Field notes from the PMO trenches — straight talk on earned value, portfolios, people, governance, and the launches that keep you up at night. Written by practitioners, grounded in real numbers.
The one to read first.
Placeholder flattering metrics hide the truth. What real earned value looks like — and how to read CPI/SPI you can actually defend in a steering meeting.
Smartsheet is a brilliant grid — until you’re accountable for a portfolio. Where teams outgrow it, and what purpose-built PPM adds.
You can’t boil the ocean in Q1. The three artifacts that earn trust first — and the trap that sinks most new PMOs.
“We’re behind” is usually a capacity problem in disguise — and the one chart that predicts burnout before it hits.
Right-size your approvals — and let an approved change re-baseline the project automatically.
Twelve questions that turn a nervous launch meeting into a defensible call — plus the thing every rollback plan forgets.
Compute-then-explain: let the engine do the math, let the AI do the narrative. The only AI you can put in front of a sponsor.
Everything is a priority, so nothing is. A value-vs-cost approach that makes the trade-offs visible — and defensible.
Lead with the ask, not the activity — a status report execs actually read and PMs don’t dread writing.
Most lessons are filed once and read never. Make them a living, searchable asset the next team uses.
A roadmap packed to 110% is a broken promise waiting to happen. Sequence to capacity, commit in bands.
One person across five projects feels efficient. It’s the priciest way to get less done.
A risk log updated once a quarter is theater. How to give your RAID log a real heartbeat.
Go-live is base camp, not the summit. The window after decides whether the launch sticks.
The blank status box on a Friday is a solved problem — grounded AI drafting, an hour back a week.
Seven streams, one obsession: shipping work that holds up.
Building and running a PMO leaders trust — operating models, maturity, and the view from the practitioner's chair.
The metrics that actually move delivery — earned value, CPI/SPI, and the lessons worth keeping.
Choosing the right work and sequencing it — intake, prioritization, roadmaps, and investment calls.
People, not pixels — resourcing, utilization, capacity vs. demand, and keeping teams healthy.
Control without the bureaucracy — change control, RAID, gates, steering, and audit trails.
Go-live, survived — launches, migrations, hypercare, and running a calm war room.
AI in delivery, done honestly — where it helps, where it shouldn't, and the compute-then-explain approach.
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