Mateco

“Stanwick supported us in evolving from a fragmented approach to an integrated project excellence strategy. Their expertise, focus on buy-in, and extensive network were crucial in setting up our PMO and balancing agile product development and classic project management.”

  Sean Hauge - Enterprise PMO Director

Context

At Mateco, it became clear that there was an urgent need for more structure in project management.

Until now, only product development had a grip on projects, thanks to an agile approach. This led to a simmering problem and tension between agile working and traditional project management methods. 

In addition, there were a huge number of projects running simultaneously—both within product development and classic projects—making it difficult to maintain an overview and control across the various departments.

Although some high-level processes already existed, there was a lack of professionalisation: a PMO (Project Management Office), dashboards, templates, and clear governance. Visibility and collaboration with their internal portfolio manager were also crucial to gaining control of the entire project portfolio.

In short: there was a need for a more project-oriented approach and a strong internal structure.

Approach

Together with Stanwick, Mateco defined an official project with a clear ambition: to further professionalise project and portfolio management within Mateco. Specifically, the project had four clear deliverables:

1. Greater transparency about projects, statuses and dependencies

2. Standardisation in project management templates

3. Professional project benefit management

4. Greater predictability of project delivery

From the outset, the project team focused on creating sufficient support within the entire organisation. Stanwick also helped to untangle the tension between agile and classic project management and to develop an integrated approach.

Stanwick not only brought expertise, but also a valuable network. For example, a benchmark visit was organised at Wienerberger, an organisation of similar size that had also recently taken steps toward PMO excellence. This provided the necessary confirmation of the path to follow and offered concrete best practices to adopt.

Result

Thanks to Stanwick, Mateco regained control of its projects and also gained a clear focus. We are already seeing a significant improvement: a more robust structure, greater transparency thanks to the PMO dashboard and an internal awareness of the added value of a PMO. This has led to the recruitment of an internal PMO manager. The foundation has been laid for a sustainable system that actively helps to manage projects efficiently and strategically.

Next steps

Project excellence is not an end point, but a continuous process. Together with Stanwick, Mateco continues to work on further maturity, with a focus on resource capacity planning, capability planning, and roadmapping. In this way, the company continues to build an organisation where agile product development and standard project management go hand in hand through an overarching PMO approach to the portfolio.