What is a Project Management Office (PMO)?
A PMO is an “office” — either physical or virtual — staffed by project management professionals who serve their organization’s project management needs. It also serves as an organizational center for project management excellence. A PMO may exist at any one of three levels in the organization (or at all three levels concurrently).
Level 1: The project control office
A Level 1 PMO typically manages large, complex single projects that often require multiple schedules that need to be integrated into an overall program schedule.
Level 2: Business unit project management office
A Level 2 PMO integrates multiple projects of varying sizes within a business unit from small, short-term initiatives to multi-month or multi-year initiatives that require dozens of resources and complex integration of technologies.
Level 3: Enterprise project management office
A Level 3 PMO serves as a repository for the standards, processes, and methodologies that improve project performance across the enterprise. It also serves to mitigate conflicts in the competition for resources. It allows the organization to manage its entire collection of projects as one or more interrelated portfolios so executive management can get the big picture of all project activity across the enterprise from a central source. A Level 3 PMO infuses a project management culture throughout the organization.
Source: Crawford, J.K. (2002). The Strategic Project Office: A Guide to Improving Organizational Performance. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
