From PM Competence to Organisational Impact: How Modern PMOs Create Strategic Value 

Introduction

Over the last two decades, the project management profession has made remarkable progress in developing competence, governance, and organisational capability. Professional certification systems, structured PMOs, portfolio governance frameworks, and internationally recognised standards have significantly strengthened the quality and consistency of project delivery across industries. 

Today, organisations have access to more sophisticated project management practices than ever before. Yet despite this progress, one important question continues to emerge in executive discussions: 

How can organisations demonstrate that PMO maturity is translating into measurable organisational value? 

This question is becoming increasingly relevant as organisations across Europe and globally manage growing portfolios of transformation initiatives, digital programmes, infrastructure investments and strategic change. Senior leadership teams are no longer looking only for evidence of delivery discipline; they are increasingly interested in understanding how project portfolios contribute to strategic outcomes, business performance and organisational agility. 

The PMO profession is therefore entering a new phase – one that complements operational maturity with a stronger focus on measurable impact. 

From Capability Building to Value Creation 

Research has been exploring this challenge for several years. A widely cited study by Aubry (2015), analysing 184 PMO transformations, found that supportive and service-oriented PMOs contributed positively to both project and business performance, while control-oriented approaches alone showed limited influence on broader organisational outcomes¹. 

More recent research reinforces the same direction. Ershadi et al. (2023), examining high-performing PMOs across 395 organisations, identified several recurring capability factors linked to superior organisational contribution, including strategic alignment, delivery support, knowledge management and competent human resources supported by a collaborative culture². 

These findings align closely with what many practitioners are increasingly observing in practice: organisations value PMOs most when they contribute to better decisions, stronger portfolio alignment, and improved strategic execution. 

This evolution does not diminish the importance of governance, methodology, or certification. On the contrary, mature delivery capability remains an essential foundation. However, maturity alone does not automatically demonstrate business relevance. 

The UK Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) Annual Report 2023–24 provides a compelling illustration³. The Government Major Projects Portfolio includes 227 major projects representing more than EUR 923 billion in whole-life cost, yet 72% were rated Amber and 12% Red regarding delivery confidence and strategic outcomes. Even within one of the world’s most structured governance environments, organisations continue to face challenges connecting capable delivery with measurable impact. 

The Evolving Role of the PMO 

This shift is gradually redefining the role of PMOs themselves. 

Traditional PMOs were primarily associated with governance, reporting consistency, process standardisation and control mechanisms. These remain important responsibilities, particularly in complex and regulated environments. Increasingly, however, organisations expect PMOs to contribute more directly to strategic coordination, portfolio prioritisation, value realisation and executive decision support. 

The most effective PMOs are evolving into organisational intelligence functions that help leadership teams make faster, more informed, and strategically aligned decisions. Increasingly, this includes the use of predictive analytics, AI-supported portfolio insights, and data-driven decision intelligence to identify delivery risks earlier, model portfolio scenarios, optimise resource allocation, and strengthen benefits realisation. Rather than replacing professional judgement, these technologies enhance the PMO’s ability to provide executives with clearer visibility into which initiatives create measurable organisational value and where strategic intervention may be required. 

This evolution is particularly visible in organisations operating in smaller, highly dynamic economies such as the Baltics, where efficient resource allocation and rapid adaptation are critical competitive factors. 

Certification and Organisational Competence 

Professional certification continues to play an important role in this development journey. 

Within IPMA’s competence framework, project management is viewed not only through technical delivery capability, but also through leadership, strategic alignment, governance understanding, and organisational perspective. The IPMA Individual Competence Baseline (ICB4)⁴ and the IPMA Organisational Competence Baseline (OCB) encourage organisations to develop project capability as an integrated business competence rather than a purely operational discipline⁵. 

From the perspective of certification and assessment, this broader competence view is becoming increasingly important. Across industries – including finance, IT, manufacturing, agribusiness, infrastructure and public administration – organisations are seeking professionals who can bridge the gap between execution and strategic contribution. 

This is where organisational assessment models are becoming increasingly valuable. 

Measuring Maturity and Impact Together 

One of the more recent developments supporting this direction is the PMO Maturity & Impact (PMO-MI®) framework developed by AIPMO⁶. 

The PMO-MI model evaluates PMOs across multiple service domains, including governance, benefits management, portfolio management, stakeholder engagement, strategic alignment, and knowledge management. Importantly, it assesses both: 

• The maturity of PMO operations
• The measurable organisational impact those operations generate

This distinction matters because maturity and impact are related, but not identical. A PMO may operate with high process discipline while still struggling to demonstrate how its activities influence strategic outcomes or business performance. Conversely, organisations that connect governance with value-oriented decision-making often achieve stronger organisational contribution even without highly formalised structures. 

Used alongside organisational competence approaches such as IPMA Delta® and the IPMA OCB, PMO-MI® provides an additional perspective on how PMO services contribute to organisational performance and strategic execution. 

Together, these approaches support a more integrated understanding of organisational capability. 

Insights from the Baltics 

This conversation is becoming increasingly relevant across Latvia and the wider Baltic region. 

Organisations in the Baltics are managing growing demands related to digital transformation, sustainability, defence investments, public sector modernisation and infrastructure development. At the same time, resource constraints and smaller market scale create strong pressure to ensure that project portfolios remain strategically focused and value-oriented. 

In late 2024, the Latvian National Project Management Association collaborated with AIPMO to conduct a national PMO benchmarking initiative using the PMO-MI framework⁷. The results showed that Latvian PMOs demonstrated maturity levels slightly above the global benchmark, particularly in governance and process capability. At the same time, the assessment highlighted growing interest in benefits realisation, strategic alignment and organisational impact measurement as the next stage of PMO evolution. 

This reflects a broader international trend: PMOs are increasingly expected to demonstrate not only operational consistency, but also measurable contribution to organisational success. 

Looking Ahead 

The profession has already achieved significant progress in building competence and organisational capability. The next stage of PMO development focuses on strengthening the connection between project delivery and strategic outcomes, increasingly supported by predictive analytics, AI-enabled governance, and real-time portfolio intelligence. 

For organisations, this creates an opportunity to position PMOs as active contributors to organisational performance, innovation, and strategic adaptability. For PMO leaders and certified professionals, it creates an opportunity to expand their role from delivery coordination toward broader business partnership and strategic leadership. 

The tools, frameworks, and research supporting this transition are now increasingly mature and complementary. 

The question for many organisations is therefore evolving from: 

“How mature is our PMO?” 

toward: 

“What measurable organisational value is our PMO helping us achieve?” 

That conversation is becoming central to the future development of the profession. 

References 

1. Aubry, M. (2015). Project Management Office Transformations: Direct and Moderating Effects That Enhance Performance and Maturity. Project Management Journal, 46(5), 19–45. ↩︎
2. Ershadi, M., Jefferies, M., Davis, P., & Mojtahedi, M. (2023). Modelling the Capabilities of High-Performing Project Management Offices in General Contracting Companies. Project Management Journal, 54(1). ↩︎
3. UK Infrastructure and Projects Authority. (2025). Annual Report 2023–24. HM Government, 2024.  ↩︎
4. AIPMO. PMO-MI® Maturity & Impact Model. Association of International Project Management Officers. ↩︎
5. PMO-MI. Worldwide Benchmarking Initiative. Latvia National Workshop. ↩︎
6. IPMA. Individual Competence Baseline ICB4 and PMO Reference Guide. International Project Management Association.   ↩︎
7. IPMA. Organisational Competence Baseline. International Project Management Association. ↩︎

Other References 

1. Mahabir, R.J. & Pun, K.F. (2022). Revitalising project management office operations in an engineering-service contractor organisation: a key performance indicator-based performance management approach. Business Process Management Journal, 28(4), 936–959.
2. Pinto, M.M.A.L., Cota, M.F.P., & Levin, G. (2010). The PMO Maturity Cube, a Project Management Office Maturity Model. PMI Research Conference Proceedings.