"A new path where middle management are valued leaders in the age of business agility."

Sanjiv Augustine, Roland Cuellar and Audrey Scheere

Agile methods have brought about dramatic changes in how organizations manage and deliver not only IT services, but their entire product and service value streams. As legacy organizations transition to newer, end-to-end agile operating models, the Project Management Office (PMO) needs to redesign its mission and operation to be more in line with these modern ways of working.

How can we be more customer-focused and value-adding, and less tied to antiquated processes and mindsets?  Middle management, including program and project managers (PMs) can be the new value-focused leaders we need.

“By the end of this book, you will understand what is valuable, how to measure value, and how to optimize the flow of value—from idea to your customer.”


—Evan Leybourn, co-founder and CEO, Business Agility Institute

Praise for from pmo to vmo

A thorough and thoughtful approach to harnessing the power of organizations to deliver at scale, drive demonstrable value, and realize organizational change in a fast-paced, agile world. A good and engaging read and a keeper reference for any organizational leader.”
—Scott Richardson, CIO, Enterprise Data and Analytics, Ally Financial

“How do we effectively transform from a few isolated agile projects to a large set of enterprise products? This is the essential problem addressed by From PMO to VMO. This book blends a firm conceptual base with a set of pragmatic practices to offer a powerful portfolio management process that delivers dynamic product value.”
—Jim Highsmith, former executive consultant, ThoughtWorks, and coauthor of Edge

“In 2005, Sanjiv Augustine wrote one of the first books to address what it meant to manage an agile project with an empowered, self-organizing team. This new book is equally on the cutting edge in presenting powerful ideas and strategies for transforming project management offices into value management offices.”
—Mike Cohn, cofounder of the Scrum Alliance and Agile Alliance

From PMO to VMO provides a clear vision of how to make value tangible inside your organization—and more importantly, how to do so with the teams and capabilities that already exist. By the end of this book, you will understand what is valuable, how to measure value, and how to optimize for the flow of value—from idea to your customer.”
—Evan Leybourn, cofounder and CEO, Business Agility Institute

"Sanjiv and his crew at Lithespeed have a wealth of knowledge that has helped organizations large and small provide value to their customers. I've had first-hand experience working with several of these authors, as I hired Sanjiv and his team at National Geographic to transition us to an agile mindset and practices. They know their stuff and this book packages up their latest thinking on how to focus on delivering value, not just projects. It's actionable, clear, and helpful. The ideas behind setting up a "VMO" are ones that I'm working through in my current organization and the book has proven to be a valuable overview and blueprint for us."

Amber Field, VP of Software Development, Singlewire Software

“This book fills the knowledge gap that exists within so many companies of how to effectively manage a lean-agile delivery system at scale. It is a great achievement of balancing the need for portfolio management and discipline with nimble and fast-moving teams.”
—Thomas Paider, Fortune 100 technology executive and coauthor of The Lean IT Field Guide

From PMO to VMO lays out a road map to expand your agile transformation well beyond the walls of IT. The book provides compelling evidence and concrete actions senior IT leaders should follow to improve the speed, quality, and efficiency of overall delivery.”
—Kevin G. Fisher, former Associate Vice President, Lean IT, Nationwide Insurance

“A vision and a road map for transforming the traditional PMO into a refreshing model of Agile Value Management Office (Agile VMO) that focuses on measuring, prioritizing, and delivering customer value. If you are a project manager or work with a PMO, this is a must-read to help you navigate the future of organizational agility.”
—Dr. Rashina Hoda, “Voice of Agile Research,” Associate Professor, Monash University

"Sanjiv, Roland, and Audrey have captured the absolute value of Agile. Indeed, agile in and of itself, is an interesting concept but is difficult to employ with humans. We are past the original concepts of the Agile Manifesto and folks need a real world guide to get them there. This book showcases an actionable path to agile mastery at any organization. It is of utmost importance that federal government agencies review and adopt these techniques."

—Bill Pratt, Director Strategic Technology Management, DHS

“It is a challenge to keep up with all the significant developments from lean, agile, and design thinking and then see where they fit in a busy PMO. From PMO to VMO lays out all the major building blocks and explains how they fit together to create a modern, functioning VMO that adds value and supports both teams and the business.”
—Mike Griffiths, CEO, Leading Answers Inc., and author of Beyond Agile

“Once again, Sanjiv Augustine is at the vanguard of organizational thinking—always focusing on the why, not just the what and how. This book is a practical road map for adopting an agile, value-driven approach to managing the output of your organization.”
—Max Keeler, Senior Techie at Large, The Motley Fool

“I’ve been leading agile teams for over fifteen years. Each leg in my journey to learn and impart agility has felt like steps toward something better, but steps to what exactly? This excellent book finally explains, with much clarity, the point of it all.”
—Don Sargent, CTO, Chronicle of Higher Education

“This comprehensive guide combines the distinctions of lean-agile processes and enterprise management science to create a value-driven engine for enterprise agility. As a bonus, it is easily applicable to any agile/scaling framework. Managers and leadership will learn how to shift focus from managing to maximizing value and how to utilize the existing structure for building the desired outcome. Highly recommended.”
—Deepti Jain, founder of AgileVirgin and India Agile Community Development Chief, Agile Alliance

About the authors
Sanjiv Augustine LitheSpeed

Sanjiv Augustine is founder and CEO of LitheSpeed LLC and the Agile Leadership Academy. He is an entrepreneur, industry-leading agile and lean expert, speaker, management consultant, and trainer. Augustine has served as a trusted advisor over the past twenty years to executives and management at leading firms and agencies. He is author of the books Managing Agile Projects and Scaling Agile.

Roland Cuellar e1465505089771

Roland Cuellar was the senior vice president of business agility at LitheSpeed, where he helped large organizations move towards end-to-end agility. For the last fourteen years, Cuellar focused exclusively on agile software development and lean business process improvement.

Audrey Scheere LitheSpeed

Audrey Scheere was the senior vice president of marketing and training at LitheSpeed, where she directed the team’s strategic initiatives and portfolio of services.  Scheere has been a project consultant for ten years, focusing on media and communications.