The impact of pmo activities on indicators of time and scope in financial organization

Objectives: The present work investigates the PMO's monitoring role on a financial organization's projects to identify the project office's impact on them. This study stresses the performance of the scope and time on the project portfolio. Theoretical Framework: Project offices are structures that aim to improve organizational project management in a company. Theoretically, an organizational project office is adopted to get better project results and indicators and contribute to the company's strategic objectives. However, evidence regarding these results and their drivers is rare. Method: This research used a case study method. It characterized the company, the PMO, and the projects implemented. Data from the project portfolio were analyzed, and interviews and direct and indirect observations were carried out. Results and Discussion: Both qualitative and quantitative analyses complemented and corroborated the same result, affirming the positive impact of the PMO's presence in the projects since all data demonstrated considerably higher achievement on the planned scopes and time frames. Research Implications: Despite being a primary responsibility for project managers, this study evidences that PMO implementation is associated with good scope and time results. As our study has focused on a financial institution, managers in these organizations may consider using a PMO to achieve project scope and time. Originality/Value: Some scientific literature has stated that PMOs have good results on project performance, but they do not identify which performance area is achieved on these improvements. Other articles point to good results on cost performance but a weak impact on time and no impact on scope performance. The present research identifies an effective impact of supportive and controller PMOs on project scope, which can be better investigated in future research efforts.