The role of the Project Management Office on Information Technology project success

The rate of failed and challenged Information Technology (IT) projects is too high according to the CHAOS Studies by the Standish Group and the literature on project management (Standish Group, 2008). The CHAOS Studies define project success as meeting the triple constraints of scope, time, and cost. Assessing critical success factors is another way of measuring project success (Dai, 2001). A proposed solution for improving the success rate of projects has been implementing a Project Management Office (PMO) which is sometimes referred to as a Program Management Office.The purpose of this study was to gather data to determine if the presence of a PMO improves IT project success based upon the triple constraints and critical success factors. The triple constraints are derived from traditional project success factors critical success factors are additional variables used to measure project success. The study also considered what impact the type of PMO had on IT project success.Data was collected about IT projects including success criteria and the type of PMO services. Having a formal PMO was not found to have a statistically significant impact on IT project success as compared to the other PMO levels. Having dedicated resources in an organization performing PMO functions was found to have a statistically significant impact on IT project success.