Gartner says 60% of PMOs are shut down within three years. That number hasn't improved in a decade.

Here are 5 signs yours is heading the same way:

  1. Your project directors spend more time on today's fires than next quarter's strategy. You hired leaders. You got firefighters.

  2. Your reporting only looks backwards. Monthly reports tell you what already went wrong. By the time leadership reads them, the damage is done.

  3. Procurement is ad hoc. No standard process, no automated approvals, no link between commitments and cash flow.

  4. Your risk register gets updated before steering committee and ignored the rest of the month.

  5. Every project reinvents the wheel. No templates, no standard processes, no lessons feeding forward.

Recognise three or more? You don't have a people problem. You have a systems problem.

Gartner also predicts that by 2026, 75% of PMO value measures will focus on strategic outcomes rather than process compliance. The industry is finally catching up to what I've been saying for years, measure outcomes, not activity.

The fix is automation that shifts your team from reactive to strategic. That's the core of True Project Mechanics.

Which of these five hits closest to home?

Sources

  • Gartner: PMO failure rate and 2026 PMO value measures prediction
  • PM Solutions: State of the PMO 2025 Research Report
TM
Tony McCabe · Founding Director, APM Advantage
30+ years in infrastructure delivery and Enterprise Architecture. Creator of True Project Mechanics. Originally published on LinkedIn.