Project management office

A project management office, abbreviated to PMO, is a group or department within a business, agency or enterprise that defines and maintains standards for project management within the organization. The PMO strives to standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects. The PMO is the source of documentation, guidance and metrics on the practice of project management and execution.

Darling & Whitty (2016) identify the definition of the PMO's function has evolved over time:

Often PMOs base project management principles on industry-standard methodologies such as PRINCE2 or guidelines such as PMBOK.

According to the Standish CHAOS Report (2009), 68% of software projects do not meet time/cost/scope targets. Only 32% of projects were completed on time, within budget and delivered measurable business and stakeholder benefits.

There are many reasons for such failures. As per a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1,524 organizations, inadequate project estimating and planning constitutes 30% of project failures, lack of executive sponsorship constitutes 16% and poorly defined goals and objectives constitutes 12%. It also found that using established project management approaches increased success as measured by a project's key performance indicators of quality, scope, schedule, budgets and benefits. The survey indicates that operating an established PMO is one of the top three reasons that drives successful project delivery.

Darling & Whitty (2016) found there is complexity of interconnections in PMO intellectual capital and though often the rationale for PMO establishment is to enhance stakeholder satisfaction with projects often the establishment of the PMO leads to significant dissatisfaction by senior management.

PMOs may take other functions beyond standards and methodology, and participate in Strategic project management either as facilitator or actively as owner of the Portfolio Management process. Tasks may include monitoring and reporting on active projects and portfolios (following up project until completion), and reporting progress to top management for strategic decisions on what projects to continue or cancel.

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