Project Management Office: Implementation Issues
Parviz F. Rad
Department of Management Science, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Increasingly, more organizations opt to establish project management office (PMO) to support and manage theproject management efforts. PMO is referred to by different titles such as Project Office, Project ManagementOffice, Project Management Center of Excellence, or Directorate of Project Management.
Although different stakeholders may characterize project success factors differently, the need for a PMO is usuallyaccentuated by poor performance of key projects. Sometimes, more detailed indications of troubled projects can be
found in formal or informal project audits. The mal-performance of a project, and the need for a PMO, may bereported to the organization by any of the stakeholders, i.e., the client, team members, project manager, supporting
organizations, or the accounting department.

PMO is the organizational entity with full time personnel to provide a focal point for administrative, training, andconsulting in the discipline of project management. The functions of the PMO include areas such as process support in the quantitative areas of knowledge of project management, facilitation of team building activities, organizingproblem solving efforts, providing staff augmentation, drafting standards, providing a clearinghouse for project data,dispensing information on project materials and equipment, documentation of project activities and project success factors, assistance with budgeting and cost accounting, providing visibility tools such as web pages and newsletters,organizing project update meetings, and maintaining a central project meeting place.

Project management office will be the administrative mechanism by which project management activities and procedures are integrated into the enterprise policies and culture. PMO will be the logical organizational entity for clearinghousing the project communications among members of the project and across multiple projects. By virtue of having a centralized point of reference for policies and procedures, a PMO will provide consistency and uniformity to all projects within the organization. In many ways, a PMO is very much akin to the discipline offices
found in engineering design houses. These discipline offices focus on one specific area of expertise such as mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, etc. Thus, PMO will provide an infrastructure for tools and expertise in the area of project management. Further, PMO will provide the necessary mentoring,consulting, and training to the various organizational units.

Depending on the circumstances, a project management office might occupy a small corner of the project manager’s office and/or a relatively small portion of this manager’s time. At the other extreme, it might occupy an entire building with hundreds of employees dedicated to the project mission of the enterprise.

A project management office is an applicable entity for organizations with multiple projects, multiple contractors,multiple resources, multiple partner organizations, or complex customer organizations. A project management office can be exceptionally helpful in organizations that have unusual intricacies in cost, schedule, or scope
requirements. Naturally, a project management is the entity of choice when the organization has the desire to excel in and set standards for managing successful projects.

A project management office deals with the two major categories of issues that are encountered in managing projects: those dealing with things and those dealing with people. The people-oriented functions include providing experts to those who need or desire such services, assist current project managers, and train future project managers.

In the quantitative/administrative area, or in the area of things, a PMO will maintain an archive for current and previous problems encountered by project manages. A PMO will also maintain a list of potential contractors and vendors with a detailed performance history to be used as a reference in the contract awards. The PMO can also provide an inventory of software tools for project management and its allied areas, and an inventory of administrative tools and procedures such as checklists and forms for managing and documenting projects.