Succeeding with Agile

The Project Management Office

A project management office (PMO) that is engaged in and supportive of transitioning to Scrum can be a tremendous boon. Members of the PMO often view themselves as protectors and supporters of a practice, so a PMO can help implement and spread agile practices across the organization. However, when the PMO is not properly involved, it can be a source of resistance as it tries to defend the current process, rather than improve it.

One of the reasons why the natural response of most people in the PMO is to resist the change to Scrum is that much of it is personally and professionally frightening. Scrum scatters traditional project management responsibilities among the ScrumMaster, product owner, and the team, leaving ...