous improvement are required
Transformation Management Office Critical Factors

Transformation Management Office Critical Factors

Critical Factors to Consider

1. Leadership: TMO core values of alignment, built-in quality, transparency, and program execution must be completely embraced by leaders. They must adopt an agile mindset, emphasizing respect for people and culture, flow, innovation, and continuous development while cultivating a culture of trust and safety when setbacks occur.

2. Organizational Agility: Processes at the program and project levels must be improved to deliver value quickly while allowing companies to restructure and adapt to changing priorities.

3. Lean Portfolio Management: Goals for funding and execution must be aligned around workstreams that bring value to business priorities. Organizations may use this to optimize operations throughout their project portfolio. In addition, governance, monitoring, and decision-making for programs and projects should be decentralized to decrease overhead while boosting agility.

4. Enterprise Solution Delivery: The whole software development life cycle can be aligned with a DevOps methodology that refines and coordinates the work product across workstreams, supply chains, and suppliers to achieve and sustain continuous delivery.

5. Agile Product Delivery: Methods for delivering programs must begin with a customer focus and design thinking while aligning the continuous-delivery pipeline to a release cadence that provides optimum value to the customer.

6. Team and Technical Agility: Teams must be high-performing and cross-functional, with the knowledge and competence to design and execute high-quality solutions and work products aligned with customer-focused business goals.

7. Continuous-Learning Culture: Investing in being a learning organization is critical for employee transformation. Employees must be empowered to discover and uncover future value by embracing innovation and design thinking. Continuous improvement of solutions, processes, and products should be a priority at all levels of the business.

The evolving role of the PMO in digital transformation

Digital transformation has swept across organizations of all shapes and sizes to keep up with the growing expectations and needs of an increasingly digitized world. However, more people are learning that successful digital transformation entails transforming core cultures, structures, and techniques and integrating digital tools. Therefore, the function of the PMO in organizations must adapt to accommodate this shift as organizations evolve to accommodate this change.

According to a PWC study, 70% of organizations had or were working on a digital transformation strategy before the pandemic. Digital transformation may provide several benefits, ranging from better operational efficiency and product quality to increased customer satisfaction and lower development expenses.

However, PMOs have become linked with bureaucratic processes and unnecessary documentation. Their role must develop beyond the conventional limitations of “standards enforcers” to embrace their strategic role as change agents fully. Future PMOs must be at the forefront of emerging technology and implement various tactics that will allow the organization to make the most of available technologies.

Five ways the PMO drives digital transformation

Five ways the PMO drives digital transformation

Five ways the PMO drives digital transformation

1. PMOs can inspire and encourage change

The PMO’s role is to assist organizations in gaining the support of all key stakeholders for a digital transformation. Teams are more inclined to invest in digital projects if the transformation’s advantages are personal. PMOs may implement explicit feedback mechanisms to ensure that all important input is easily supplied, reviewed, and acted upon.

2. PMOs act as the strategic arm

PMOs must ensure that their digital transformation plan is consistent with the organization’s overall strategy. For example, investing in high-end software is pointless if your company is attempting to save money and merely needs essential project management tools. PMOs must also comprehend the strategic benefit of digital technology investments and be able to quantify, justify, and carry out plans.

3. PMOs provide support and insight

Digital transformation programs are frequently large-scale enterprise-wide undertakings that need ongoing support and higher-level knowledge to influence their development. For example, PMOs may assist employees via virtual portals with the help of a PPM solution while also gathering Big Data to help evaluate the new technologies’ success and efficiency.

4. PMOs properly manage transformations

Introducing new technology frequently entails forming new teams and learning new skills to ensure a successful adoption process. Managing digital transformation entails guaranteeing the availability of relevant resources, skills, feedback mechanisms, and data collection procedures. PMOs can monitor the full effect of digital transformation activities, manage possible bottlenecks or pressure spots, and optimize ongoing operations.

5. PMOs enable successful digital adoption

PMOs are essential in getting people excited about digital initiatives and driving further use of the tools or processes. PMOs may assist employees in understanding the value of digital technologies by delivering interactive demos and holding learning sessions. When more individuals utilize the application, there is more data to accurately analyze the overall performance of digital activities.

Project Governance and its components

Project governance is an oversight position that includes the project life cycle. It is tied to the governance model of the organization. It provides the project manager and team with structure, processes, decision-making models, and tools for effectively managing and controlling the project. Project governance is critical, especially for complex and risky enterprises. It defines, documents, and communicates consistent project processes to give a whole way of project control and success. It includes a framework for making project choices, defines roles, obligations, and liabilities for project completion, and controls the project manager’s performance.

Components of Project Governance

Components of Project Governance

Components of Project Governance

According to PMI, eight project governance components offer real-world value:

 1. Governance Models

The organization should develop a baseline of important aspects required for project governance based on the project’s scale, duration, complexity, risk, stakeholders, and relevance to the company.

2. Accountability and Responsibilities

The project manager’s primary responsibility is to define accountability and obligations. An organization’s operations will only be successful if accountability and obligations are adequately distributed. Therefore, the project manager must specify who is accountable, responsible, consulted, and alerted for each project’s deliverables.

3. Stakeholder Engagement

It is essential to thoroughly understand the project environment while setting the groundwork for your governance plan. The first stage is to identify all of the stakeholders. If even one stakeholder is excluded, it can disrupt the entire project and have a negative impact. One must identify stakeholders from various sources, including sponsors, suppliers, the project team, government boards, company owners, etc. The project manager must identify the stakeholders, their interests and prospects, and, most critically, how to interact with them.

4. Stakeholder Communication

The project manager must design a communication plan after identifying all stakeholders and describing their interests and expectations. A well-planned communication strategy provides all stakeholders with concise, efficient, and timely information.

5. Meeting and Reporting

Once the communication strategy has been properly designed, the project manager ensures that the optimal mix of meetings and reporting is in place. It is critical to design the communication strategy so that each stakeholder knows the mode and content of the communication and the owner, receiver, communication milestones, and decision gates. Furthermore, communication must be concise, accurate, and to the point.

6. Risk and Issue Management

Projects and programs are riddled with hazards and difficulties due to their uncertainty and unpredictability. It is challenging to forecast what will happen. Still, it is vital since a lack of preparation will throw the project team well behind schedule. Any project or program must begin with an agreement on identifying, categorizing, and prioritizing risks and concerns. How the danger or issue is handled is far more significant than the issue itself.

7. Assurance

Project assurance ensures that risks and concerns are addressed effectively and provides the indicators that provide delivery confidence. One of the most important aspects of assurance is developing metrics to provide a view of project success.

8. Project Management Control Process

It is the simplest component yet the most complicated to implement. Process control activities, metrics relevant to the project, and measurements are monitored and controlled. Also, this is a collaborative review; the management must monitor performance regularly and address any variances on time.

Creating project governance is more complex than it sounds. First, a significant investment is required when embarking on a new project. What’s more challenging is determining what advantages are linked with it. The following are four major advantages of project governance:

  • Single point of contact
  • Problem management and resolution
  • Information dissemination and clear communication
  • Outlines the roles, connections, and responsibilities of project stakeholders

Reinvent the PMO’s role in the digital age

The structure, provenance, and stakeholders of IT strategy, regulation, and management operations are changing dramatically due to digitization. As a result, the project management office, or PMO, must move its focus from project governance and delivery to digital transformation. According to a Gartner study, 87% of firms prioritize digitalization. Furthermore, today, 77% of an executive’s top priorities depend on technology.

As a result, PMOs are under enormous pressure to transform. But unfortunately, the project, program, and portfolio management processes they build and monitor are geared toward predictability and consistency rather than the speed and flexibility necessary to satisfy digital demand.

More flexible job descriptions and growing ownership of project management activities by business partners and other delivery professionals put traditional hierarchies and established PMO positions to the challenge. As a result, the PMO’s future role in digitization initiatives is established rather than for it since it usually needs to be considered in discussions about digitally driven changes to the IT operating model.

The traditional role of the PMO: Three advantages

Organizations are altering the function of the PMO in response to better support the enterprise’s digital aspirations. To accomplish so, they must examine possible activities critically through the prism of the PMO’s comparative advantages. The majority of PMOs have three main benefits, which are either inherent because of the PMO’s function or location or were developed as a result of experience:

1. A neutral enterprise perspective:

As capital allocation and portfolio priority approaches alter to give the financial flexibility necessary for digital work, the PMO’s objective, enterprise-wide perspective on demand, investment, and resource consumption, is more valuable.

2. The ability to operate via influence:

As organizational boundaries grow more flexible and who “owns” project management becomes less definite, influencing and empowering others, rather than direct ownership, becomes even more crucial.

3. Stakeholder insight:

As digitalization expands throughout the business and accounts for an increasing quantity of work, the number of first-time stakeholders and stakeholder complexity for each work item increases. Therefore, understanding the preferences of these many stakeholders and experiencing synthesizing their feedback becomes critical in producing results from digital work.

The PMO’s new role: Advancing digital ambitions

Leading PMOs are leveraging these advantages to shift the focus of their mission away from governance and delivery activities, embracing a strategy-over-governance and management-over-operations stance. Here are three approaches to altering the PMO’s role in the digital age:

Altering the PMOs role in the Digital age

Altering the PMOs role in the Digital age

1. Orchestrating delivery and team workflows

The PMO is well-suited to develop and promote interactions across increasingly different types of work and stakeholders due to its enterprise perspective and stakeholder insight. PMOs can play significant roles in driving the adoption of new delivery practices (e.g., Agile, DevOps) and will need to build systems for team collaboration across methodologies. This move entails identifying and managing interdependencies that might derail existing activity and lowering the effort necessary for interaction across teams, other governance roles, and third parties.

2. Developing and enabling digital talent

PMOs have expanded their roles in creating and fostering digital talent, adjusting career paths, and equipping project management professionals with the skills and techniques required to handle increasingly dynamic digital work. This initiative includes fostering new competencies such as product ownership, cultivating an enlarged network of project management practitioners, and providing targeted assistance for increasing business-managed projects.

3. Supporting digital transformation

Digitization is driving change in the IT operating model, with 52% of IT businesses utilizing or planning to use a new model centered on product lines. The PMO’s role in facilitating this transformation will be essential in the future. For example, the PMO may assist with enterprise-level capital allocation, design, and management of product line investment roadmaps, assess product line success, and manage the organizational transformation required when IT transitions to product lines. Aside from IT, the PMO will be asked to help implement digital business activities.

Final Thoughts

The future PMO will be more strategic and intricate than traditional approaches, emphasizing driving decision-making, execution, and outcomes while becoming more decentralized to interact with each workstream to achieve one common goal efficiently. Finally, PMOs will be more crucial than ever in addressing the challenges that organizations are now confronting. An effective transformation will need PMOs to act as the organization’s voice and face.

As the pace of digitalization increases, the PMO role will be put under increased pressure. As a result, PMOs are looking for methods to cut back on their time and effort on operational and governance tasks. Thus, PMO leaders must leverage their unique assets to change their focus from governance and delivery assistance to strategy and management activities that support digital projects.

Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Justin Buckwalter in YouTube

For any questions related to your Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting https://bit.ly/2SbhTOK

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Strategic Project Management Office (SPMO)

Strategic Project Management Office (SPMO)

The project management office (PMO) is increasingly evolving from an administrative role to one that is strategic and more closely connected with business drivers. As a result, the PMO plays an important role in generating corporate value as the pace of business rises along with the expectation of faster returns on investment.

Traditional administrative PMOs fall short of meeting this need. Therefore, a mindset change and a reinvented project delivery capability that is both commercially astute and agile are required. Furthermore, such a PMO must comprehend and implement the plan.

In this article, we’ll look at the factors driving the shift to strategic project management offices (SPMO), also known as Enterprise PMO or EPMO, the essential features of a value-adding PMO, and game changer ideas to help you alter your PMO and improve its profile in your business.

What is Strategic PMO (SPMO)?

What is Strategic PMO (SPMO)?

Strategic PMO (SPMO)

A Strategic PMO is a project-centric business department that should be structured and managed like other business departments – with enterprise leadership setting goals and objectives that assist the organization in thriving. The demands of individual organizations will lead to variations in what it means in specific terms. Still, we can expect a focus on the following areas:

  • Portfolio management – Generation of ideas, selection, execution, and realization of benefits. Portfolio Management is a huge area, and organizations will adapt to it as it becomes increasingly crucial.
  • Financial management – The PMO, closely linked to portfolio management, must be accountable for ensuring that project investments are acceptable and fit with business goals. The PMO must also guarantee competent budget management during project execution. Furthermore, the PMO should be held accountable for monitoring and tracking the benefit realization tasks of the business units.
  • Enterprise-wide project-related processes and approaches Strategic risk management (i.e., managing the portfolio’s organizational risk exposure, proactive risk selection to match organizational tolerance, and so on), integration of finance and benefits, consistent quality standards, and so on.
Focus areas of Strategic PMO

Focus areas of Strategic PMO

  • Proactive resource management – Capacity and capability planning, skills inventory management, and so on – ensuring that the project execution functions have the appropriate people with the right skills at the right time.
  • Strategic partner – This borders on cultural change, creating the PMO as an independent and impartial consultant to the organization on project execution. PMOs, like IT, must demonstrate that they are business leaders supporting the organization’s work rather than a tactical execution-only function.

Different levels of PMO strategic alignment

Within an organization, a PMO can function at three stages of ‘Strategic’ maturity:

Different levels of PMO strategic alignment

Different levels of PMO strategic alignment

  1. Strategy Creation – Strategy Creation entails assisting organizations in determining which strategic options to pursue (and then translating them into projects – Strategy Delivery – and managing their success – Strategy Management). It is unusual for a PMO to achieve this level of trust and influence inside an organization. Still, it is the (possible) future for the enterprise PMO that is effectively embedded within an organization and fortunate with the right sponsorship.
  2. Strategy Delivery – Strategy Delivery is the process through which the PMO turns important strategy objectives into new projects to be added to the portfolio (and perhaps to remove some from the portfolio if such objectives have changed). The ‘Strategy Supervision’ capability backs up this ‘Strategy Delivery’ capability. The PMO may also take direct responsibility for the execution of large and complex programs (or projects) that are specifically critical to a key strategic effort, such as relocation activities.
  3. Strategy Supervision – Strategy Supervision of strategic intents through project ownership, each of which should directly or indirectly link to a strategic intention of the overall organization. ‘Strategy Supervision’ is where the PMO acts as the Executive’s governing and advisory body by:
  • Validating that all projects undertaken correspond to one or more strategic initiatives.
  • Monitoring the current and right alignment of projects and strategy.
  • Making stall-and-kill recommendations for initiatives no longer correspond with current corporate strategic thinking.

Five Steps to Creating the Strategic Enterprise Project Management Office (SPMO)

Today’s organizations recognize that fewer and fewer initiatives are self-contained inside individual departments and increasingly straddle multiple business functions. Project management offices (PMOs) have traditionally been connected with IT, partly due to technology’s role in all projects. However, with technology increasingly transitioning to contribute to those business transformation initiatives, keeping the PMO as an IT role is ineffective.

The appropriate response to this trend is a single, enterprise-wide EPMO. Many firms using EPMOs, however, fail to perceive an increase in project execution speed. In addition, here are the five key steps to achieving long-term EPMO success:

Five Steps to Creating SPMO

Five Steps to Creating SPMO

  • Define the company’s goal.
  • Create appropriate leadership and accountability structures.
  • Communicate the purpose, responsibilities, and alignment.
  • Respond to measurements and outcomes.
  • Create a road map for actual evolution into a business function.

The Rise of the Strategic PMO

The strategic PMO may play a crucial role as a custodian and evangelist for business benefits realization, giving important information to the Executive on which projects deliver value across the organization. In addition, the insights provided by the SPMO may help with crucial decisions like which initiatives to fund, which projects to kill, or re-prioritizing or re-balancing work portfolios to reflect changing business or market conditions.

Not all PMOs must be strategic in character. For example, a PMO embedded within a project or program might focus on the project’s day-to-day resource management and administrative needs. However, the decision to start the project should have been taken at a strategic level. From the start, the project-level PMO should have been aligned with the Strategic PMO’s reporting and governance structure. The SPMO should be able to make micro and macro business choices based on accurate and timely project data flow up into the program and, eventually, portfolio level.

The Strategic PMO plays a key role in championing and driving business value for the organization and being an effective change enabler. Here are the five major game changers that will propel the PMO and project organization to the next level.

5 Major game changers that will propel the PMO and project organization to the next level

5 Major game changers that will propel the PMO and project organization to the next level

  • Demonstrating Project Leadership and Vision
  • The Importance of Realistic Planning
  • A Culture of Disciplined Execution
  • Effective Stakeholder and Change Management
  • Creating a “Value Lens” for Managing Enterprise Investment

The strategic project management office is critical to increasing project maturity and optimizing the organization’s business return on project investment. People, processes, data, and technologies must all be prioritized to achieve this objective. Project management is a multifaceted endeavor that is both an art and a science.

Leveraging the future of PMO to drive new strategic opportunities

In recent years, businesses have been subjected to a slew of external forces, the most significant of which has been Covid-19. These disruptors have caused firms to adapt, whether to work around obstacles, shift to new working methods, or adapt to Industry 4.0. All of these variables influence organizational complexity, both strategically and operationally. Businesses must not only respond proactively to all of this complexity; they must also prosper while operating in a resource-constrained environment. As a result, today, more than ever, the PMO’s ability to efficiently deliver projects and transform organizations of all kinds and across many locations is critical to achieving their goals.

Projects must be completed at scale to create transformation for a company effectively. A McKinsey & Company study of over 5000 large-scale projects discovered that 56% generated less value than planned, 45% went over budget, and 17% were so disastrous that the organization’s survival was threatened. This study highlights the need to make adequate efforts to select PMOs who can adapt to the future of work.

Historically, PMOs have been viewed as lacking a clear identity or purpose within an organization; however, the future-state PMO is an enabler of business value creation, collaborating with business leaders to provide a clear and achievable roadmap while making the best use of the organization’s limited resources.

3 Aspects that PMOs must embrace

3 Aspects that PMOs must embrace

PMOs must also adjust to the new normal and growing business demands. The three areas described below represent the fundamental features that PMOs of the present and future must embrace to manage change effectively.

  1. Technology & Automation 

Because Covid-19 has accelerated the way we utilize technology in our daily work, technology is expected to be front and center, enabling PMOs to deliver more successfully. To effectively adapt to new methods of working and build a “single source of truth,” advanced technologies and cloud-based solutions will be required. This technology jump is critical for borderless operations in which progress and transparent communication must be readily available and updated in real-time to allow for swift decision-making.

In the future world, both artificial intelligence and machine learning will be important facilitators of automating PMO procedures, delivering superior insights, and allowing teams to spend less time on manual transactional processing and more time generating value for projects. For example, project planning is often based on data collection, industry benchmarking, and using the experience of project managers. However, according to PMI – AI Innovators, there is still a significant inefficiency in project management, with around 1/3 of traditional project management activities requiring one or more days of manually collating reports. Using IoT and big data to automate various tedious processes allows the PMO to create more realistic and effective timetables and spot potential disruptors.

However, it is unlikely that technology will completely replace project managers, with the PMI forecasting that businesses will require over 88 million project managers by 2027. As a result, PMs will be expected to improve their competencies and fully utilize the available technologies.

PMOs will be required to lead by example in their automation projects, advocating new methods of working with their collaborative organization in the future. As a result, the paradigm of efficiently providing workstreams may evolve, driving firms to become more digital.

  1. Agility 

With an increased level of complexity for transformation and multiple stakeholders to handle, projects may need to adapt and pivot in other ways than originally planned. Changes in priorities (39%) and objectives (37%) and the inability to adapt are the two leading reasons for project failure, according to PMI.

As a result, PMOs that can be responsive to change needs continually are critical to fulfilling project milestones, which might mean the difference between being an industry leader or a laggard. An agile PMO’s guiding principles are as follows:

  • Decentralization of planning and decision-making
  • Agile resource allocation and reallocation
  • Workflows that are effective for continuous project advancement

An agile PMO may demonstrate agility by altering priorities and reallocating resources to achieve new objectives while transitioning seamlessly from reorganization to continuous delivery. Furthermore, decisions are decentralized, allowing faster response rates for recognizing and reducing hazards. Finally, communication is critical, with fewer layers of approval, and output is assessed by how much work can be done in a particular sprint.

However, merely establishing an agile PMO will only solve some difficulties; 47% of agile projects are late, have budget overruns, or result in dissatisfied consumers. A cultural revolution is required to fully realize agile’s potential, beginning with the leadership team and spreading across the firm.

As a result, the PMO cannot only act as an intermediary but also as a business partner, working alongside the leadership team and the rest of the organization. Team members must be self-sufficient, accountable, and have complete insight into project progress and data.

  1. Strategy 

The PMO’s role must evolve from a team offering mere assurance to becoming a strategic partner with a vested interest in aligning with the organization’s ability to carry out its plan. As a result, the team is expected to have stronger strategic oversight of all work streams to deliver value throughout the project.

PMOs will be required to go beyond task completion and monitoring to include:

  • Portfolio planning entails generating ideas for the activities required to capitalize on the opportunity.
  • Project prioritizing entails determining the most effective timeframe and budgeting by the company’s demands.
  • Capacity planning entails assigning the appropriate skills and resources to each work team.
  • Resilience planning entails anticipating future obstacles and reducing interruptions.
  • The strategic partnership is a cultural transformation in management and the PMO. The PMO is viewed as a business leader and adviser with a stake in the organization’s goals.

The key to success is consistent stakeholder engagement, with the PMO and business leaders holding frequent strategic discussions to monitor and coordinate company strategy and broad strategic objectives. This consistency will build a collaborative strategic management process and a fluid communication channel to adjust quickly and efficiently.

The future PMO will be more strategic and intricate in character than conventional models, emphasizing driving decision-making, execution, and outcomes while becoming more decentralized to interact with each workstream to achieve one common goal efficiently. Finally, PMOs will be more crucial than ever in addressing the complexities that organizations are now confronting. An effective transformation will need PMOs to serve as the organization’s voice and face.

Strategic project management office's role in strategy execution

Strategic project management office’s role in strategy execution

Strategic project management office’s role in strategy execution

Identifying, implementing, and managing strategic initiatives is critical to strategy execution. The strategies are implemented by creating strategic initiatives to support strategic objectives and fill gaps in strategic measures, and the value gap is bridged. Only projects that are connected with the strategic goal should be accepted.

When defining strategic initiatives/projects, the sequence of initiative execution is crucial since all related strategic initiatives must finish and provide value. The strategic initiatives cover almost all departments and corporate shared services. As governance becomes more important in project management, portfolios and programs are defined.

  • Strategic initiatives are linked to similar programs and project execution.
  • The projects will be managed by program managers, project managers, and another project team.
  • Connecting programs and projects creates portfolios for portfolio managers and other project governance teams.
  • Project, program, and portfolio definition is an iterative process reviewed multiple times to ensure interconnectivity and value generation.

Portfolio, program, and project management are critical components of strategy execution. Hence, everything is referred to as a Strategic Project Management Office (SPMO) or Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO).

Final Thoughts

Organizations can only thrive in a highly competitive world if they innovate. Such innovation must occur at all levels of the organization, including goods, services, business processes, and business models.

The PMO has the authority to execute the innovation at all levels. Good project management regulates and fosters innovation through projects—customer satisfaction and profit growth when consistent outcomes are predictable. Project and program management practices establish the foundation for dependable plan execution. The efficacy of the organization’s initiatives and programs will influence corporate success when such practices are implemented throughout the organization.

The project management office (PMO) is a key change management component, working with other organizational structures, such as functional units, to improve project management competencies. However, in today’s competitive environment, businesses must rely on more than just solid strategies to secure success.

To succeed, managers must build organizations capable of attaining their strategic objectives faster than their competitors. This initiative involves the creation of organizations capable of performing today’s tasks more effectively while anticipating future disruptions. Successful execution of creative and strategic concepts leads to innovation. Competitive advantage is as much about execution as it is about strategy.

Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Justin Buckwalter in YouTube

For any questions related to your Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting http://talktodharam.com/

You can subscribe to the vCare Project Management YouTube Channel to catch future videos of our Q&A series and certification success stories: https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl

You can subscribe to and follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd