A project management office, also known by its acronym OGP or PMO (from English project management office), is a department or group that defines and maintains process standards, generally related to project management, within an organization. The PMO works to standardize and economize resources by repeating aspects in the execution of different projects. The PMO is the source of documentation, direction and metrics in the practice of project management and execution.

A PMO can base its project management principles on methodologies and standards in the industry, such as PMI, PRINCE2, ISO 9001 and regulatory requirements of some governments such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States, have propelled organizations to standardize their processes.

Organizations around the world are defining, sharing and collecting good practices in process and project management. Increasingly, PMOs are being given the responsibility to exert total influence over them, and to achieve an evolution of thinking that leads to continuous improvement of the organization.

PMOs can operate in aspects ranging from providing supporting functions for project management in the form of training, software, standardized policies and procedures, to direct direction and responsibility themselves for achieving project objectives.

The responsibilities of a project management office can range from providing support functions

for project management to the responsibility of direct management of a project.

The PMO can be a stakeholder if it has any direct or indirect responsibility for the outcome of the project.

Among its functions, the PMO can provide:

The figure of the PMO Manager, in fact, will have a very different dimension depending on the approach taken by the organization when it comes to granting greater importance to projects. Without a doubt, the casuistry will have an impact when designing a specific or PMO, and also when specifying the role of the PMO Manager. From those companies that are dedicated to carrying out projects and focus their organization chart as a PMO or that, without necessarily being so, consider them a priority, to those that create them temporarily or assign them a secondary function, each and every one of them will determine a different profile for their PMO Manager. Therefore, the role of the PMO Manager will depend on the meaning that the project department he or she directs has for the organization. Their location in the organizational chart will be decisive in granting them a certain degree of authority and autonomy, without a doubt, but there are also a series of more technical functions that these professionals share, regardless of these issues. As a PMO manager, one of your main functions will be to define standards when carrying out projects within the company, as well as ensuring their compliance during their development. It will also define the management methods and their application, based on a prior analysis that takes into account key points such as risks, resources, deadlines and other aspects related to its planning and successful execution. At this point, your functions may be similar to those of a project manager, if you are responsible for one or several of them.