Efficiency of Project Management Offices: An Exploratory Analysis

This study aims to critically evaluate research on the efficiency of Project Management Offices (PMOs) within the domain of Project Management. This research employs the literature-grounded theory (LGT) methodology, which focuses on generating knowledge - theories or hypotheses - through selecting, analyzing, and synthesizing existing scientific and technological literature. This approach provides a set of scientific data derived from a specific method of knowledge acquisition, fostering thematic growth for researchers in this field and highlighting key trends. This research aims to examine how PMO efficiency assessment is addressed in the literature and to understand the concept of efficiency in PMOs. The study progresses through three main stages: first presenting articles on PMO topics; second deepening the understanding of specific methods and techniques; finally a content analysis, which examines how researchers have assessed PMO efficiency and the approaches they have employed. The findings reveal a lack of conceptual rigor in the definitions of efficiency used in PMO evaluations. Numerous empirical evaluation instruments from the surveyed literature fail to address these concepts adequately. This study makes two primary contributions: first, it identifies the most significant relationship between PMO evaluations and organizational performance, wherein project efficiency is a benchmark for assessing PMO efficiency. Second, it explores key correlations by cross tabulating the identified efficiencies.