Project Management Offices (PMOs) are not etched in stone. They are complex entities which go through frequent transformations during their average two-year life span. So, what does that mean to project professionals?
Identifying the Forces Driving Frequent Change in PMOs answers this question for both researchers and practitioners based on a three-year research effort focused on the organizational change process surrounding the transformation of a PMO. Seventeen case studies and 184 responses to a questionnaire provide the foundation. Results show the temporary nature of PMOs and reveal that significant changes in PMOs can be associated with an organization’s internal and external environment.
Identifying the Forces Driving Frequent Change in PMOs answers these important questions:
• Why do PMOs change? What are the drivers?
• How does the change happen? Is there a dynamic change process?
• What is changing? What are the characteristics or functions that are changing?
• Is there a pattern of change?
This research takes a comprehensive view of the project management world. The 17 case studies include 13 different types of organizations. Case studies revealed 32 drivers affecting PMO transformation: five related to external events, nine related to internal events, and 18 organizational issues. Multiple drivers affect change simultaneously and any reconfiguration is closely aligned with the overall organization context.
• PMOs are formed from a limited number of variables that drive the configuration. A PMO enjoys relative stability, changing only in response to a failure or a new need and then returning to a stable state.
• PMOs are more dynamic than previously assumed. It is not the characteristics that are important, but rather the organizational change process that surrounds the implementation and transformation of the PMO.
The report includes extensive, rigorous analyses that give real-world meaning to the research data. The authors identify underlying factors that affect PMO change. Changes in economic context, changes in top management, and issues such as collaboration, accountability, and work climate are identified as key contributors to change.
Identifying the Forces Driving Frequent Change in PMOs is a major contribution to the theoretical foundations of project management and a useful guide for project management practitioners and upper management executives in their implementation, remodeling, and management of PMOs.
