Prioritizing PMO Functions in Organizations: A Group Fuzzy Decision Making Approach

Background: The objective of this paper is to review the literature about the functions of Project Management Office (PMO), and propose a new approach to prioritize these functions in an organization. Methods: The theoretical framework of functions was extracted from the literature review, and the appropriate prioritizing method, which is based on Delphi and group fuzzy analytical hierarchy process, was adopted by interviewing with academic experts. The case study approach was especially used for testing the theoretical framework and method in real world situations. Applying this approach in current research bring about in-depth understanding of PMO functions within an organization. Findings: The proposed approach provides a new outlook for implementing project management office functions considering organizational needs. The theoretical framework includes 19 functions categorized in 5 groups: Strategic alignment and governance, organization and process, learning and organizational growth, project support, monitoring, control and assessment. Regarding this framework, the PMO functions were determined and prioritized in the case study organization. The findings indicate that the strategic level functions that entirely meet the organizational needs attained the highest priority. The results are helpful in adding more value to the existing literature and research background in terms of building a theoretical basis for further in-depth research into PMO functions. Application: Regarding the lack of research and empirical evidence in this subject, the findings provide practitioners with practical guidelines for implementing the project management office functions in the light of the organizational requirements.