According to the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition), a Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.
The responsibilities of a PMO can range from providing project management support functions to actually being responsible for the direct management of one or more projects. There are three primary types of PMO structures:
Supportive: Provide a consultative role to projects by supplying templates, best practices, training, and access to information and lessons learned from other projects. This type of PMO serves as a project repository and has a low level of control.
Controlling: Provide support and require compliance through various means. Compliance may involve adopting project management frameworks or methodologies, using specific templates, forms, and tools, or conformance to governance. This type of PMO has a moderate level of control.
Directive: Take control of the projects by directly managing the projects. Project managers are assigned by and report to the PMO. This type of PMO has a high level of control.
Analysis of Distractors:
A (Project Management Information System - PMIS): This refers to the tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and disseminate the outputs of project management processes. It is a set of software/automated tools (like scheduling software or a document repository), not an organizational structure.
B (Project Management System): This is the aggregation of the processes, tools, techniques, methodologies, and resources used to manage a project. It is the " how-to " framework rather than the " who " (the organizational entity).
D (Project Management Knowledge Area): This is a technical term for a group of processes related to a specific topic in project management (e.g., Scope, Cost, Risk). It is a classification of knowledge, not a structural body within a company.
