Exploring the Project Management Office (PMO)–Role, Structure and Processes

The Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational entity that maintains the standard of projects and may also provide resourcing to support the project management process across an organization. The PMO can be involved in portfolio or program management as well as strategic project development and management. Traditionally associated with IT (Information Technology) projects, the PMO approach has now been adopted in other applications and industries. However, there remain a lack a frameworks to properly describe the specification and functioning of the PMO. Therefore, this paper will provide insights from an exploratory study of the PMO approach to organizing and managing projects, including the results of a literature study related to engineering projects that will be used to develop a framework to describe the potential role, structure and processes of the PMO. This framework will be of use to practitioners looking to design and establish a PMO in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the project management process. The findings will be used to develop a research agenda to inform future studies needed to further understand the theoretical basis of the PMO as well as the practical implications of implementing an organizational PMO.