Succeeding with Agile

Renaming the PMO

Many PMOs choose to rename themselves to better match their revised role. There is no one standard name, but I’ve heard these most frequently:

• Scrum Center of Excellence

• Scrum Competence Center

• Scrum Office

• Development Support

In Chapter 2, “ADAPTing to Scrum,” I cautioned against naming the effort to adopt Scrum. Many people have become cynical and suspicious of name changes and of well-crafted names. That cynicism will be directed at the PMO if it is renamed but remains otherwise unchanged. So, whatever it’s called—PMO, Scrum Center of Excellence, or so on—to succeed with Scrum, the PMO that supported the organization’s sequential development process will need to change more than just its name. But as this section ...