Desta, S; Root, D and Diederichs, C J (2006) The practice of project management office (PMO) concept within the German architect, engineer, contractor (AEC) sector. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 4(1), pp. 46-59. ISSN 1726-0531
Abstract
The PMO is seen as an organisational entity entrusted to instil Project Management (PM) practices and culture within an organisation and is portrayed as the focal point of PM practices and the locus where an organisation's knowledge management and PM practices intersect. Companies within a range of economic sectors are accommodating this entity in their organisation structures. Whilst the PMO may not appear to be prevalent in the AEC sector, many of the capabilities ascribed to it do exist either separately or in aggregate within AEC organisations. This paper presents the results of a survey, explored the adoption of the PMO concept within main contractors, project management practices, and developers in the German AEC sector. It discusses the roles that this entity can play in the organisations that are aspiring to achieve a higher level of PM competency and maturity. It also investigates the success factors associated with the successful implementation of the PMO construct and reports on some of the challenges faced in implementing the entity together with potential ways of alleviating these challenges. The research identified that there was a high level of awareness of the PMO concept and that there was a high level prevalence of many of capabilities ascribed to PMOs in the organisations sampled. Many of these organisations recognised that the PMO concept as contributing considerably to knowledge management in their organisation.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | competence; maturity; project management; project management office |
| Index terms: | implementation, success factor, project management practice, architect, main contractor, engineer, survey, project management, aggregate, knowledge management, competence |
| Subjects: | practitioner, profession, contractual arrangements, project management theory and practice, personnel development, data collection methods, health monitoring assessment and metrics, professional development, materials science |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Procurement, Project Management, Information Management, Roles and Professions, Human Resources |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here