Shift PMO Priorities
to Support a DigitalEnterprisePMO Research Team
14 September 2020

Shift PMO Priorities to Support a Digital EnterprisePeer & Practitioner Research

Published 14 September 2020 - ID G00732765 - 11 min read

PMO Research Team
Initiatives: Program and Portfolio Management Leaders

As organizations mature in their digital business journeys, PMOs must alter their support for
PPM capabilities to reﬂect the changing needs of stakeholders. PMO leaders need to shift
their focus to support targeted talent, risk and strategy-related capabilities, to continue adding
enterprise value.

Overview
Key Findings■ Stakeholders consider support for the majority of PPM capabilities measured to be valuable andeffective in organizations reporting low digital maturity. However, as maturity increases, thevalue and effectiveness of the support dramatically decreases for a number of capabilities.
■ In organizations reporting medium digital business maturity, the following PPM capabilities arevaluable, but are ineffectively supported:■ Talent-enablement-related capabilities — supporting teams and stakeholders to self-manage

products and initiatives■ Risk and resource orchestration capabilities — managing risks, estimating resources■ In organizations reporting high digital business maturity 1:■ PPM stakeholders place the most value on support for strategy-related PPM capabilities(translating ideas into execution roadmaps and identifying new business value opportunities,etc.), but indicate that the available support for these capabilities is ineffective.

Recommendations
Program and portfolio management (PPM) leaders in organizations with evolving digital businessmaturity should adapt their offering of PPM capability support to:■ Invest more in PPM capabilities related to knowledge and skill building of PPM stakeholders andtheir teams to enable them to manage products, services and capabilities across their life cycles
and independently manage their initiatives.

Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 1/11

■ Provide broader PPM stakeholder support for key resource and risk-orchestration-related

capabilities by managing risks that may prevent initiative success, estimating resource
requirements, reducing initiatives’ organizational barriers and reallocating the delivery resourcesof initiatives.
■ Prepare for high digital business maturity by expanding support on key strategy realization

capabilities, such as identifying new business value opportunities, translating strategic ideas
into an execution roadmap and achieving business beneﬁts from investments.

Value and Effectiveness of Support for PPM Capabilities Declines as Digital
Business Maturity Evolves
A 2020 Gartner survey reveals that, as organizational digital business maturity increases, the valueand effectiveness of the support for a number of PPM capabilities 2 (refer to the About This
Research section) dramatically decreases. As a result, PMO functions continuing to support
traditional PPM capabilities risk becoming increasingly obsolete and ineffective, as anorganization matures digitally. In response to this trend, PMO leaders must proactively identify thenecessary capabilities that their stakeholders value and dedicate their time, energy and resources
to ensure that these capabilities are effectively supported. This research provides an insight into
the PPM capabilities that PPM stakeholders 3 deem valuable as organizations evolve in theirdigital business maturity.
Finding 1: PPM Stakeholders Value Talent-Enablement-Related PPM Capabilities in Medium
Digital Business Maturity
Among all talent-enablement-related PPM capabilities measured, support for two capabilities
remains valuable for PPM stakeholders reporting medium-stage digital business maturity:■ Build the knowledge and skills necessary for stakeholders to self-manage initiatives.
■ Build the knowledge and skills necessary for teams to manage products, services andcapabilities across their life cycles.
In organizations reporting low digital business maturity, PMOs traditionally focus on upskilling anddeveloping the project management community to successfully manage talent locally andglobally. As these organizations mature to medium digital business maturity (see Figure 1), PPM
responsibilities are more frequently performed by individuals outside the formal PMO function(scrum masters, agile coaches delivery teams, etc.). They must now consider how to support skillbuilding in rising product teams functioning in an iterative delivery environment.

Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 2/11

Figure 1: Talent-Enablement-Related PPM Capability Support for PPM Stakeholders in Medium
Digital Business Maturity

Source: 2020 Gartner Survey (n = 75 PPM stakeholders reporting medium digital business maturity)

As shown in Figure 1, PPM stakeholders in organizations reporting medium maturity consider
support in two critical, talent-enablement-related capabilities to be valuable. However, the graphic
also shows that these capabilities are not effectively supported.
PMO leaders must recognize the prolonged value that their talent-enablement-related capability
support provides to PPM stakeholders and their teams. As such, they can invest more in providing
PPM skills coaching and development support that is lightweight, embedded in workﬂows anddesigned for a distributed audience of internal customers. PMOs can explore this opportunity byproviding PPM stakeholders and their teams opportunities to upskill themselves on the key“entrepreneurial” skills critical to digital business — speciﬁcally, servant leadership and stakeholder
partnership.
Finding 2: PPM Stakeholders Value Resource- and Risk-Orchestration-Related PPM Capabilities
in Medium Digital Business Maturity
Support for resource- and risk-orchestration-related capabilities is highly valued, but ineffectively
supported in organizations reporting medium-stage digital business maturity (see Figure 2). These
capabilities include:■ Estimate the cost and resource requirements of stakeholders’ planned initiatives■ Allocate, and reallocate delivery resources to accomplish stakeholders’ initiatives
Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 3/11

■ Prevent stakeholders’ initiatives from being delayed or derailed by work elsewhere in theenterprise■ Identify and manage risks to the success of stakeholders’ in-ﬂight initiatives

Figure 2: Resource- and Risk-Orchestration-Related PPM Capability Support in Medium DigitalBusiness Maturity

Source: 2020 Gartner Survey (n = 75 PPM stakeholders reporting medium digital business maturity)

As digital maturity increases, the emergence of organizational silos, in conjunction with the rise ofinterconnected work, makes it challenging for PPM stakeholders to coordinate value delivery,
allocate resources and identify synergies across teams.
As shown in Figure 2, four capabilities continue to be valued in this more-advanced digitalenvironment. However, PPM stakeholders also feel that support for these capabilities is not very
effective.
PMO leaders can help PPM stakeholders estimate resource requirements by incorporating
progressive estimation practices, such as t-shirt sizing and playing poker. They can also reduce
initiative delays from work elsewhere in the organization by using CareFirst’s approach ofsystematically categorizing the organization’s most interdependent initiatives to uncover potential
bottlenecks and determine future action steps. PMO leaders can also partner with enterprise
Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 4/11

architecture functions to elevate the visibility of and better coordinate interdependent initiatives.
PMO leaders looking to help PPM stakeholders manage risks that may derail initiative success canincorporate BMO Financial’s approach to the early identiﬁcation of risks to project beneﬁtrealization. They can also support delivery resource allocation by mirroring Autodesk’s approach ofproviding dedicated resources to each product line to form a minimum viable team consisting of
the smallest number of resources required to sustain core capabilities.
Finding 3: PPM Stakeholders Value Strategy-Related PPM Capabilities In High Digital Business
Maturity
Among all strategy-related capabilities explored, stakeholders consider support for threecapabilities to be the most valuable in high digital business maturity (see Figure 3):■ Achieve the expected business beneﬁts from stakeholders’ investments.
■ Translate stakeholders’ strategy, vision and ideas into roadmaps or plans for effective execution.
■ Identify and validate new opportunities for generating business value.

Figure 3: Strategy-Related PPM Capability Support in High Digital Business Maturity

Source: 2020 Gartner Survey (n = 174 PPM stakeholders reporting medium digital business maturity)

Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 5/11

In organizations that report high digital business maturity, an increase in employee digital dexterityand responsiveness contributes to higher customer-centricity and an autonomy of product teams
to launch and manage digital business products. These employees have developed the skills,capabilities and mindsets to execute many traditional project (or product) management activities
independently or informally. As a result, a PMO traditionally focused on supporting traditional
project management, governance and compliance activities may be considered obsolete.
However, as shown in Figure 3, support for three strategy-related capabilities remains valued andineffectively supported even in high digital business maturity. This could be because the challengeof siloed work introduced by product management can affect these three capabilities moresigniﬁcantly than the other measured strategy-related capabilities.
To help PPM stakeholders achieve business beneﬁts from investments, PMO leaders can explore
designing and instituting PMO services. For example, P&G introduced a thought leadership service
to enable business and IT leaders to realize value within initiatives amid business constraints. For
translating strategic ideas into execution roadmaps, the PMO at Nationwide helps delivery teams
contextualize enterprise strategy to align their efforts with enterprise outcomes. To help
stakeholders identify opportunities for generating business value, the enterprise program
management ofﬁce (EPMO) at Johnson & Johnson designed workshops that catered to earlyproblem identiﬁcation in order to pursue initiatives.

Conclusion
As PMOs continue to operate in organizations with growing digital business maturity, they must
understand the need to evolve along with the business and shift its focus to support stakeholder
needs. This research identiﬁes the PPM capabilities on which PMOs must increase their support,
but it is also essential for PMOs to explore areas in which they can scale back investment toprioritize higher-value opportunities. The survey also indicated that some PPM capabilities, which
continue to be effectively supported, are not valued as high — for example, facilitating the shift to a
new operating model in medium digital maturity. This is possibly because, by this stage ofmaturity, organizations have already made the necessary operating model shifts required to thrivein their new digital contexts.
PMOs need to avoid the traditional urge to be all things to all people and accept the reality that
digitally mature businesses need targeted, more-effective PPM support. Only then can the PMO
truly excel in the areas most desired by PPM stakeholders.

Recommended by the Authors“Project Manager Skills Required for Digital Business Success”
This research will help PPM leaders identify and develop the entrepreneurial skills that are thehallmarks of project manager effectiveness for digital business.
“Responsive Delivery Resourcing and Funding in Product Lines (Autodesk)”
Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 6/11

This case study will help IT leaders provide responsiveness and efﬁciency in resourcing models
when shifting from projects to products.
“The Intersection of PPM and Enterprise Architecture”
This article explores a few examples of how enterprise architecture and PPM are collaborating toachieve enterprise outcomes.
“Program Interdependency Dashboard (Careﬁrst BCBS)”This case study provides dashboards that visually represent interdependent components with astrong inﬂuence on program success; it serves as an early-warning indicator for potential
bottlenecks.
“Leading Indicators of Project Beneﬁt Realization (BMO Financial)”
This case study helps you increase project beneﬁts capture by providing a best-practice approachto early identiﬁcation of risks to project beneﬁt realization.
“Fund Through Uncertainty to Drive Innovation (Johnson & Johnson)”This case study will help PPM leaders understand how to better support innovation initiatives.
They do this by adopting an iterative funding model, tailoring PMO support to business partner’svariable needs, and instilling a test-and-learn mindset to deﬁne and explore areas of uncertainty.
“Value Realization in Product Management (Nationwide Building Society)”
This case study showcases how PMO leaders help product teams understand how their day-to-day
work contributes to strategic outcomes and ensure that enterprise leaders recognize teams’
abilities to deliver autonomously.
“Customer-Centric PMO Services (P&G)”
This case study will help PMO leaders reidentify their internal customer segments and design PMO
services to address local pain points.

About This ResearchThis research draws on analysis from a 2020 Gartner Survey that includes feedback from 500
PPM stakeholders from across industries and company sizes. The survey collects stakeholders’perceptions about the value and effectiveness of 29 speciﬁc PPM capabilities to achieve their top
organizational goals.

PPM Capabilities Assessed in the Survey■ Identify and validate new opportunities for generating business value■ Deﬁne and communicate our strategy
Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 7/11

■ Translate our strategy, vision and ideas into roadmaps or plans for effective execution■ Develop the justiﬁcation or business case for our proposed initiatives■ Help us understand our planned initiatives in the context of enterprise strategy■ Avoid duplication of work going on elsewhere in the enterprise with our proposed initiatives■ Identify the measures of success for our planned initiatives■ Estimate the cost and resource requirements of our planned initiatives■ Execute large, strategic initiatives or transformation efforts■ Ensure employees absorb the change introduced by our initiatives■ Provide access to project, program management staff to manage our initiatives■ Build the knowledge and skills necessary for us to self-manage our initiatives■ Provide access to frameworks and templates necessary for us to self-manage our initiatives■ Obtain the information necessary for us to make decisions about our initiatives, products orportfolios■ Provide technology-enabled tools and solutions for initiative management and reporting■ Teach us how to apply new ways of working■ Identify and oversee third parties to deliver our initiatives■ Identify and manage risks to the success of our in-ﬂight initiatives■ Identify and address quality problems for our in-ﬂight initiatives■ Prevent our initiatives from being delayed or derailed by work elsewhere in the enterprise■ Allocate, reallocate delivery resources to get our initiatives done
■ Allocate funding and prioritize our portfolio of investments■ Reallocate funding quickly when business priorities change■ Monitor the ongoing costs of our initiatives■ Achieve the expected business beneﬁts from our investments■ Facilitate the shift to a new operating model

Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 8/11

■ Deﬁne or improve our approach to developing and launching new products, services andcapabilities■ Connect the roadmap for our product, services and capabilities to enterprise strategy■ Build the knowledge and skills necessary for our team to manage products, services andcapabilities across their life cycle
These capabilities were analyzed in relation to the digital business maturity of the respondents’respective organizations. As shown in Figure 4, this report categorized the maturity of anorganization by the ﬁve milestones of maturity as identiﬁed in the survey — Desire and Design(Low); Deliver (Medium); Scale and Harvest (High).
Figure 4: Roadmap of the Journey to Digital Business Maturity

Each capability included in the survey is placed in one of the four quadrants shown in Figure 5.
This is based on value (measured on a ﬁve-point scale, 1-not valuable and 5-most valuable) andeffectiveness (measured on a ﬁve-point scale, from 1-very ineffective to 5-very effective). These
are rated by survey respondents relative to the average.

Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 9/11

Figure 5: PPM Capability Prioritization Matrix

Endnotes
1

Refer to the About This Research section for more context on how different maturity stages weredeﬁned.
2

PPM Stakeholders: Business and IT leaders and executives with project, program and/orportfolio management responsibilities.
3

PPM Capabilities: Project, program and portfolio management activities that can be executed
within or beyond the PPM function, but still require a PPM-speciﬁc skill set to execute.

Presentation Deck
Shift PMO Priorities to Support a Digital Enterprise

Recommended For You
非常事態下の顧客応対業務を再点検することで得られる多大な利点
Integration Teams for the Digital Era Must Support New Delivery Models
Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 10/11

Summary Translation: Case Study: Employee Development Framework for Digital Transformation(VDOT)
Summary Translation + Localization: ‘New Infrastructure’ — China’s Technology Innovation
Initiative to Boost Sustainable Growth
サイバーセキュリティおよびテクノロジ・リスク・マネジメントに関する取締役会からの5つの質問に対する効果的な回答© 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its afﬁliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc.
and its afﬁliates. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without Gartner's priorwritten permission. It consists of the opinions of Gartner's research organization, which should not be construed
as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources
believed to be reliable, Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of suchinformation. Although Gartner research may address legal and ﬁnancial issues, Gartner does not provide legal orinvestment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of thispublication are governed by Gartner’s Usage Policy. Gartner prides itself on its reputation for independence andobjectivity. Its research is produced independently by its research organization without input or inﬂuence fromany third party. For further information, see "Guiding Principles on Independence and Objectivity."

Gartner, Inc. | 732765

Page 11/11

Talk to a Gartner expert today
Get access to this level of insight all year long — plus contextualized support
for your strategic priorities — by becoming a client.
gartner.com/en/become-a-client
U.S.: 1 800 213 4848
International: +44 (0) 3331 306 809

About Gartner
Gartner is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a memberof the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice
and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities today and build the successfulorganizations of tomorrow.
Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven
research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that mattermost. We are a trusted advisor and an objective resource for more than 15,000
enterprises in more than 100 countries — across all major functions, in every
industry and enterprise size.
To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business,
visit gartner.com.

© 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GTS_1078408