Julia Sheer 

Head of Portfolio Management Office, Yorkshire Water

I’ve worked in the Water Industry for all of my career, joining Yorkshire Water on the Graduate scheme and progressing my career within the business, most recently taking the role of Head of PMO. I started as a Project Manager in IT delivering new and upgraded solutions to our business but within a few years I was feeling the pull towards the Programme Management Office and took up various roles including leading the PMO for IT.

After taking some time out on mat leave, I wanted a new challenge and so found my way across our business to run the PMO which supports delivery of our Asset Capital Programme, the lions share of our capital investment each year.

Over the last 5 years, I have developed a small reporting function into a fully functioning PMO with Project Controls, Assurance, Risk, Performance and Insights and Continuous Improvement capabilities. In the current Asset Management Planning (AMP) period, our programme is the biggest and most complex we have ever delivered and so our maturity journey as a PMO continues. 

Session | The PMO Maturity Journey: From Reporting Function to Strategic Delivery Partner

In an era of increasing regulatory scrutiny, delivery complexity, and investment scale, the role of the Project Management Office is evolving rapidly. This presentation shares our PMO maturity journey, sharing how we have transformed from a traditional reporting function into a strategic enabler of programme delivery and assurance.