Case study · PMO IQ

The spreadsheet only one person understood

4,000 formulas, hidden sheets and a macro layer — the PMO's operating system lived in one workbook and one head.

Problem statement

The PMO ran on one file and one head.

A PMO ran its entire portfolio on a sophisticated Excel workbook: complexity scoring, staffing matrix, utilization forecasts — thousands of formulas, hidden sheets, VBA automation. It worked, brilliantly. It was also un-auditable, single-user, and understood by exactly one person. Every governance answer depended on one file not breaking and one person not leaving.

Business objective

Preserve the logic

The proven scoring and forecasting rules survive the migration.

Multi-user & governed

Roles, audit trail, locked periods — one version of the truth.

Outlive any individual

The PMO's operating system as a product, not a personal artifact.

Our solution

PMO iQ — the workbook's logic rebuilt as governed software.

(In design — this workbook is literally the product's origin story.)

◆The business logic extracted into an explicit data model and rules engine.

◆Structured records with validation and history instead of formula webs.

◆Roles, permissions and an audit trail on every change.

◆Accountability by construction, not by convention.

Results & impact

Before

One workbook, one expert

4,000 formulas only one person understood.

Zero audit

Hidden sheets and macros nobody could verify.

Key-person risk

The PMO's operating system one resignation from collapse.

After

Logic preserved

The proven scoring and forecasting rules as an explicit engine.

Multi-user & governed

Roles, history and locked periods — one truth.

Institutionalized

The PMO's knowledge outliving any individual.