Struggling to resource IT projects? Learn when your projects need a dedicated PMO specialist versus a skilled generalist — and how to decide.Do Your IT Projects Need a PMO Specialist, or a Really Good Generalist?
Now, there’s a question worth asking before you write the job spec!
Stoneseed were at the House of PMO conference day in London in June, and specialist vs generalist was a recurring theme with visitors to our stand. Actually, it comes up in many conversations with clients too.
Subsequently, and built on discussions from one of their PMO Managers gatherings, House of PMO published a report. It looks at the rise of specialist roles inside the PMO: data specialists, governance specialists, risk specialists, resource specialists, benefits specialists.
It is striking how many of these job titles didn’t even exist five years ago, and now they increasingly turn up on LinkedIn!
The report is a genuinely useful piece of research, especially as it crystallises something we often talk with clients about: the decision to specialise is a maturity decision, not a fashion decision, and getting the timing wrong (in either direction) can cost you.
Generalists aren’t a starting point. They’re a foundation.
The report makes a point we’d underline twice and take a highlighter pen to. Most PMOs, and most PMO careers, begin with generalists. They start with people who can turn their hand to governance, reporting, planning and admin. That breadth is exactly what’s needed when you’re just trying to get control of delivery. One contributor put it plainly: “you don’t have the luxury of specialists when you’re just trying to get control.”
This isn’t a phase to get through quickly. This “breadth” is where PMO professionals build the judgement and delivery context that makes specialist expertise useful later, rather than narrow. Skip it, and you risk hiring (or becoming) a specialist who’s technically sharp but disconnected from how delivery actually works.
So when do you actually need a specialist?
The report identifies a fairly recognisable tipping point: your stakeholders stop asking “where’s the project up to?” and start asking “why is this happening?”, “what’s our risk across the portfolio?”, “what should we be doing differently?”
These are different questions and they require a different response. A different level of capability is required.
At that point, generalist capacity alone stops being enough, not because the people aren’t good, but because the demands have genuinely changed shape.
Common triggers include:
– Growing portfolio complexity, where no single person can hold expertise across everything
– Increasing pressure to turn data into insight rather than just producing reports
– Governance and regulatory demands that require dedicated assurance capability
– PMO tooling and systems complexity that needs someone who understands how the platforms actually connect
The problem – Specialist headcount is a BIG, slow commitment
Here’s where it gets awkward for a lot of IT Directors.
You’ve spotted the tipping point.
David Cotgreave, Stoneseed’s Professional Services Director, explains, “You know you need deeper data capability, or a proper resource management specialist, or governance expertise that goes beyond box-ticking.”
“But recruiting a permanent specialist is expensive and slow. It’s a lengthy hiring process for a role that may not be needed at that intensity within twelve months, particularly if the need is tied to a specific portfolio push rather than a permanent shift in your organisation’s shape.”
Case study: Recognising the tipping point
A financial services organisation had built a capable PMO around three experienced generalists. Between them, they managed governance, reporting, planning and portfolio administration for around 40 projects. For several years, that was exactly what the organisation needed.
As the portfolio grew, the questions from leadership changed. Weekly reports were no longer enough. Executives wanted to understand why projects were slipping, where resource bottlenecks were emerging across the portfolio, and which risks were likely to affect strategic outcomes.
The PMO team wasn’t underperforming. They simply didn’t have the specialist data and portfolio analysis capability needed to answer those questions while continuing to run the day-to-day operation.
Rather than recruit a permanent specialist, the organisation brought in specialist PMO capability on a flexible basis. Over six months, they introduced portfolio analytics, improved forecasting and embedded new reporting practices while the existing PMO continued to run the portfolio. Once the immediate need had passed, the specialist support reduced, leaving the organisation with stronger capability but without the cost of an additional permanent role.
Just as importantly, the value shouldn’t disappear when the engagement ends. Experienced specialists work alongside your existing PMO team, sharing approaches, introducing better ways of working and transferring knowledge as they go. That means your generalists gain new skills and confidence, your PMO matures more quickly, and when specialist support is no longer needed, your organisation is in a stronger position than when the engagement began.
So, it’s not simply about filling a capability gap. It’s about building capability while you’re closing that gap.
Here, the outcome wasn’t just better reporting. It allowed the organisation to access specialist expertise precisely when it needed it, without making a long-term headcount commitment before the business case was clear, AND retain some of the specialists’ hard-earned knowledge after they left.
The important point wasn’t that the organisation chose specialists over generalists. It was that they introduced specialist expertise at the point where it created value, rather than committing to permanent headcount before they understood the long-term need.
This is precisely the gap PMO-as-a-Service is built to close.
Rather than choosing between “stretch our generalists further” and “hire a permanent specialist we’re not sure we’ll need forever,” you get access to specialist capability (data and analytics, governance and assurance, risk, resourcing) scaled to what the portfolio actually needs, for as long as it needs it.
A useful way to think about it
The House of PMO report’s own framing is a good sense-check for any PMO leader (or anyone recruiting into one):
– Early PMO: broad support, generalist capability
– Maturing PMO: consistent approaches, stronger disciplines
– Mature PMO: deeper capability, specialist expertise where it earns its keep
Wherever you sit on that curve, the question isn’t “should we have specialist roles?”
It’s “what capability gap is actually costing us right now, and what’s the smartest way to close it?”
Sometimes that’s a hire.
Sometimes it’s flexible access to expertise exactly when the portfolio needs it, without the long-term commitment.
Where are you on the maturity curve?
Every PMO reaches the point where the question stops being “Can we keep doing more?” and becomes “Do we need different capability?”
The answer isn’t always another permanent hire. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s giving your existing team the right specialist support at the right time.
If you’re not sure where your PMO sits on that curve, or whether you’re approaching that tipping point, let’s have a conversation.
At Stoneseed, we help organisations assess the capability they have today, identify the gaps that are holding delivery back, and find the most practical way to close them, whether that’s developing existing generalists, adding specialist expertise, or providing flexible PMO-as-a-Service support.
