Top 8 Reasons Why Your PMO Should Work with a GOOD Agile Consulting Partner

Agile methods have permanently changed how organizations approach project management and product development. Yet, for many traditional Project Management Offices (PMOs) or even Value Management Offices (VMO) and Agile Project Management Offices (APMO), the shift from traditional practices to an Agile framework can be a challenging, complex, and demanding journey with the very real risk of failure and regression to traditional practices that teams are more familiar with. This is where a good Agile consulting partner is invaluable. They bring expertise, experience, and fresh perspectives that can significantly accelerate and enhance your Agile transformation. Let's dive into the top 8 reasons why partnering with a good Agile consulting partner could be the game-changer your PMO needs to thrive in an Agile environment and deliver exceptional business value.

1. Customized Agile Strategies and Tackling Transformation Hiccups

Let's face it, every organization is unique, and that's where good Agile consulting partners shine. A good partner has seen it all and can whip up strategies that fit your company like a glove, be a transformation troubleshooter, and spot potential roadblocks before you know they're there. These outside pros bring fresh eyes to the table, challenging those "we've always done it this way" habits that might hold you back. Their outsider perspective is gold when it comes to breaking through resistance and finding what's really causing those transformation headaches.

Conversely, a bad partner employs their “standard approach” to all of their clients without much concern about the unique qualities of your company or where you are at in your Agile journey. They’ll often work off the same PowerPoint decks they’ve used at the last three companies they worked with, changing only the logos and a few terms here and there to make it look customized for your company. It may look polished with sound strategies, but after a year you realize nothing is sticking with your workforce because everyone can tell it’s generic.

2. Scaling Agile: Making it Work Across the Board

Growing Agility from a few teams to the whole organization? That's no small effort. A good partner brings Agile consultants who have been there, done that, and took home the t-shirt to prove it. They've got a variety of tried-and-true methods up their sleeves that they bring to help your PMO avoid the usual scaling pitfalls – like teams losing their momentum or practices regressing to traditional methods or integration and communication channels becoming a game of telephone across departments. These experts are pros at tweaking scaling approaches to mesh with your company's environment and culture.

A bad Agile partner doesn’t realize that some scaling practices are better suited than others for certain situations and that not every area needs to be scaled. They follow Scaled Agile’s SAFe implementation roadmap as if it is the only approach, and when they are faced with challenges, they struggle to pivot.

3. Aligning Agile Practices with Your Big-Picture Goals

Here's where external Agile consultants really earn their keep. They're great at connecting the dots between Agile methods and your company's strategic goals. Need help turning those lofty business objectives into concrete plans? They've got you covered. Plus, they're great at getting Agile teams and the C-suite to speak the same language, ensuring everyone sees how Agile drives real business value.

Bad Agile partners bring in consultants who are focused on the basic practices at the team level and coaching from the sidelines like camp counselors. They don’t focus on creating meaningful impacts and aligning work to stated product and company goals because that is more difficult to do. They would rather focus on the easy stuff and hope you don’t ask about the rest. I can’t tell you how many times a ‘successful agile transformation’ created no bottom-line impact when I looked deeper into a new client’s situation.

4. Building Your Agile Center of Excellence

Think of an Agile Center of Excellence (CoE) as your Agile command center. Do you have one, or do you have a set of disjointed efforts? Good Agile consultants have seen what works (and what doesn't) in other organizations and can help you set up a CoE built to last. They'll guide you in figuring out what your CoE should do, how it should be structured, and how it can best support your Agile journey. With their help, your CoE will become your organization's go-to hub for all things Agile. Establishing a CoE that includes both perm and consultant resources aligning the vision across all is critical.

Bad Agile partners usually don’t see setting up an Agile CoE as a priority, and don’t have the expertise to guide the establishment of it or the credibility to lead CoE activities. It takes a Sr. consultant with experience and gravitas to lead a CoE and bad Agile partners bring in lower-level consultants who can help their consultancy make profits, not guide organizations.

5. Crafting Agile Governance That Actually Works

Balancing flexibility with necessary controls is like walking a tightrope. But don't sweat it – good external consultants can help you nail it. They'll work with you to create an Agile Playbook that sets the ground rules. Need a plan for launching new Agile Release Trains (ARTs)? They've got you covered. They'll help establish guardrails and standards that keep things on track without stifling innovation to create a governance model that gives you control without killing your Agility.

Bad Agile partners don’t understand the need to create commonalities among teams and business areas and don’t prioritize the ability to create consistent practices that allow for robust reporting and portfolio transparency. They focus too much at the individual team level because it’s easier for them, neglecting the difficult work of aligning programs, ARTs, business areas, and portfolios around common and standardized practices that allow you to truly measure the transformation’s progress and each team’s impact to the bottom line.

6. Sizing Up Your Maturity and Mapping the Road Ahead

Want to know where you stand? Good external consultants bring tools and benchmarks to give you the whole picture. They'll spot your strengths and areas where you could use a boost – things you might miss when you're in the thick of it. Then, they'll team up with your PMO to chart a roadmap for leveling up your game, ensuring you're tackling the right things in the right order.

Bad Agile consulting partners don’t have a vision for how to get to where you want to be from where you currently are. They are in the weeds and too focused on working on the simple things that don’t add real value and move the organization forward. They don’t bring enough experience or expertise to measure your current maturity based on other companies in your industry, and they can’t create a plan of attack for what to address first that will create the biggest lift.

7. Mastery of Agile Lifecycle Tools

Here's where things get exciting. Agile consultants aren't just process gurus – they can also be tool experts. They can help you set up a scaled, consistent approach to tools like Jira or Azure DevOps (ADO) to make your whole organization hum. We're talking about creating an ecosystem that gives you the foundation for killer reporting and data insights. Want to measure flow metrics for each Value Stream, ART, and Team? Check. Need to show how you're aligning with company goals? Got it. Looking for ROI and productivity measures? No problem. These experts can help you create true portfolio transparency and get all your business areas on board with Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) practices. The result? Real, honest-to-goodness business agility.

Bad Agile partners don’t understand how best to set up and use tools like Jira to reinforce the organizations’ goals. They know how to use these tools to help teams be efficient with their workflow, but that’s where their influence ends. That haven’t thought about how to shape a tool’s configuration to allow for comprehensive and robust reporting across all business areas; the type of reporting that really tells the story and measures impact.

8. Boosting Your Agile Game with Expert (but) Temporary Resources

Sometimes, you need an ace up your sleeve, and that's where expert but temporary or contract-to-hire resources come in. These pros can be game changers, setting the gold standard for your organization and able to flex their expertise up or down as needed. They can influence folks at all levels, coach across domains, and support your most critical transformation efforts. Whether using a contract-to-hire approach to "try before you buy" or bringing in temporary resources to dial expertise up or down, it's a flexible way to inject high-level Agile know-how into your organization. These Agilists don't just solve today's problems – they transfer knowledge, upskill your permanent staff, and build capabilities to support your future plans, all without the long-term commitment.

Bad Agile partners use a “butts in seats” approach to fill coaching roles without considering the exact skills, competencies, leadership qualities, and technical traits that might be needed for each. Their top priority is bringing in resources that minimally meet requirements so they can siphon as much profit as possible from their clients. They continuously over-promise and under-deliver. They may offer resources at a fraction of the price, but you’ll be left with a revolving door of ineffectual agilists that never bring the value you’re hoping to get. You’ll look back after a year and wonder if one great coach could have made more impact than three of those “cut-rate” resources that staffing firm brought in. Yes, the answer to that question is emphatically Yes!

Bringing in a good Agile consulting partner is like adding a secret weapon to your team. They bring a boatload of specialized know-how, broad experiences, and unbiased insights that are tough to grow in-house. These outside experts can kick your transformation into high gear, help you navigate the tricky stuff, and ensure your Agile practices are top-notch. Their guidance could be just the thing to take your APMO from good to amazing, driving lasting improvements in quality, efficiency, and overall business value. So why go it alone when you can have these all-stars on your team? CC Pace coaches consistently get the highest level of feedback from our clients. We work hard to understand each client’s exact needs and ensure they are partnered with the best coach to help them in their journey. We focus on adding value over maximizing our profit because we know that’s what creates happy customers and future opportunities.