Companies today increasingly recognize that, with respect to Project Management, they must advance beyond the ability to create occasional success stories by exerting heroic effort on particular projects.  They know that a core element of their overall success is driven by the ability to consistently bring their entire portfolio of projects to successful completion: on-time, within budget, and per specification.  In addition, they know that if they can cost-effectively accelerate the delivery of their new products and services (without sacrificing quality in the process), they can create a strategic advantage over their competitors. 

To that end, the purpose of a Project Office is to enable companies to be consistently successful with respect to project management and to create a foundation for achieving a competitive advantage.  This is accomplished this by filling two essential roles within the organization:
A provider of enterprise-level project management services 
A project management center of excellence

Enterprise-Level Project Management Services

There are certain project management functions that can only occur at the enterprise level.  Organizations require answers to key management questions such as: 
Are we adequately staffed to meet our current project workload? 
Are we on track for meeting our current customer commitments? 
What will be the impact to our existing projects if we take on a new endeavor? 
The answer to these questions cannot be provided by any individual project plan.  Instead, resource, cost, and schedule information must be “rolled-up” across an organization’s entire portfolio of projects in order to produce the type of data necessary to address these issues.  Because of the amount of effort and the specialized skills required, many companies have come to realize that they will not receive this type of information (on a regular basis, anyway) simply by asking for it.  The work to collect and analyze this information must be made a formal function within the organization and assigned to individuals that are appropriately qualified to perform the work.  In an increasing number of organizations, this function is performed by the Project Office.

Project Management Center of Excellence

With constantly changing personnel within organizations, there is an ongoing need to provide mentoring to project team members on the project management methodology.  In addition, the tools that are utilized to assist with project planning and control, such as Microsoft Project, are continuously being upgraded and enhanced and, as a result, team members have a need to be regularly coached on the proper use of these tools.  The Project Office staff must be experts on the methodology and the use of the tools and it is their function to provide this mentoring and coaching.

Also, in many organizations the use of formalized project planning and control techniques is a result of internal sponsorship.  That is, someone at a managerial-level within the organization recognized the benefits of project management and was willing to commit company resources to implement it.  Unfortunately, when sponsors transfer or get promoted to another organization, there is a tremendous tendency to backslide; especially with new sponsors that might not have the same level of commitment.  A Project Office can help establish project management as a core competency and an essential function within an organization and impart enough momentum to survive the loss of a major sponsor.

Conclusion

Each year, companies execute projects for the purpose of improving their bottom-line and expanding their competitive advantage.   Establishing project management as a core competency and investing in a Project Office infrastructure will dramatically enhance a company’s ability to complete their portfolio of projects on-time, within budget and at a high-level of quality. 

In addition, the role of a Project Office can’t be underestimated.  Companies with a strong Project Office Organization and culture are better able to meet the challenges of today’s highly competitive business environment.