Most PMOs fail the same way: they are designed against best practice rather than against what the organisation will actually maintain. Norcadia Advisory builds and improves PMOs across London and the UK — lightweight lifecycles, short templates and reporting cadences that survive a busy quarter.
Or, just as often, when the PMO it already has needs to do fewer things better.
Nobody can produce a reliable list of every project currently running and who owns it.
Every project manager reports in a different format, so nothing can be compared.
Templates exist but were abandoned within a month of launch because they were too long.
The organisation grew quickly and delivery process never caught up with headcount.
The PMO spends most of its time chasing status updates rather than improving delivery.
A funding round or board change has created reporting expectations nothing currently meets.
The test for every artefact we design is simple: will this still be in use in six months? Anything that fails that test does not get built.
An honest read of what the current PMO does well, what it does out of habit, and where the genuine gaps are against organisational need.
A stage-gated lifecycle with the minimum number of gates that give real control — usually far fewer than a standard methodology proposes.
Project initiation, status reporting, RAID and lessons learned — short enough that people complete them properly rather than performatively.
A reporting rhythm designed around when decisions are actually made, giving leadership a comparable view across every project.
Ways-of-working documentation and hands-on onboarding for the people who will run the PMO after we leave.
Built on the Microsoft stack most organisations already own, so the PMO does not depend on a new system being procured.
Whether building from scratch or improving what exists, the sequence is the same.
Establish what projects are actually running, how they are currently managed, and what leadership needs to see. This frequently uncovers projects nobody at the centre knew about.
Get a single portfolio view in place quickly, even before the full design is finished. A basic list everyone trusts beats a sophisticated model nobody has adopted yet.
Design the lifecycle, templates and cadence — deliberately minimal, then added to only where a real gap shows up in use. Building light and adding is far more successful than building heavy and cutting.
Onboard the PMO team, run the first few reporting cycles alongside them, and hand over documentation. Success is measured six months later, by whether any of it is still being used.
A scale-up that had outgrown informal delivery management. We created a risk and issue management process supported by workshops, dashboards and executive reporting, giving leaders a portfolio-level view of what was affecting delivery and company objectives.
Anonymised to protect client confidentiality.
A Project Management Office provides the standards, reporting and support that let an organisation run multiple projects consistently. In practice a good PMO does three things: gives leadership a reliable portfolio-level view, removes repeated administrative effort from delivery teams, and makes it obvious when a project is drifting. A PMO that only produces reports and chases updates is adding cost without adding control.
Usually when the number of concurrent projects passes the point where any one person can hold the picture in their head — typically somewhere between five and ten. The other common trigger is a funding round, board change or regulatory requirement that suddenly demands consistent portfolio reporting that does not currently exist.
By designing for what the organisation will maintain rather than what best practice suggests. That means the minimum viable lifecycle rather than a full stage-gate model, templates short enough that people fill them in properly, and a reporting cadence matched to how fast decisions are actually made. Every artefact should have a named consumer — if nobody reads it, it should not exist.
A typical PMO setup or improvement engagement runs 4 to 8 weeks. That covers assessment of current capability, design of the lifecycle and templates, reporting cadence design, and onboarding of the team who will run it day to day.
Yes, and that is the more common engagement. Most organisations do not need a new PMO — they need the one they have to be doing fewer things better. We assess current capability against what the organisation actually needs, then remove, simplify or rebuild specific parts rather than starting from a blank page.
The governance layer a PMO reports into — forums, RAID and dashboards.
Read more →For individual projects already delayed, red-rated or without an owner.
Read more →Take the manual reporting workload off the PMO with automated flows.
Read more →Tell us how delivery is managed today and we will tell you what the smallest useful PMO would look like for your organisation.