Page 373 - Global Project Management Handbook

18-14 MANAGEMENT OF THE PROJECT-ORIENTED COMPANY

TABLE 18.5 Differences between PM Office and Project Office/Program Office
PM Office Project Office, Program Office
• Permanent services for project-oriented • Temporary, various life-cycle durations
organizations • Services for a project/program
• For all projects and for the project portfolio • Integrated in the project/program
• Integrated in the permanent organization organization

A distinction should be made between the permanent project management office
and temporary project and program offices. As a new, integrated organizational unit,
the project management office performs services for the project-oriented company as a
whole, whereas the project office/program office only performs services for one project/
program (see Chapter 7). The differences between the project management office and
individual project offices/program offices are summarized in Table 18.5.
Depending on the size of the project-oriented organization and the scope of the project
portfolio and the services on offer, the project management office can be made up of only
one person or several people. A medium-sized production and trading firm with around
350 employees and a project portfolio averaging 25 projects, for example, employs two
part-time employees for the project management office.
The basic organizational structure of a project management office is depicted in
Fig. 18.6. The role of the project management office manager is illustrated in Table 18.6.
Essential to the organizational chart of the project management office is the differentiation
of positions that perform services for project and program management and positions that
perform services for project portfolio management. The expert pools “project management”
and “project management trainers/project management consultants” may belong to the
project management office but also may belong to other organizational units of the
project-oriented organization.
There are various options regarding the organizational incorporation of the project
management office into the project-oriented company. The possible incorporation options
into a business segment, into a service center, and as a staff unit next to the management
board are depicted in Fig. 18.7.
Should there be several project management offices alongside each other in several

business segments, they have to be coordinated formally or informally to ensure a stan-
dardized course of action in the projects in which several business segments cooperate. In
large international concerns, for example, at Ericsson, there is sometimes a project man-
agement office at concern level whose operational implementation is supported by
regional project management offices in various different countries.

PM office
manager

Project and Pool:
Project Pool: Project
program management PM coaches,
management portfolio PM consultants
services personnel
services
FIGURE 18.6 Standard organizational chart of a project management office.