A project management office (PMO) is usually created to solve a specific problem: generally, the IT organization’s inability to deliver IT projects on time, on budget and in scope. Project managers may “live” in the PMO, or in different IT units, such as in application development or in the business.

Almost all PMOs start at this initial project management stage before they can evolve to the program management or portfolio management stages.

The scope of work changes from tactical to strategic, while the scope of initiatives broadens from IT-intensive projects to enterprise-wide business and IT initiatives. Once the PMO has earned credibility with the business, it usually receives requests to help manage business projects.