More Praise for From PMO to VMO
From PMO to VMO provides a clear vision of how to make value tangible inside your organizationand more importantly, how to do so with the teams and capabilities that already exist. By the end of this book, you will understand what is valuable, how to measure value, and how to optimize for the flow of valuefrom idea to your customer.
Evan Leybourn, cofounder and CEO, Business Agility Institute
This book fills the knowledge gap that exists within so many companies of how to effectively manage a lean-agile delivery system at scale. It is a great achievement of balancing the need for portfolio management and discipline with nimble and fast-moving teams.
Thomas Paider, Fortune 100 technology executive and coauthor of The Lean IT Field Guide
From PMO to VMO lays out a road map to expand your agile transformation well beyond the walls of IT. The book provides compelling evidence and concrete actions senior IT leaders should follow to improve the speed, quality, and efficiency of overall delivery.
Kevin G. Fisher, former Associate Vice President, Lean IT, Nationwide Insurance
A vision and a road map for transforming the traditional PMO into a refreshing model of Agile Value Management Office (Agile VMO) that focuses on measuring, prioritizing, and delivering customer value. If you are a project manager or work with a PMO, this is a must-read to help you navigate the future of organizational agility.
Dr. Rashina Hoda, Voice of Agile Research, Associate Professor, Monash University
It is a challenge to keep up with all the significant developments from lean, agile, and design thinking and then see where they fit in a busy PMO. From PMO to VMO lays out all the major building blocks and explains how they fit together to create a modern, functioning VMO that adds value and supports both teams and the business.
Mike Griffiths, CEO, Leading Answers Inc., and author of Beyond Agile
Once again, Sanjiv Augustine is at the vanguard of organizational thinkingalways focusing on the why, not just the what and how. This book is a practical road map for adopting an agile, value-driven approach to managing the output of your organization.
Max Keeler, Senior Techie at Large, The Motley Fool
Ive been leading agile teams for over fifteen years. Each leg in my journey to learn and impart agility has felt like steps toward something better, but steps to what exactly? This excellent book finally explains, with much clarity, the point of it all.
Don Sargent, CTO, Chronicle of Higher Education
This comprehensive guide combines the distinctions of lean-agile processes and enterprise management science to create a value-driven engine for enterprise agility. As a bonus, it is easily applicable to any agile/scaling framework. Managers and leadership will learn how to shift focus from managing to maximizing value and how to utilize the existing structure for building the desired outcome. Highly recommended.
Deepti Jain, founder of AgileVirgin and India Agile Community Development Chief, Agile Alliance
FROM PMO TO VMO
FROM PMO TO VMO
Managing for Value Delivery
Sanjiv Augustine
Roland Cuellar
Audrey Scheere
From PMO to VMO
Copyright 2021 by Lithespeed LLC
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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-9136-2
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9137-9
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9138-6
Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-9139-3
2021-1
Book producer: Westchester Publishing Services
Cover designer: Kim Scott
Our friend and colleague Roland Cuellar passed away on April 29, 2021.
Roland, we dedicate this book to you with the deepest of sorrow, the fondest of memories, and the highest of respect. We were singularly blessed to know you and to share this earthly sojourn with you. In the infinite arc of the universe, we will surely journey together again.
Sanjiv:
To Sujatha, Sameer, Sandhya, and our families
Roland:
To Alison and Tony, I am forever grateful
Audrey:
To D, B, and G
Contents
Tables
Figures
Foreword
Scott Ambler
Vice President, Chief Scientist of Disciplined
Agile at Project Management Institute
Mark Lines
Vice President, Disciplined Agile at Project
Management Institute
SCOTT: We need to get going on writing the foreword for From PMO to VMO.
MARK: Agreed. How should we go about it?
SCOTT: Im thinking that we write it as a chat stream. Given that everyone is working remotely these days, theyll be able to relate to it better than if we wrote straightforward prose.
MARK: Seems gimmicky.
SCOTT: Sure, but all we need to do is spin a story about turbulent business conditions, yadda yadda yadda, new ways of working, blah blah blah, and people will go for it.
MARK: Yeah. Not so sure thisll fly, but lets try it. Where should we start?
SCOTT: First thing we should address is why someone should read this book. What struck you as the key learnings?
MARK: The critical point is that project management offices need to evolve, and they need to do it now. The authors are right in their observation that PMOs are struggling and often under attack in many organizations. To be fair, if PMOs arent adding value, if they are not helping their organization to improve, then they should be under attack. Weve both seen this in practice, particularly in the IT space where PMOs tend to be an obstacle to agile rather than a conduit for it. On the other hand, the most effective agile transformations that we have seen usually involved the PMO stepping up and being actively involved with the transformation and often driving it.