When your flight takes off on time and the terminal runs smoothly, it’s thanks to countless projects happening behind the scenes. At Leeds Bradford Airport, the Portfolio Management Office (PMO) team is pivotal to making it all happen. This regional hub has been connecting Yorkshire to the world since 1931, welcoming over 4 million passengers a year, with plans to grow to 7 million by 2030. With great routes, competitive airlines, and a focus on customer experience, the airport plays a vital role in serving a thriving region.
Flying blind on project priorities
With around 50 projects running at any given time, the PMO team at Leeds Bradford Airport must prioritise carefully—starting with maintenance, compliance, and end-of-life systems, before moving on to strategic projects or nice-to-haves. But without clear visibility, that was difficult. “At first, we tracked everything manually in a monster spreadsheet,” recalls Cathy Evans. “Then we tried a PMO tool, but after 18 months, it still wasn’t giving us what we needed—that clear, high level portfolio view we required for strategic visibility and decision making. In the end, the team switched to the tool they had wanted all along: Smartsheet.
Within just a few months, Leeds Bradford Airport moved all its projects into Smartsheet with help from Cheetah Transformation, a Smartsheet Platinum Partner. The team then set up dashboards to report on individual projects and the overall portfolio, refining them as they went.
“I love how intuitive Smartsheet is—it’s easy to get started, see where the data goes, and build dashboards that actually work. It gives us the freedom to keep improving things without needing extra support or worrying about breaking anything. It allows the PMO to be more value add for both the projects and senior management. The whole experience has been fantastic.” – Cathy Evans, Head of Project Management Office at Leeds Bradford Airport
A clear view
Beyond just saving time, Leeds Bradford Airport now has full visibility across its entire project landscape—from the fine details of individual tasks to the bigger picture of the full portfolio. For the PMO team, that means they can triage more effectively, quickly spot what needs attention, and guide efforts where they’re needed most. “I get a bit giddy when it comes to dashboards—I love tweaking things, moving widgets around, and getting everything just right. I like being able to see exactly how we’re tracking each month—risks opened and closed, how many projects are active, how much we’ve spent. It all just clicks into place. And having this real-time view of our entire portfolio has been a game-changer,” shares Cathy. “I can track risks, spending, and productivity at a glance. It’s a level of visibility we never had with the old tool.”
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