INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 328336
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman

A new framework for understanding organisational

project management through the PMO
Monique Aubry *, Brian Hobbs 1, Denis Thuillier

School of Business and Management, Department of Business and Technology, Universite du Quebec a` Montreal, Canada

Abstract
This paper presents a theoretical contribution to the study of organisational project management and of the project management
oce (PMO). The PMO should no longer be considered an isolated island within an organisation. It is our premise that the PMO is
part of a network of complex relations that links strategy, projects and structures and thus is a point of entry into the organisation
to study the foundations of organisational project management. We argue that the study of such complex relationships within an organisation should turn away from the traditional positivist approach to a new conceptual framework. The proposed theoretical framework
draws from three complementary elds innovation, sociology and organisational theory to form an innovative understanding of the
PMO and organisational project management.
2007 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.
Keywords: PMO; Organisational project management; Innovation; Organisation theory

1. Introduction
Innovation plays an important role in the place project
management now has in organisations. Growth of a rm
is associated with its capacity to constantly renew its product portfolio. At the same time, there is economic pressure
to reduce the time to market. Both lead to a rise in the number of projects undertaken simultaneously within rms and
consequently to the complexity of managing them [1].
Innovative forms of organising are emerging [2] and not
surprisingly we see quite a few concepts related to multiproject management emerging within the project management literature: programme and portfolio management
[3,4], project-based or project-oriented organisation [5,6]
and project management oce [7].
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 514 987 3000x4658; fax: +1 514 987
3343.
E-mail addresses: aubry.monique@uqam.ca (M. Aubry), hobbs.
brian@uqam.ca (B. Hobbs), thuillier.denis@uqam.ca (D. Thuillier).
1
Tel.: +1 514 987 3000x3721; fax: +1 514 987 3343.
2
Tel.: +1 514 987 3000x7783; fax: +1 514 987 3343.

0263-7863/$30.00 2007 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.01.004

The PMI and the IPMA have conrmed the expansion

of the eld of project management beyond a focus on the
management of projects to embrace the management of
programs, portfolios and organisations that achieve their
strategic objectives through projects, programs, and portfolios or organisational project management. The goal
of organisational project management is not just to deliver
projects on time, on budget and in conformity with technical and quality specications. The goal is to create value for
the business.
A review of the literature does not provide a clear conceptualization or denition of organisational project management. What we observe globally is that the current
project management literature is lacking two elements: theoretical foundations and valid, veried empirical models.
The two are related. The current literature presents a major
professional tendency aimed at short-term results. Though
several models exist, the majority of them have yet to
undergo a solid empirical validation process. These elements lead to the need for research that is aimed at understanding organisational project management structures

M. Aubry et al. / International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 328336

and the dynamics through which project management contributes to organisational performance.
We will review the current literature on related concepts. We will then attempt to dene the concept of organisational project management and the place the PMO has
in it. Finally, we will propose a basic framework that will
support the exploration of organisational project management using the PMO as the gateway into the organisation.
As suggested by Van de Ven in Engaged Scholarship, the
critical task is to adopt and use the models, theories, and
research methods that are appropriate for the research
problem and question being address [8, p. 7]. Our framework is bold as it draws from three theoretical elds: innovation theory, sociology and organisational theory. Using
innovation theories, we build on the concepts of social
innovation systems and co-evolution theory, taking into
account the history and context of the PMO at the organisational level and at the micro-level. The network structure approach and actor network theory (ANT) are from
the eld of sociology. Both will be used to depict the
PMO as a network, the former in its structural aspect,
and the latter in examining the relationships among the
actors involved. The conceptualisation of organisational
performance and of the value of the PMO is drawn from
the competing values model that allows for the coexistence
of a plurality of perspectives to evaluate organisational
performance. Together these concepts open up new avenues for the study of organisational project management.
We think that this approach oers a new perspective contributing to the revitalization of the eld of project
management.
The model presented in this paper is being used as the
theoretical basis of an empirical investigation of organisational project management [9]. The research question of
the current empirical work is How to understand the
PMO and its contribution to organisational performance?
This empirical work focuses on organisations that do projects for themselves rather than for external customers.
These organisations have implemented PMOs as part of
their strategy for managing projects and for dealing with
the issues relative to organisational project management.
The study of organisational project management is facilitated in these organisations because project management
activities tend to concentrated and more easily visible in
organisations that have implemented PMOs. The discussion that follows and the theoretical model are relevant,
however, in other contexts.
2. Literature review
The literature review is intended to provide an understanding of the founding elds on which the conceptual
framework is based, and to identify its limitations as far
as providing satisfactory answers to current issues. Five
elds are discussed in the next sections: strategic alignment,
programme and portfolio management, project-based
organisation, PMO and organisational performance.

329

2.1. Strategic alignment: a need that becomes a function

The issue of alignment is associated with the need to join
together portfolios of disparate, proliferating projects into
an ecient, coherent whole [5]. This need for strategic
alignment becomes a function within the organisation.
Organisations must adapt their strategic processes in order
to face changes in their environment and they must adjust
themselves quickly [9]. Project management at the strategic
level (including programme and project portfolio) is considered a means to implement corporate strategy. The
translation of strategy into programs and projects is recognised as a core process [11]. However, these authors recognise that project strategy management is not suciently
explored in the business and project literature. Other recent
empirical research shows that not all organisations succeed
in the linkage between projects and strategy [12]. It seems
as if a paradox exists between, on the one hand, the organisational desirability of linking strategy and projects, and
on the other, the concrete actions that organisations take
to achieve them [10].
A second facet of strategic alignment bears on the synergy created by the management of the relations between
projects. In other words, the performance related to the
management of the whole goes beyond the sum of the performance of the individual projects. The identication of
benets related to the management of these relations can
be found in the specic literature related to the platform
approach [1] and to programmes and project portfolios
[10,13,14]. For the moment, these benets may well be
wishful thinking since they have not yet been veried by
solid empirical research.
A third facet focuses on preparation for the future and
rarely appears in a specic way in the strategic project management literature. The future is envisioned from an operational viewpoint rather than strategically, for example, in
relation to the evolution towards project management
maturity [15] and the development of resource competencies in project management [16].
The current literature provides models for the link
between corporate strategy and projects. Some empirical
results conrm the role of project management in facilitating the implementation of corporate strategy. However, the
literature related to business and project management lacks
empirical studies to describe in detail the processes of strategy translation from the corporate level down to the execution of the project. In summary, the current project
management literature only partially covers the breadth
of strategic alignment.
2.2. Programme and portfolio management
It is not surprising to note some confusion in the denition of new concepts, as is the case in most of the existing
studies of programme and project portfolios. The confusion in this literature stems from a semantic gap between
the meanings given to the concepts of programme and

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M. Aubry et al. / International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 328336

project portfolio [10]. In the preceding sub-section, we saw

that strategic alignment is generally considered to be a
function within the organisation. The confusion is related
to the identication of processes responsible for this function, and whether they are programme or portfolio processes. Consequently, their roles dier depending upon
the denitions adopted by each author.
Authors who place the project portfolio as the major
interface with corporate strategy propose a cascade from
global strategy down to portfolios, from portfolios down
to programs, and then from programs down to individual
projects [5,11]. In this sense, programs are at the heart of
the project portfolio.
Other authors who present programme management as
the major process linking strategy and individual projects
attribute a secondary role to project portfolio management, namely that of project selection and support [3,4].
This approach to programme management covers a larger
reality than the more generalized denition of a programme as a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benets and control not available
from managing them individually [17, p. 16].
Portfolio management refers also to an instrumental
approach. Several methodologies have been proposed to
balance a portfolio of projects [18,19]. In this portfolio
management perspective, the project portfolio context contains an essential structural component.
Doubtless, it is essential to link projects to organisational strategy and it is clear from the literature that processes such as programme and portfolio management are
part of that picture. But, in looking for a new denition
of organisational project management, it will be necessary
to clarify the semantic context of programme and portfolio
management. Confusion between these concepts prevents
conceptual leadership from occurring and paving the way
towards solid foundations. Programme and portfolio management both have a role to play in strategising. Organising
them to play this role is a major issue that leads project
management to be rmly anchored in the organisation.
2.3. Project-based or project-oriented organisation
The terms project-oriented or project-based organisation
and the more generic term of managing by projects can be
applied to organisations whose strategic business objectives
rely on results from projects or programs [5]. This
approach goes beyond the classic view of project management structures that answers the question, How should
we manage this project within our organisation? [20,21].
The classic project organisation literature proposes three
possibilities: functional organisation, matrix organisation,
and organisation by project [17,21].
A contrario, the concept of project-oriented organisation
relates to a global structural approach for more eective
project delivery. This question goes beyond the examination of the strict project structure and the position of a
given project in the organisation to address the structural

problem from the point of view of the organisational level.

This leads to research agendas that reect dierent schools
of thought. Among others, Turner and Keegan [22] propose looking at the versatile project-oriented rm as a dual
set of functions, one of governance and one of operational
control.
Dinsmore [23] proposed a corporate view of project
management where the organisation is seen as a portfolio
of projects and introduced the idea of managing organisation by projects. In a more recent research, Lampel and Jha
[24] explore the relationship between projects and the corporate environment using the construct of project orientation. Their initial ndings conclude that this interface is a
locus of tension. The lack of understanding of the causes
and dynamics of tension between projects and organisations leads to friction and failure. This insight conrms
the necessity to shed light on the global organisation where
projects are realised in a dynamic environment alongside
operations.
The R&D literature also provides a complementary discussion on project-based organisations for dealing with the
development of complex products and services [25]. Case
studies presented by Hobday concluded that one size does
not t all. In certain circumstances functional or matrix
structures deliver better results than those of project-based
organisations, particularly in the coordination of resources
across projects and in organisation-wide learning. They
propose a new type, the project-led organisation, to overcome the problems inherent to project-based organisation.
The literature on project-based organisation has two
limitations. First, there is a tendency to focus strictly on
the structural problem instead of seeing structure as part
of a global organisational process. Second, apart from
those adopting an economic perspective, many of the
papers on the subject propose models that lack theoretical
foundations.
The literature from innovation also describes new forms
of organisation that go beyond the hierarchical structure
and take various names such as networking [26], N-Form
[27], molecular [28] and cellular [29]. It recognises that
operations and projects coexist [30] thus adding to the complexity of their dynamics. It is essential to go back to a
basic understanding of the nature of an organisation and
address the new issues related to strategic alignment, programme and portfolio management and project-oriented
or project-based organisations. By doing so, new foundations will emerge.
2.4. Description of the project management oce
Treatment of the PMO is relatively plentiful in the professional literature, but relatively absent in the scientic literature [7,13,3134]. These texts deal principally with three
themes: the justication of the PMOs existence, its roles
and functions, and steps for its implementation.
Though the PMOs origin dates back to the 1950s [35], it
is not before the 1990s that this concept really took shape

M. Aubry et al. / International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 328336

and expanded into the forms we see today [40]. The emergence of and the need for the PMO is associated with the
increasing number and complexity of projects throughout
the business world which led to a certain form of centralization [36]. However, the reality of PMOs is highly divergent. Nearly 75 unique functions have been identied [37],
some traditional some innovative [34]. A recent empirical
study based on the description and analysis of 500 PMOs
documents this extreme variety but fails to nd systematic
patterns or explanations [38].
In this context, we adopt the denition proposed by
PMI [17]: An organisational body or entity assigned various responsibilities related to the centralized and coordinated management of those projects under its domain.
The responsibilities of the PMO can range from providing
project management support functions to actually being
responsible for the direct management of a project.
This denition is rather broad but it is essential that it
cover all the realities found empirically. PMOs have many
facets and observation shows great heterogeneity among
them. Choices are made among several congurations of
structure. Which functions? Where in the organisation?
With what level of authority? [9,38] Current theoretical
foundations for the PMO do not answer these questions.
2.5. Organisational performance
Performance is nearly always the ultimate dependent
variable in the literature on organisations in general and
on the subject of project management in particular. The
problem is to establish a reliable relationship between performance and other variables at a comparable level of analysis. It is essential to clarify the level of analysis.
The strategic alignment literature introduces the concept
of cascading levels of analysis of performance from the corporate down through to the portfolio and programme levels,
and nally to the project level [11,12]. Project performance is
sometimes evaluated using success criteria. Project success is
measured by the business objectives, while the project management success is evaluated instead with traditional criteria
such as respect of costs, schedule and quality [39].
Performance has its origin in the old French parfournir
and is dened today as what is accomplished. The etymology brings us straight to the point, what indeed is
accomplished by project management and how should we
evaluate it?
There are two types of literature on the subject: economic and pragmatic. In the rst type, researchers try to
demonstrate the direct economic contribution of project
management to the bottom line [40,41]. Interestingly, none
of these researchers has been able to convincingly demonstrate the economic value of investment in project management. Results of the research by Ibbs et al. [41] are not
statistically signicant [42]. The clear demonstration of
the direct inuence of project management on ROI is not
easily accomplished. In addition, the reduction of project
management value exclusively to nancial indicators

331

underestimates major contributions that project management brings to organisational success, for example, innovation [43], process [44], and people [45]. Furthermore, the
multifaceted concept of project success is acknowledged
by several authors [12,46].
The second type of literature is pragmatic. It focuses on
the global proposals issued by consultants aimed at indicating the way to succeed in the implementation and management of the PMO [7,13,31]. Titles sometimes foster hope
for rapid economic results linked to the PMO, Advanced
Project Portfolio Management and the PMO, Multiplying
ROI at Warp Speed [31]. And yet it still seems dicult
to demonstrate the value of the PMO.
The balanced scorecard approach has been proposed to
assess project management performance [47,48]. It has the
advantage over the traditional economic vision of project
performance of encompassing four complementary perspectives. However, the foundations of this approach rest
on ROI. It structures the creation of value hierarchically
with nancial value at the top [49,50].
Several authors have encompassed the problem of performance in an approach that seeks to identify success factors. Cooke-Davies proposes a systematization of real
success factors derived largely from empirical data
[15,39]. He suggests a set of twelve factors related to the
three distinct ways of looking at performance: project management success (time, cost, quality, etc.), project success
(benets), and corporate success (processes and decisions
to translate strategy into programs and projects). Furthermore, Cooke-Davies [15] argues these three groups are intimately linked; corporate project and programme practices
create the context for individual project and programme
practices. While success factors allow us to understand
the a priori conditions in organisational project management, they do not allow us to appreciate concrete results,
in other words, performance.
There is no consensus on the way to assess the value of
performance in project management. The nancial
approach alone cannot give a correct measure of the value
of project management for the organisation. Project success is a vague approximation and, as such, a rather imperfect system for measuring results. New approaches are
needed in order to extricate ourselves from what looks like
a dead-end. Project management is a multidisciplinary eld
leading to a variety of evaluation criteria.
From the review of the literature in this section it
appears that there is a need to renew the formalization of
our understanding of organisational project management.
The traditional positivist approach and the concentration
of research on project management tools and practices take
us down a path from which we must veer. In addition, the
few promising theoretical initiatives that can be found on
the subject must be integrated into a more holistic view
of the organisation. New paths for gaining information
and understanding must be opened up from other theoretical elds. This is the object of our conceptual framework
that will be discussed in the next section.

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3. The denition of organisational project management

Innovation is essential to the survival of organisations
[51]. This means that the largest part of their strategy is
to develop new products, new services or new processes
[52]. Projects are more and more important in the quest
to reach ambitious strategic objectives [11]. Organisational
structures that were designed for regular operations are
unable to deliver project results in this turbulent context
[6,30]. In response to these unprecedented demands, new
forms of organisation emerged during the 1990s, among
them the project-based organisation [53]. The dynamic processes of organising/strategising that can be found in the
new forms of organisation are those encountered in project-oriented organisational forms [53]. A new order of
issues is thus emerging, namely organisational project
management.
3.1. Proposition for a denition
From what has been said in the review of literature,
none of the preceding themes provides a global approach
to the nature of organisational project management comparable to the scope of the existing literature on organisational management. If it is true that project management is
present at all levels of the organisation, then the denition
of organisational project management should reect this
fact. We therefore propose the following denition:
Organisational project management is a new sphere of
management where dynamic structures in the rm are
articulated as means to implement corporate objectives
through projects in order to maximize value.
This denition can be explored in four parts. First,
organisational project management is a new sphere of management. It oers the opportunity to renew research
approaches by opening the door to organisational theory
and getting away from traditional research where project
management is treated in a positivist approach [54]. As
such, we propose that project management fully integrate
the eld of management as has been suggested recently
[55]. To succeed in this journey, it is essential to consider
issues related to project management as management
issues. Until very recently, organisations where looking to
deliver projects more eciently and the concept of project-based organisation was sucient to address this issue.
Now, organisations have to go further and take into
account structures, accountability and power to organise
the management of their projects. Organisational project
management refers to management decisions in complex
environments where multiple programmes and portfolios
are realised in parallel along with operational activities.
Second, organisational project management refers to
dynamic structures in the rm that are articulated. This is
based on the assumption that structures are constantly
questioned and modied over time to adapt to the strategy
in a changing environment. Strategising/structuring depict

the dynamic relationship between strategy and structure

[53]. These dynamic structures are considered at the level
of the rm. The articulation refers to the assembly of multiple mobile structural entities such as PMO, portfolio and
programme management, project governance board, etc.
Together these entities form a complex web of relationships
working in a network-like form invisible on the organisation chart.
Third, dynamic structures are seen as means to implement corporate objectives through projects. The sphere of
organisational project management does not replace the
global organisational management. It rather represents
structures as a set of means anchored at the corporate level.
Implementation refers to the actions that are undertaken to
attain the corporate objectives. These actions are projects
that are aligned with the corporate strategy resulting in
implementing the right project, in other words being eective. The denition is inclusive as it covers all projects that
are realised in the rm, strategic and non-strategic.
Fourth, organisational project management delivers
value for the organisation. It addresses the issue of measure
of this value, should it be quantitative or qualitative or
both. The concept of value allows for multiple conceptualisations of project and organisational performance.
Globally, the denition of organisational project management brings the project management eld to be part
of big science. It recognises a certain convergence between
management and organisation theories and organisational
project management.
3.2. Boundaries of organisational project management
Other concepts from the project management literature
partially cover the denition of organisational project management but none oers the opportunity to position it as a
sphere of management. Organisational project management has been previously looked at in the context of assessing maturity of organisation [56] and developing project
management capability [57]. Both approaches aim at identifying capabilities related to project management at the
organisational level. While these are important contributions to the project management eld our denition
extends the concept to the management eld and not only
to issues of capability.
The concept of Project Business has emerged recently
and is dene as: the part of business that relates directly
or indirectly to projects, with a purpose to achieve objectives of a rm or several rms. [58]. Organisational project
management refers to the sphere of management and not a
part of the organisation itself; it is the management of it.
Organisational project management does not call to
transform organisations in adopting a management strategy by projects as in the concept of enterprise project
management [23,33] or project-based organisation [5]. It
recognises rather that structures are changing as strategy
does and the important thing is that they are linked
together in a dynamic strategising/structuring process.

M. Aubry et al. / International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 328336

Organisational project management is distinct from project governance dened as a set of formal principles, structures and processes for the undertaking and management
of projects [59]. Project governance in this sense is a set
of means (as organisational project management) but the
accent is placed on the respect of governance rules that
are essential in project management. But, it takes only a
partial view of organisational project management missing
the dynamics of strategising/structuring and the projects
alignment with the corporate objectives.
It also takes a dierent perspective from the one of looking at the synergy between multiple projects such as portfolio [18,19], platform [60] or trajectory management [1].
Synergy adds value and in that sense all multi-project
approaches are taken in consideration in the organisational
project management. It participates to the decisions that
have to be made in structuring project management
entities.
So this denition is about management of organisation
and more precisely about organising. Structures are the
result of a dynamic strategising/structuring process [53].
The double-sided strategising/structuring indicates that a
tight relation exists between the two elements. But it should
not be interpreted to mean that organisational project
management is concerned with strategic projects only.
Almost all rms realised non-strategic projects such as
compulsory projects and maintenance.
Organisational project management is therefore a unique
and novel approach that may lead to a better integration of
the project management within the global management of
organisations. It may contribute to the recognition of project
management in the global management literature. The next
section describes the conceptual framework.
4. Conceptual framework
Organisational project management has been dened
and the related concepts such as strategic alignment, project-based organisation, and PMO have been described.
We have explained our global approach of focusing on
the PMO. We are now looking for a theoretical framework
that has the potential to embrace the complexity and richness of the subject. We have adopted a constructivist ontology where the PMO is a dynamic constructed entity. Three
theoretical elds have been mobilized to contribute to the
understanding of the PMO: social innovation system, network theory and organisational performance (see Fig. 1).
4.1. Social innovation system
We have said earlier that innovation plays an important
role in the emergence of multi-project environments. Over
the last two decades innovation theorists have taken the
social system dimension of innovation into consideration
[61]. Organisations do not exist in a vacuum. They are part
of a large number of complex interrelated systems such as
the social system, the economic system, etc. in which

333

Fig. 1. Organisational project management: a conceptual framework.

history plays a dynamic role. The PMO is seen here as a

constructed entity that is part of a social innovation system. Taking this approach will give a completely new
vision of the PMO. Instead of having an ad hoc picture
we will follow the evolution of this entity along with the
evolution of its mother organisation. Our study examines
innovation systems from three complementary perspectives: the historical perspective, the co-evolutionary perspective, and the perspective of a typology of innovation.
The historical context is taken into account at two levels
of analysis: the organisation and the PMO. The history of
the organisation provides information about its origin, its
evolution in its specic economic sector, and the evolution
of its organisational structure. The history of the PMO
brings information on project management practices and
internal PMO structures. Globally, the history informs us
on how an organisation has adapted itself to changes in
the business environment.
Telling the PMOs history is not enough to bring a comprehensive understanding for why changes occur. We have
to look more specically at the events that delimitate periods. Evolutionary theory would help understand the evolution of one entity, the PMO, while a co-evolutionary
perspective helps us understand the PMOs evolution within
the social system of an organisation [62]. This perspective
allows us to interconnect events that happen at dierent
levels in the organisation. Events are classied into three
types: technological, rule making, and rule-following [62].
Events occur and co-evolve over time to facilitate or to
constrain the development and commercialization of an
innovation that could be radical or incremental. In the
PMO context, events are related to its legitimacy to make
rules (methodology, standards, etc.) and having others to
follow them. Rule-making can give rise to situations of tension between the PMO and other functional units, or even
between the PMO and the project and programme managers. The issue is to determine who will impose the rules of
the game. Rule-following events conrm process standardization. Indeed, if rules are followed and accepted, they
indicate a relative stability until a new event shatters them.
This process continues over and over again with the alternation between initiation, expansion, and stabilization
periods.

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M. Aubry et al. / International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 328336

The third perspective relates to the type of innovation

undertaken in organisation. Classifying innovations under
scope is based on Schumpeters proposal (1934, cited in
[63]) and includes ve areas: product, process, market,
input, and organisation. However, this rst classication
must be completed with information on the source of innovation: internal to the organisation or external [64].
Typologies of projects based upon innovation are
included in our conceptual framework in order to provide
a more rigorous analysis of the PMO. In addition, the concept of a social system of innovation inuences choices in
the methodological strategy that more accurately takes into
account the history of the organisation and the PMO. This
strategy results in a longitudinal study of the evolution of
dynamic structures as suggested by our denition of organisational project management. Lets turn now to the second
key concept, the PMO.
4.2. The place of the project management oce in the
conceptual framework
The aim of the empirical research currently underway is
to better understand the PMO and its contribution to the
organisational performance. We have already situated the
PMO within the social innovation system without looking
at the PMO itself. This section intends to provide a theoretical framework to describe the PMO. The PMO is treated
here as a concept that enables us to break down barriers
and boundaries existing in the actual perception of the reality of the PMO, and to propose new avenues for looking at
this component within organisational project management.
Conceptually speaking, the PMO is one of the dynamic
structures within organisational project management. We
have seen earlier that current literature oers only few
models to describe the reality of PMOs while empirical
research shows variation that cannot be easily explained
by variables such as geographical region or industry type
[38]. We suggest taking the problem on the inverse way:
admit variety and try to understand it.
To better understand the PMO, we draw on two theoretical elds in the literature related to innovation; both of
these are based on the concept of a network. The rst
one is from Hagstrom and Hedlund [30] and proposes a
three-dimensional framework to understand the structure:
position, knowledge, and action. This framework formalizes
the multi-dimensional typology of the PMO and has the
potential to capture the dynamic and non-hierarchical
way in which the PMO works. Position refers to the structural organisation of people and units in terms of formal
status, situation, and authority. Knowledge includes knowledge per se and competencies; both are distributed along
networks in the organisation like islands of an archipelago.
Actions refer to the way in which activities are accomplished. Are they accomplished in a hierarchical way or
in a team? Roles and functions of the PMO are subject
to various congurations established in order to ensure
the transmission of knowledge and the accomplishment

of goals and actions. This part of the framework sheds light

on the structural side of the PMO by breaking down the
complexity into three dimensions. But the PMO creates
relations among a great number of actors (some nonhuman) involved in the management of projects.
The second eld of theory brings this relationship aspect
to the forefront with the actor network theory (ANT) [65].
In this perspective, the PMO is a translation center where
information from projects originates from dierent sources
and is then integrated in intermediate deliverables to be disseminated at dierent levels within the organisation. These
activities of translation give rise to debates between actors,
and result in successively strengthening some networks to
the detriment of others. This theory provides the opportunity to identify dierent actor networks and their purpose
in the existence of the PMO. ANT is now easier to use as
a methodology has been formalized in 10 steps around
the translation issue [66].
Structural dimensions and the ANT are two sides of the
same coin; they are tightly interwoven with one complementing the other. Together they provide new insight for
understanding the key concept of the PMO. The next key
concept is organisational performance, which we will now
develop.
4.3. Organisational contribution of the PMO
We have seen that the question of performance is of
great importance in the PMO professional literature. In a
positivist approach, performance is a dependant variable
resulting form the PMO structural choice [13]. It is based
on the assumption that one best PMO structure exists
and it leads to best results that can be assessed with ROI.
In a constructivist approach, the PMO and its organisational contribution are built up together during their evolution. We have chosen to include the organisational
contribution of the PMO as a concept describing the
PMO rather than considering it as a pure dependent
variable.
The conceptualization of the organisation contribution
in our conceptual framework is based on a competing values approach. In this approach, organisational contribution is seen as a subjective construct rooted in values and
preferences of stakeholders [53,67,68]. The model includes
four representations intended to provide an overall view
of organisational project management performance. Therational goals representation integrates economic value to
measure prot, project management eciency, and return
on investment. The open system representation contains
variables that measure growth and consider project benets. The human relations representation introduces considerations of human resource development, cohesion, and
morale that are almost invisible in corporate evaluation.
The internal process representation captures the measures
related to corporate processes linked to project management such as programme and portfolio processes and
knowledge management processes. This approach looks

M. Aubry et al. / International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 328336

directly at the performance aspect instead of approximating it with success factors.

The model of competing values is appropriate to describe
the contribution of the PMO as it participates to multiple
networks and is in contact with projects, programs, portfolios, corporate strategy, and many functional units. It is ideally placed to encompass multiple perspectives on
organisation contribution. This model captures internal paradoxes and sheds light on competing values around PMOs.
It makes it possible to highlight the predominant value
ascribed to each stakeholder within the PMO network
throughout the dierent periods of its evolution.
Is there an underlying pattern to this coevolution? The
conceptual framework using these three basic concepts
oers the potential to discover it and, in addition, to construct a theory for understanding the PMO and its contribution to organisational performance.
5. Conclusion
This paper provides a theoretical contribution that seeks
to renew the project management research eld. It aims at
partially lling the missing link between the complexity of
the reality in organisational project management and the
current state of theoretical foundations on this led. It
adopts a clear constructivist approach in an area where literature is mostly positivist and limited to professional
issues. We have rst dened the organisational project
management concept of which the PMO is part. Organisational project management opens the way for project management to become a sphere within the elds of
management and organisation theory. We then propose a
conceptual framework that mobilizes dierent organisational and innovation theories in order to bring fresh concepts that mirror the complexity of organisations where
projects are an important structuring component.
Both researchers and professionals should benet from
this research, which may provide a stronger basis for
understanding the complex phenomena of structuring/
organising in large organisations. The framework is currently being used and tested in an empirical study aimed
at understanding the PMO and its contributions to organisational performance.
Acknowledgements
Authors wish to thank reviewers for their comments
that have allowed us to push our reection on the PMO
and Organisational project management further. This research is partly funded by the Project Management Institute Research Department.
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