PMOs vary in terms of size, structure, and responsibilities depending on the environment and agreed goals, you can expect PMOs to function in the following seven areas:

• Project support:

Provide project management guidance to project managers in business units.

• Project management process/methodology:

Develop and implement a consistent and standardized process.

• Training:

Conduct training programs or collect requirements for an outside company.

• Home for project managers:

Maintain a centralized office from which project managers are loaned out to work on projects.

• Internal consulting and mentoring:

Advise employees about best practices.

• Project management software tools:

Select and maintain project management tools for use by employees.

• Portfolio management:

Establish a staff of program managers who can manage multiple projects that are related, such as infrastructure technologies, desktop applications and so on, and allocate resources accordingly.

The key role of the PMO will be to apply project management methodology in order to initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control all projects processes. In this regard, the PMO will coordinate and supervise all activities related to project management and will act as the focal point for all stakeholders involved in the endeavor.

The main benefits of the PMO include ensuring the proper management of the project’s processes, developing the internal milestone, communication of the objectives and alignment of tasks in order to avoid duplicate work, providing good practice solutions, and standardizing communication to ensure common language and understanding.

• Reduced cycle time
• Reduced delivery costs
• Proper Scope definition to eliminate end product or operation problems
• Improved quality of project deliverables
• Early identification and proactive management of project issues and risks
• Better containment and management of project scope
• More opportunities to leverage and reuse knowledge
• Improved accuracy of estimates
• Better communication with clients and stakeholders assuring development, operation integration.
• Improved perceptions of your organization by your clients
• Improved people and resource management
• Reduced time to get up to speed on new projects