Building value through sustainable project management offices

Article PMO March 2009

Project Management Journal

Hurt, Mimi | Thomas, Janice

How to cite this article:

Hurt, M. & Thomas, J. (2009). Building value through sustainable project management offices. Project Management Journal, 40(1), 55–72.
When organizations began to understand how projects could help them implement strategic initiatives, they began organizing project management offices (PMOs) to oversee their project performance. But despite efforts to improve such performance, many PMOs have failed and not realized their potential value. This article examines three case studies to determine how and why some PMOs generate sustainable value while others fail to realize valuable contributions. In doing so, it defines the concept of PMOs and identifies the key observations of previous studies on the functions that PMOs perform and support; it discusses the concept of value and a five-level framework that lists questions for determining how project management values shape project management performance. It explains the nature and evolution of each case organization's project management practice as well as perception of value derived from projects.
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