The Project Management Office and its functions: A pharmaceutical plant case study

Details

Supervisors

Tancrez, Jean-Sébastien

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion (horaire décalé à Mons)

Abstract

The Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational structure created in order to promote and improve project, program and project portfolio management practices. The PMO adopts appropriate methodologies to achieve high levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Several models and functions of PMO are proposed by many authors, varying from the PMO with a sole function of reporting project execution, to the one who participates in the definition of organizational strategies. This work is a case study that assesses the relevance of having such structure in a pharmaceutical plant located in Lessines, Belgium. This work aims also to specifying the role that this potential PMO should fulfil. To answer these questions, the current state of the project management in Lessines was analyzed. A questionnaire was used as means for determining the roles that the PMO should perform. A total of 71 respondents have participated in the survey. Respondents were divided into groups based on their hierarchical level in the organization. The outcome of the case study suggests the implementation of a PMO with a low number of project managers and a low number of projects in the scope of the PMO. A major finding is that most projects undertaken by the organization depend on external decision centers which limits the scope of action of the PMO for optimal functioning. Regarding roles that the PMO should perform, there is little difference between expectations of the different groups. The six functions proposed appear to be important for all groups. Only one function is more desired by the top management group than for other groups, being the follow-up, control and maintaining projects status and reporting to the upper management.