For the purposes of this investigation, it is not necessary that the organizational entity be called a PMO. This investigation employs this rather large definition of the PMO to capture the variety of form and function. The lack of consensus is understandable given that the PMO is a relatively recent phenomenon, that PMOs take on a great variety of forms and functions, and that there has been a lack of systematic investigation. Many people have been exposed to a limited number of PMOs and have concluded inappropriately that all PMOs are similar to the ones they have observed.
In part because of the great variety found among PMOs in different organizations, and in part because of the lack of both a consensus among practitioners and adequate descriptions in the literature, discussions on this topic tend to be characterized by diversity of opinion and confusion.
The scope of this investigation includes only PMOs with mandates that cover many projects or multi-project PMOs. Multi-project PMOs and entities responsible for the management of a single project are quite different and can best be investigated separately. The PMBOK® Guide definition and much of the literature on PMOs include both, and both are important phenomena worthy of investigation. However, this study makes a distinction between the multi-project PMO and the single-project PMO or project office, which has responsibility for the management of one large project. It also highlights that the creation of a PMO involves the centralization of certain project management roles and responsibilities in this organizational entity (Marsh, 2000). It highlights that PMOs are organizational entities and that their mandates vary significantly from one organization to the next. This definition is very close to the definition the authors adopted during this investigation. The responsibilities of the PMO can range from providing project management support functions to actually being responsible for the direct management of a project. 1.2 The Definition of a PMOĪ Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK® Guide) defines a PMO as:Īn organizational body or entity assigned various responsibilities related to the centralized and coordinated management of those projects under its domain. In addition, an adequate explanation of the great variety of PMOs has yet to be found. Prior to this research program, a reliable portrait of the population of PMOs was not available. The population of PMOs is characterized by very significant variation in: Observations of PMOs in organizations contrast quite sharply with the image portrayed in the literature. This literature is rational, self-evidently correct and normative, as is much of the project management literature (Williams, 2005). Many books and articles on PMOs have been published in recent years, with the vast majority of the literature produced by practitioners and consultants promoting the implementation of PMOs. Dai and Wells (2004) showed that PMOs first started to become popular in 1994 and that the number of PMOs has been growing significantly since. In recent years, many organizations have established PMOs. Read moreĬHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is a PMO?
#Management project office how to
By providing a way to define PMOs by type, this research explores how to set up and define a PMO, depending upon the specific type of PMO The authors discuss the many bases for the types of PMOs, including structural characteristics and functions, and how these types affect the PMO’s role in the organization. When designing a PMO, an organization has a variety of choices regarding the PMO’s structure and role assignment. Of particular interest to practitioners, the authors address the roles that PMOs play in organizations, which provides valuable insights for better creating, structuring and governing PMOs. In The Project Management Office (PMO): A Quest For Understanding, authors Brian Hobbs and Monique Aubry address these questions, providing a look at how PMOs exist today, and some clues about how and why they’re changing. Since project management offices began to appear in organizations over the last decade, project management practitioners and their organizations have been asking how to structure project management offices (PMOs) and what functions to assign them.
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