Most PMOs Fail Because…

We see this a lot.

It’s an interesting claim as it implies the writer has either significant experience with, or access to significant data on, not just PMOs, but PMOs *that have failed*.

And that’s the problem with statements like these.

Because while we continually hear the *PMOs fail within 2 years* statistic, there’s really no evidence to support these types of claims.

(the source for this statistic actually said PMOs *change* every 2 years, which is true for most *orgs* as well)

Yes, ‘some’ PMOs fail.

But do you ever actually hear about any? Can you name any that have *failed* in the past 2-3 years? Is there a list or database of these somewhere?

And if you can’t name any, or very many, then it certainly can’t be ‘most’, or ’50%’.

(on the flip side, successful PMOs that have been around 5+ years is easy to find)

And if they’re not visible, then how do we know *why* they failed?

And to the best of my knowledge there are exactly zero academic studies of PMO failure or failure rates.

So when I see claims of “most PMOs fail because…” I have to wonder… “on what are you basing this insight?”.

Originally published on LinkedIn