OaoProfessionals working in the construction industry are familiarized with the term project office. It can be confusing when the term project management office is used in business media. What is a project office? How is it different to a PMO? This article will explain what each one is and highlight the differences and similarities.
Table of Contents
What is a Project Office?
Project office purposes
What is a Project Management Office (PMO)?
Responsibilities for a PMO
Similarities and differences
Interactions between the project office and PMO
What is a Project Office?
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A project office is usually a trailer or other temporary facility that a company uses to house its project staff. When they have a need for office space near a temporary but long-term project site, companies set up or build a project office. These offices are often used for construction projects such as building a housing tract or an office building.
These offices are used by companies to house the project manager, site foreman and other office workers on site. In project offices are also secretaries, receivers and inventory management staff.
Also read: How to overcome the hard truths about construction project management
Project office purposes
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A project office is responsible only for managing a large project over the course of the project. A project office can serve at least three purposes:
Sales office
The first purpose of the office is to sell. The facility usually contains pictures, models, and drawings. The marketing materials enable the salespeople to sell building units or construction.
Off-site project office
Another purpose is to serve as the off-site office. An off-site office is set up by a company when the office on-site is not suitable or convenient for the majority of its staff. The staff is housed in an office building. This is common for companies who have multiple projects that require accountants, estimators, and support staff. Companies can have multiple project offices. They have an office on-site for the site manager, and any other staff members on site. An off-site office is used for the rest.
War room
A third purpose is to serve as a war room. It is a meeting room that is designated for the project. It is used by the project manager as an office. However, its primary function is to display project documents. It also serves as an archive for project documents. The war room and the off-site office are two examples of the newer definitions for a project office.
What is a Project Management Office (PMO)?
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A project management office is a permanent unit or department within a company. It is an organizational level that is responsible for specific departments. The PMO oversees, coordinates, and manages multiple projects that the company initiates and executes. It moves its attention to other ongoing projects when one project is finished.
Responsibilities for a PMO
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The project management office is responsible for establishing a governance framework, providing management reporting, and identifying priority tasks. In order to improve efficiency and monitor their projects more closely, companies create and open PMOs.
Establish a governance framework
The PMO is responsible to establish a project governance framework that allows a company to have a structured approach. It identifies all stakeholders, including the client, project sponsor, users, project managers, team members, and project managers. The PMO also identifies the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, as well as their authority and ability to make decisions about the project.
Management reports
The PMO centralizes project information in order to provide the right information to the correct stakeholders. These reports enable management to
