I was reading about a 2012 survey indicating that 87% of organizations now have some form of project management office (PMO). That was an increase of 40 percentage points from a similar survey in 2000. Yes, most organizations now have PMOs. But are they effective? According to an April 2010 survey that I conducted of project managers and PM-related staff, the answer is no. 58% of respondents indicated that they did not feel their PMO was effective. Only 34% said that their PMO had good repeatable processes, procedures and templates in place to help them do their jobs well. And a full 47% indicated that their company’s senior leadership had no visible involvement in the PMO. One of my personal strong beliefs – backed by seeing failures where this was not the case – is that the senior leadership needs to back the PMO, have buy-in to the PMO and support it in order for it to succeed.