The way companies are structured today looks nothing like it did five years ago.

Product lines are starting to operate like independent revenue engines, each with its own marketing team, sales strategy, and P&L.

PMOs that still see themselves as centralized governance functions are getting left behind.

We’ve tapped our VP of Global Tech Sales, Kurt Vosburgh, to lay out what that actually looks like in the real world.

“In the past, tech was considered the fourth most important function, behind sales, marketing, and ops. Now tech is the business.” says Kurt.

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That shift has changed what the business expects from the PMO. Leaders are being asked to work at the program and portfolio level. They are expected to show value, drive alignment, and support real business objectives.

Teams want faster timelines, smarter resourcing, and help getting products to market. They are not asking for more compliance reports.

Kurt puts it plainly. “If you're not showing the impact to the business, then what's the point of the PMO?”

The ones that succeed in 2025 will look less like a tracking function and more like a product. They will have a business case, a measurable ROI, and a real impact on speed and outcomes.

They will stop trying to control every project and start enabling the teams that actually drive growth.

The Day One Playbook for New PMO Leaders

Your first move as a new PMO leader is not a mass email or an all-hands meeting. It is not pulling together every business unit lead for a brainstorming session. That is how you lose credibility before you earn any.

“You don’t want to walk in and be a cowboy,” says Kurt Vosburgh, VP of Global Tech Sales at MSH. “If you put twenty people in a room, they’re all going to be screaming about what they want.”

Start with your own house. Sit down with portfolio managers and program leads. Ask how the PMO runs today. What are the actual processes in motion? What is slowing them down? This gives you a clear picture of what exists and what already needs to be better. You will walk into your next conversations with a point of view—and that changes everything.

Then go to the business. Not in a group, but one-on-one. Let each product lead know you are there to support them. Learn what their world looks like. Ask what would make it easier. Ask what gets in the way. What you are looking for are commonalities. If ten teams give you seventy things they want fixed, and twenty of those are repeated across the board, you just found your first wins.

“Fix the thing everybody’s complaining about and you instantly become credible,” Kurt says.

This is not about textbook frameworks. It is about solving real problems. If three teams are waiting on licensing and you can unlock it faster, that is your job. If vendors are siloed across teams, consolidate and share them. If resourcing is stuck, get it moving.

The PMO is not just a reporting layer anymore. It needs to function like a product. That means building value, proving ROI, and doing it with as little friction as possible. The businesses you support do not want wholesale changes overnight. They want real improvements that feel earned and make their lives easier.

Decentralized, Product-Led PMOs Are Replacing Monolithic Structures

The era of the single, centralized Enterprise PMO is fading. What is replacing it is something leaner, faster, and far more aligned with how companies actually operate today.

“Each product is starting to look like its own miniature business,” says Kurt Vosburgh. “It has its own marketing team, its own sales team, sometimes even its own tech stack.”

When every product moves at its own pace and with its own goals, expecting one centralized group to manage delivery across the board is no longer realistic. Shared services still exist, but rigid oversight slows teams down. PMOs that were built to support IT are now expected to partner with the business. That means breaking out of old EPMO models and embedding closer to the teams they serve.

Kurt explains it like a portfolio structure. The organization is the portfolio. Under that are programs, and under each program are projects that tie directly to business objectives. In this model, you do not need one giant PMO calling every shot. You need smaller, product-aligned PMOs that operate with autonomy and report outcomes that matter.

Agile, hybrid, and product-centric environments are driving this shift. They demand more speed and less overhead. Leaders are learning that enablement matters more than control.

“You are seeing them break off and be more standalone,” Kurt says. “Not everything needs to go through a methodical SDLC anymore. Each product moves at its own speed.”

The implication is clear. PMOs that cling to a single framework or try to apply a one-size-fits-all approach are not built for how modern businesses run. The future belongs to teams that can flex, integrate, and support autonomy without losing sight of accountability.

Strategic PMOs Think (and Measure) Like the Business

The shift from project manager to strategic partner starts with a simple mindset change. Stop thinking about tasks. Start thinking about outcomes.

PMOs used to focus on cost tracking, deadlines, and technical upgrades in isolation. The question was, how efficiently are we managing our work? That is no longer enough. Today, the question is, what impact are we having on the business?

“In the past, tech would say hey, we need to upgrade our systems because it’ll be faster,” says Kurt Vosburgh. “Now the business asks, how does that help revenue? If you don’t have an answer, you’re not strategic.”

Modern PMOs are moving from project-level visibility to portfolio-level alignment. That means understanding business objectives at the top, tying every program to them, and measuring success by the growth they enable. You cannot just be a reporting function anymore. You have to be integrated into how the business actually operates.

“You’re driving your program off a strategic initiative now,” Kurt explains. “Each product is its own miniature business, and you need to track impact that way.”

This is not about surface-level alignment. It is structural. Product teams have business relationship managers and product owners embedded across functions. The PMO’s role is to help coordinate priorities, accelerate delivery, and show the return.

You can no longer say the PMO is helping because spend was well-managed or delivery hit a deadline. That is table stakes. Show how projects moved a product to market faster. Show how shared resources cut costs. Show how decisions made at the PMO level led to revenue the business would not have seen otherwise.

Without that lens, the PMO becomes another operational cost. With it, the PMO becomes a strategic driver.

How PMOs Should Use Automation and AI (And Where to Draw the Line)

AI and automation are raising the bar for what PMOs can see, measure, and improve. That only works if they are used with intention.

Kurt Vosburgh sees the shift clearly. “It used to be just reporting on historical data. Now you’re looking at real-time inputs, across the company and the market, and saying what can we do right now. That’s the difference.”

Predictive analytics can flag issues before they slow a project down. Real-time dashboards help track performance across teams. Tools like Workday and ServiceNow can surface where vendor performance or internal processes are causing repeated delays. The goal is not just visibility. It is action.

“You can look at your support tickets, see where the same issues keep coming up, and use automation to eliminate those,” Kurt says. “It saves time, cuts costs, and your projects start coming in faster.”

These wins add up. Automation tools that handle testing, deployment, or self-healing tasks can shave weeks off a timeline. Sharing those practices across teams multiplies the value. But this only works when humans are still involved in interpreting the data and making decisions.

“You have to investigate. AI can tell you something’s wrong, but it won’t tell you why,” he adds. “Sometimes it’s not the vendor’s fault. Sometimes your own internal team didn’t deliver what they needed. If you just go by the numbers, you get the wrong story.”

The risk is assuming automation can replace judgment. It can’t. AI should support the PMO, not speak for it. Especially when it comes to vendor relationships, dependencies, or human variables that do not show up in a dataset.

The smartest PMOs know where to plug in automation. They also know when to slow down, ask questions, and understand the context behind the metrics.

Stop Forcing Agile Where It Doesn’t Fit

Agile has become a buzzword. Everyone wants to adopt it. Everyone wants to be seen doing it. But the reality inside most large organizations looks very different.

“A lot of companies are spending money on Agile transformations, hiring release train engineers, Scrum masters, getting the certifications. Then they try to force everything into Agile whether it makes sense or not,” says Kurt Vosburgh.

The problem is not with Agile itself. It is with how it is being applied. When the work involves infrastructure, hardware, or long procurement cycles, trying to sprint every week becomes a drain.

There is no reason to hold daily standups for server installs or cable routing. In those cases, a waterfall approach still works just fine.

Instead of pushing one methodology across the board, Kurt recommends something much simpler. Build delivery methods based on reality.

Use Agile where it fits. Use waterfall when that makes more sense. Use a hybrid approach when you need both.

Most large enterprises already operate in hybrid environments, whether they admit it or not. Infrastructure lives on one cadence. Software moves faster. Project types vary. So should the frameworks.

“It’s not about doing Agile because it’s popular. It’s about asking, what are we actually delivering, and what structure gets us there the most effectively?” Kurt says.

When you apply the wrong methodology, you waste time. Teams spend hours in meetings that add no value. Updates get repeated without change. Everyone starts to question the process.

A flexible, practical approach will always beat a rigid one. The goal is not to be Agile. The goal is to deliver.

PMO Success Means Earning Trust and Driving Impact

The value of a PMO used to be measured in terms of process. Were the right frameworks in place? Were the reports delivered on time? Did the team follow the rules? That mindset is over.

Today, the PMO needs to function like a product. It needs to have a business case, a clear value proposition, and results that can be tied directly to company growth.

“Your PMO cannot just exist because it’s always been there,” says Kurt Vosburgh. “You need to show how it is helping the business. Not just helping tech, helping the actual business.”

That starts with treating business units like customers. Understand their goals. Support their timelines. Adapt to their ways of working. The objective is not to force a structure on the organization. The objective is to make the organization move better and faster.

Kurt puts it plainly. “How are you getting the company to market quicker? Are you saving money by sharing resources and vendors across teams? Can you prove that you helped a product get out early and take market share? That’s the level of impact we’re talking about.”

When the PMO takes on shared responsibility for budget, vendor management, and cross-product resource planning, it becomes something more than a project tracker. It becomes a strategic layer that helps product teams win without reinventing the wheel every time.

This is not about chasing perfect process. It is about earning trust. You do that by creating visible wins, delivering repeatable value, and tying your work to the business metrics that matter.

If your PMO can do that, you are not just managing projects anymore. You are helping grow the business.

Get A Second Opinion On Your PMO

If your PMO is stuck in legacy mode, it might be time for an outside perspective. Learn how MSH helps enterprise teams build high-impact project and product teams through our Digital Transformation Advisory or Enterprise RPO Solutions.