Importance of Managing PMO in Croatian PM Market

Abstract

In today's rapidly changing world where only change is constant and traditional sources of competitive advantage have less meaning, project management is becoming an increasingly more accepted and applicable discipline in a variety of industries as a source of competitive advantage for companies. However, many organizations still struggle to achieve success with the majority of their projects and programs. The common belief is that effort and money spent in implementing Project Management Office (hereafter PMO) has made a big difference in the level of success achieved in executing projects and programs, as it should define and maintain standards for project management within the organization. Meanwhile, research in this area is still scarce and the topic is still insufficiently investigated, especially in the context of Croatian practices. Therefore, the main goal of this paper was to analyze the position and characteristics of the usage of PMO as a tool to support Project Management practices in Croatian companies. A survey was conducted and implemented in 24 companies which have PMO as a part of their organizational structure. The results show that there is a significant trend in developing PMO and integrating strategic planning with program and portfolio management. Furthermore, we have found that PMO staff is relevant to international practice; that projects start and finish within the PMO; that organizations have some kind of a project management methodology but most of them are taken from existing and communication they have with the company's top management is continuous and successful.