Only a third of IT PMOs will ever work, and the rest of ‘em won’t. For the mathematically challenged, such as myself, that means that two-thirds of all the IT project management offices (or programme management offices, or whatever you want to call them) will fail. Nothing scientific in these numbers, mind you, and I didn’t do an extensive survey, this is just what I’ve seen myself, and you’re going to have to take it (or not) on faith.

In my line of business, I see lots and lots of PMOs – in fact, I’d say that they’ve become almost fashionable in the last couple of years; you can’t seem to turn around without someone setting up, re-energising or re-engineering an IT PMO. There’s even a conference or two dedicated exclusively to IT PMOs; one recently wrapped up in Savannah, Ga. And I’ll bet some expert in Savannah told the attendees: “Two-thirds of PMOs will fail, present company excepted, of course.”

Think about the implications: that’s a significant amount of time and money that major organisations are putting into the idea of improving their project management practices (that’s good) and two-thirds of it is going down the drain (that’s bad). That’s two-thirds of the IS organisations who are ticked off with their PMOs and the people in it. That’s two-thirds of a whole bunch of good opportunities being wasted.

Why the dismal number? That’s easy: ’cause most PMOs are set up for the wrong reasons. Period. End of column. That’s it.

Read more at Project Smart.