Conduct a PMO Assessment: Understand the Role of Organizational Culture

The success of program management offices is deeply intertwined with organizational culture. In this blog, we explain how to perform a PMO assessment to help ensure your culture aligns with your PMO’s success.

In the dynamic landscape of program management, organizations often turn to program management offices (PMOs) to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and drive successful project outcomes. However, the success of a PMO (a centralized group responsible for managing a portfolio of related projects and programs) is not solely determined by its structure or methodologies — it is deeply linked to the organization’s culture. In this blog, we explore why understanding organizational culture is a key factor in conducting effective PMO assessments.

Organizational culture is the invisible force that shapes how people interact, make decisions, and collaborate within an organization. When setting up or evaluating a PMO, you must recognize that culture permeates every aspect of project management. For example, some cultures are hierarchical and value stability.

Other cultures are more innovative and thrive on experimentation. Either way, the PMO must align with and adapt to the existing culture. Failing to consider the crucial role that organizational culture plays in PMO’s capabilities can risk its effectiveness.

The Organizational Culture PMO Assessment Journey

Before diving into recommendations and process improvements, PMO leaders must embark on a journey of discovery. This journey involves gaining a deep understanding of the organization’s culture. Here’s why it matters:

Decision Making

A PMO’s effectiveness hinges on sound decision-making. By understanding the decision-making culture — whether data-driven, consensus-based, or hierarchical — the PMO must tailor its governance processes accordingly. For instance, a data-driven culture may benefit from analytics and metrics, while a consensus-based culture may use collaborative forums. Consider the following:

• What is the organization’s decision-making process? Is it data-driven, consensus-based, or hierarchical?
• Do employees feel empowered to make decisions within their roles?
• Do they communicate decisions transparently to all relevant stakeholders?
• How often do they revisit or adjust decisions based on feedback?

Collaboration

In all cultures, successful project delivery relies on cross-functional collaboration. By examining how teams collaborate, communicate and share knowledge, the PMO can promote an environment that encourages transparency, teamwork and knowledge exchange. Whether it uses agile stand-ups, regular status meetings, or virtual collaboration tools, the PMO must adapt its practices to fit the cultural context. Questions you might consider include:

• How well do teams collaborate across functions or departments?
• Do they use formal mechanisms (e.g., cross-functional projects, workshops) to encourage collaboration?
• Do they have communities of practice in place to help promote new ways of working?
• Do employees feel a sense of camaraderie and teamwork?
• How does the organization celebrate collective achievements?

Communication

Organizational culture influences communication channels. Some cultures value face-to-face interactions, while others prefer digital channels. The PMO’s communication strategy — whether formal reports, town halls, or agile boards — should align with the organization’s preferred modes of communication. For example, the PMO assessment should ask:

• How effective are the communication channels (e.g., meetings, emails, collaboration tools)?
• Do employees feel comfortable sharing ideas and feedback openly?
• Do they encourage cross-functional teams to collaborate and share knowledge?
• How well do different departments or teams communicate with each other?
• Are there designated points of contact across departments or locations to help share messages?

Innovation and Continuous Improvement

A culture that values innovation encourages PMOs to explore new techniques, tools and methodologies. Continuous improvement becomes part of the PMO’s DNA, leading to better project management practices. Consider the following:

• Do they actively promote innovation actively within the organization?
• How often do employees propose new ideas or process improvements?
• Are mechanisms in place to capture and implement innovative suggestions?
• How does the organization learn from failures and iterate on processes?

Change Leadership

PMOs often drive organizational change. A culture that embraces change and encourages flexibility and adaptability is essential. PMO leaders must lead change initiatives effectively, and the organization’s culture should foster this effort. During your PMO assessment, you must consider:

• How quickly does the organization adapt to external market shifts or internal challenges?
• How well do business leaders champion change initiatives?
• Are employees receptive to organizational changes?
• Is change part of leadership and competency development?
• Do they effectively communicate and execute change management practices?

Practical Steps for PMO Alignment

• Culture Assessment: Begin by assessing the organization’s culture. Surveys, interviews and workshops can offer valuable insights. Understand the unwritten rules, norms and shared beliefs that guide behavior. Align the assessment to the categories above (decision making, collaboration and so on).
• Stakeholder Mapping: Identify the key PMO stakeholders and their cultural inclinations. Engage them in shaping the PMO’s vision, championing the cause, and driving adoption. Their active involvement helps ensure the PMO aligns with cultural norms.
• Customized Practices: Use your cultural insights to customize PMO practices. Adapt governance structures, communication channels, reporting formats, and collaboration forums to resonate with the prevailing culture.
• Change Management: Recognize that cultural change takes time. The PMO can play a pivotal role in driving positive cultural shifts by modeling desired behaviors, celebrating successes, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Cultural Alignment in Action

We helped a client effectively harness its organizational culture to ensure a successful launch and expansion of their PMO. We assisted at every step of their PMO discovery journey:

• Decision Making: The client organization made key decisions through consensus, fostering broad support for important initiatives. The PMO adopted this norm during portfolio prioritization by engaging multiple stakeholders, ensuring priorities were clear, and sharing priorities and other information across the entire organization.
• Collaboration: The client teams exhibited strong collaboration within a highly matrixed structure. The PMO used this norm for resource demand and forecasting, facilitating collaboration between project and resource managers to address portfolio plans and constraints.
• Communication: While the client relied heavily on email, they also used face-to-face interactions for strategic discussions and complex challenges. The PMO followed suit, using email for recurring PMO updates and face-to-face communication for critical issues, risks and roadblocks.
• Innovation and Continuous Improvement: The client encouraged experimentation and empowered team members to solve local problems. The PMO embraced this norm, swiftly adapting to stakeholder feedback and process inefficiencies by refining its methods and tools.
• Change Leadership: The client’s leadership team played a visible and vocal role in critical initiatives. Employees supported these efforts because the purpose was clear. The PMO engaged the leadership team early on, championing the PMO’s launch and growth and providing critical change management support.

Use a PMO Assessment to Ensure Success

When building and implementing a PMO, understanding organizational culture is non-negotiable. By adapting cultural nuances such as how the organization communicates, its tolerance for change, and how it makes decisions, the PMO can harmonize its processes with the culture to navigate challenges, build trust, and improve project delivery. So, before recommending and implementing any broad changes in your organization, take the time to perform a PMO assessment and decode the cultural DNA — it is the key to unlocking PMO success.

Establishing or reevaluating your PMO so your project prioritization is just right can be a tricky business. Our Enterprise Portfolio and Program Management experts will happily work with you to determine your organization’s next steps for moving forward. Let’s Talk