A Look Forward, With Hope and Confidence

December 30, 2022 | by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Coming up on the end of 2022, I'm at last going to answer the remaining question asked by one of our webinar attendees (view the full recorded webinar here) after participating in our online presentation about The State of the PMO 2022. I've saved the best for last because it spurs some thoughts on the future of project management. And the future is on our doorstep.

 Q: How are the changes in the upcoming PMI PMBOK® 7 changes supported by these results?  Are organizations ready?  How can they start being ready?

Kudos to this questioner for asking a far-reaching question designed to make us think.

As we’ve written before, we view the newest version of the PMBOK® Guide as a higher-order elaboration of the project management standard – not a replacement for it. This elaboration was one we welcomed, because we have been working to expand the role of project management and the PMO within the organization for decades! The acknowledgement that ordered lists of processes are simply not enough to deliver great results was perfectly timed, falling as it did during the pandemic, when uncertainty, risk, ambiguity, change and creativity were more present than ever in the project economy.

As to how the results of this study reflect the realities described in the eight Domains, although this is not spelled out per se in our report, you can read between the lines to find how high performers are already managing projects in the spirit of “PMBOK 7.” Here are a few examples.

The FinServ industry sector had very high scores on almost all measures throughout the State of the PMO study. They are most likely of all industries to have an Enterprise PMO and score highest of all on standardizing governance processes. They also show a marked profile of change readiness, being the most likely to have already moved to using PMBOK 7 guidance, as well as having strong Agile training programs. All this shows in their performance profile, where 80% of the organizations in the study were high performers.

The other industry sector that tied with FinServ for the percentage of high-performing PMOS was Healthcare. In this sector—although it has quite a different profile from FinServ in terms of company sizes, structure, organizational goals, and so on—the Healthcare high performers also showed strong performance on practices tightly aligned with the Domains, such as “Adapting the project management approach (predictive/agile/hybrid) to the situation.”

In fact, adherence to the practices laid out in the Domains serves as a foundation for the high-performing PMOs in the study. So, yes, at least the high-performing PMOs (the top 25%) are not only ready, but already leading the changes suggested by the Seventh Edition.

For the rest of the pack … the majority of organizations … there’s room for improvement. Luckily, modeling your practice after the high performers in the study provides a pretty precise roadmap; that’s how they can start getting ready. And it’s a New Year. Time to resolve on improvements both personal and professional. Go!

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About the Author

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin is editor-in-chief for PM Solutions Research, and the author, co-author and editor of over twenty books on project management, including the 2007 PMI Literature Award winner, The AMA Handbook of Project Management, Second Edition.

View Posts by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

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