Chapter News

Every organization has a strategy, yet far fewer manage to bring it to life. Somewhere between ambition and execution, priorities compete or blur, energy dissipates, and well-designed initiatives lose their original purpose. It is precisely in this often overlooked space that the Project Management Office operates. PMI’s report - Bridging the Gap - Positioning PMO’s as Indispensable Partners in Strategy Execution - , based on insights from nearly 1,900 PMO and senior leaders, suggests that while the PMO’s potential impact has never been greater, its role is still too often confined to execution rather than influence (p. 4).

The report makes a clear case for change. As automation and AI increasingly absorb administrative and reporting activities, the value of the PMO can no longer be anchored in operational discipline alone. Instead, relevance is now tied to the ability to contribute strategically, connecting portfolios to business priorities, enabling informed decisions, and keeping organizations focused on outcomes rather than activity. In this sense, PMOs are being asked to move beyond efficiency and toward what the report describes as genuine “strategic contribution” (pp. 4–5).

Introduction: From Order-Keeping to Sense-Making

Organizations today operate in a constant state of change. Market volatility, talent shortages, regulatory pressure, and societal expectations demand a level of adaptability that traditional structures were never designed to support. PMI’s findings show that mature PMOs often act as stabilizing forces in this uncertainty, translating shifting strategic priorities into coordinated execution while preserving organizational coherence (p. 5). Yet despite this potential, many PMOs remain positioned as custodians of process rather than contributors to direction.

What the report ultimately calls for is a reframing of purpose, and not abandonment of discipline altogether. Success, it argues, is no longer measured by how closely plans are followed, but by how effectively effort is aligned with intent. This is where organizational capability comes into play - the collective ability to deploy resources, skills, and insight in ways that outperform peers facing similar constraints (p. 5). When PMOs develop this capability, they gain the perspective needed to see across silos, anticipate trade-offs, and support leadership with a holistic view of execution (p. 6).

Bridging the Space Between Strategy and Execution

One of the most revealing insights in the report is the subtle but persistent misalignment between PMOs and senior leaders. While both agree that strategic alignment matters, leaders consistently place greater weight on customer engagement, benefits realization, and decision support than PMOs do in practice (pp. 9–10). This gap is about how attention, time, and resources are distributed across daily work.

Using MaxDiff analysis, the report shows that PMOs often recognize the importance of strategic capabilities, yet continue to prioritize traditional delivery activities (pp. 8–9). As Burkhard Meier points out, focusing primarily on process and quality management limits strategic influence. Real impact emerges when PMOs take responsibility for both completing initiatives, and for ensuring that those initiatives deliver tangible business value and advance organizational goals (p. 10).

Seeing the Organization Through the Customer’s Eyes

Customer-centricity may sound like a familiar concept, yet it remains one of the most underdeveloped PMO capabilities. Senior leaders view relationship management as essential to executing strategy, while many PMOs still treat it as peripheral (pp. 12–13). This disconnect affects trust, relevance, and ultimately the PMO’s ability to influence outcomes.

The report reminds us that PMOs have many customers—executives, teams, sponsors, and partners—each with different needs (pp. 14–15). Impact comes not from serving all of them in the same way, but from understanding what matters to each. One PMO leader describes their role as uniquely cross-functional, “fostering collaboration between departments and resolving conflicts” (p. 15). As AI takes on more transactional work, it is precisely these human capabilities - empathy, communication, and contextual judgment - that increasingly define the PMO’s contribution (pp. 16–17).

From Control to Service: Redefining PMO Value

For many PMOs, governance has long been the core of their identity; however, the report shows that expectations are shifting. Senior leaders now prioritize strategic alignment and benefits realization over process enforcement alone (pp. 19–20). Governance remains necessary, but it is no longer sufficient to justify the PMO’s existence.

A service-oriented PMO asks different questions: What decisions are we enabling? What outcomes are we accelerating? This mindset requires business acumen and the ability to translate project data into insights that matter at enterprise level (pp. 21–22). As one PMO leader notes, influence grows when PMOs learn to “speak the language of enterprise value,” connecting delivery to performance, risk, and long-term impact (p. 23).

Technology, AI, and the PMO’s Next Advantage

Technology now shapes first,  how work is done, and second, how value is perceived. The report highlights a growing expectation among senior leaders that PMOs will lead in data-driven decision-making, even as many PMOs continue to underprioritize analytics and digital capabilities (pp. 25–26). This gap represents both a warning sign and a significant opportunity.

AI applications such as forecasting, trend analysis, and performance monitoring can elevate the PMO from reporter to advisor (p. 27). But the report is careful to stress that technology must be applied with intent. One interviewee captures the core: without a clear AI strategy at the top of the agenda, organizations risk falling behind altogether (p. 26). For PMOs, the challenge is integrating tools in ways that enhance judgment and trust.

Conclusion: The PMO as the Quiet Architect of Impact

What emerges from the PMI’s report - Bridging the Gap - Positioning PMO’s as Indispensable Partners in Strategy Execution - is that PMO’s foundations require expansion. The PMOs that thrive will be those that shift gradually yet deliberately - from control to collaboration, from reporting to sense-making, and from delivering outputs to enabling outcomes (pp. 30–31). This transition is less about structure and more about mindset.

In a world where strategy is easy to declare but difficult to realize, PMOs have an opportunity to become indispensable. By combining human insight, strategic alignment, and data-driven clarity, they can help organizations close the gap between ambition and reality. And in doing so, they may finally claim their place not behind the scenes, but at the heart of execution (p. 31).