Project Management Office (PMO)

A project management office (PMO) is usually created to solve a specific problem: generally, the IT organization’s inability to deliver IT projects on time, on budget and in scope. Project managers may “live” in the PMO, or in different IT units, such as in application development or in the business.

Most PMOs start out addressing issues around project management and delivery before elaborating their remit to program management or portfolio management. The scope of work changes from tactical to strategic, while the scope of initiatives broadens from IT-intensive projects to enterprisewide business and IT initiatives. Once the PMO has earned credibility with the business, it usually receives requests to help manage business projects.