Therefore PMO therefore assumes two key roles, depending on which needs of the organisation are being served:

• Tactical: The PMO provides direct support to projects in several areas such as scope management, baseline change management, project scheduling, resource management, cost management and project reviews. The PMO provides the information required for decision making and ensures that the decisions are being carried out.

• Strategic: The PMO supports the PPM framework, which in addition supports project prioritisation, performance management and benefits realisation (see Figure 13). The PPMT intersects with the executive stream, allowing the organisation to make strategic ‘go/kill/hold/fix’ decisions on key projects in the context of managing a balanced portfolio
of investments.

In summary, the PMO is the function responsible for coordinating, planning, overseeing and monitoring an organisation’s multi-project environment. Through the PPM process the PMO enforces executive accountability and transparency by connecting the organisation’s projects to the business’s portfolio strategic decision making stream. The information supplied by the PMO flows directly into the PPMT’s funding, selection, prioritisation and resourcing processes.PMOs are becoming a standard feature within many organisations and are viewed as the operational centre supporting any project within the business. They act as the clearing house for project information and the driving force for project delivery.

The main specific responsibilities of the PMO include:

Project management, control, delivery and alignment:

- monitoring project outcomes and communicating this up stream to the PPMT and down stream to project managers
- increasing communication and coordination across projects
- advising the PPMT on the benefits and status of projects
- advising and reporting on the placement of new and elimination of old projects
- endorsing, advising and supporting project managers
- confirming successful delivery and sign-off at the closure of the projects
- managing resource utilisation across the organisation, matching project needs with specialised skills and availability
- ensuring critical projects are on time and within budget by providing objective accountability and review at every stage, from initiation to closure
- using dashboards to enhance the roles of project and programme managers within the enterprise

Financial accounting:

- assisting project managers with budget control
- maintaining financial status reports on all projects
- analysing interfaces and critical cost dependencies between projects and recommending appropriate action
- maintaining a list of stakeholders and their financial interests

Project management support:

- providing a single point of contact for all project information
- training, coaching, guidance and mentoring
- developing and holding project templates and master copies of all project and programme information
- generating all necessary quality management documentation
- maintaining, controlling and updating documentation
- establishing and maintaining an electronic registry of project information for use by both the PPMT and project managers

Methodologies, standards and metrics:

- guardianship of project methodologies (for example, Prince2), standards and metrics
- compiling reports and collecting information from project reviews
- providing a central, customer focused office to care for the concerns of the client, sponsor and project stakeholders
- providing assistance to the PPMT in selecting and analyzing projects
- establishing consistent practices and standards for programme governance arrangements, including project planning, reporting,
- change control, analysing risks and maintaining and updating the risk register