Projects management offices (PMO) are organizational entities charged with various responsibilities concerned with the management of the organization's projects. Because of accelerated investment in information technology (IT) and the increased strategic importance of those investments, creation of such entities became more intense in the 1990s outside the context of project-oriented firms. Although some large companies did create PMOs in their IT areas (IT-PMO), others chose not to. This article provides a conceptual model of the drivers of the decision to create an IT-PMO, suggesting that the decision depends on satisfaction with IT project deliveries, on the strategic importance of the IT projects portfolio, and on the management's opinion on POs. The model was inductively developed from incentives to create or not create PMOs as reported in the literature and found in four case studies with large privately-owned, non-projects oriented Brazilian companies. This study contributes to the development of contextual project management by improving the understanding of situations where creating an IT-PMO makes and does not make sense. In practice, the conceptual model may be a very helpful tool for executives considering whether or not to create an IT-PMO at their companies, assisting them in making more effective decisions.
Project management office; PMO; Project management; Management of information technology; Management of information technology projects
