Investigating Functions and Capabilities of Australian Project Portfolio Management Offices

Abstract

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) consists of the practices that allow organisations to coordinate and manage their portfolios to achieve organisational goals and objectives. The functions of Project Portfolio Management Offices (PPMOs) not only support implementation of organisational strategic management and investment decisions but also ensure that organisational benefits are realised and successfully delivered by projects and programs. Nevertheless, PPMO functions and practices remain under-researched. The aim of this study is to investigate functions and capacities of PPMOs and to report their current states from Australian perspectives. Fifty-two PPMO functions were crossexamined against nine capabilities to determine the status of PPMO functions performed to achieve Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Sixty-four PPM professionals from 11 Australian sectors participated in the questionnaire survey conducted in this research. Statistical analysis was carried out to deliver the research results. The findings show diverse combinations of PPMO functions performed in differing Australian sectors.