There are many different names and acronyms used to describe a project management office. This can be very confusing - even to experienced professionals. This presentation provides the definition for 5 of the popular acronyms.

1. Guide to Project Management Office Accronyms
Author: PM Majik
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

2. Contents
1.0 Purpose of this presentation
2.0 PSO
3.0 PMO
4.0 PgMO
5.0 PPMO
6.0 EPMO
7.0 Summary
8.0 PMO resources
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

3. 1.0 Purpose of this presentation
The purpose of this presentation is to provide definitions of the popular acronyms used
for Project Management Office’s
Popular Acronyms
1. PSO
2. PMO
3. PgMO
4. PPMO
5. EPMO
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

4. 2.0 PSO
Acronym – PSO
What it stands for – Project Support Office
Description – Some organisations use this term as the service provided is more
administration support as opposed to helping to manage a project.
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

5. 3.0 PMO
Acronym – PMO
What it stands for – Project Management Office
Description – Supporting the project to deliver. The level of management and
support will vary depending on maturity of PMO (and organisation). You can
visit the following blog posts covering the different types of PMO.
Administrative / Report Clearing
Hybrid PMO
Managerial / Pro-active PMO
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

6. 4.0 PgMO
Acronym – PgMO
What it stands for – Programme Management Office
Description – Typically will have oversight manage a number of projects that
form a programme. This may mean that the PMO’s will report into the PgMO.
Just to confuse matters, it has been increasingly common for PMO to be used
for both project and programme.
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

7. 5.0 PPMO
Acronym – PPMO
What it stands for – Project Portfolio Management Office
Description – This will be building a view of the projects programmes in a
defined portfolio. While they can be used to manage delivery, most
organisations use them to make decisions on what should be executed and
when.
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

8. 6.0 EPMO
Acronym – EPMO
What it stands for – Enterprise Project / Programme Management Office
Description – This will usually be the overall PMO owning standards, strategy,
direction, etc. It will link to the PMO network to ensure that all projects are aligned to
strategy and following defined standards. Very popular for organisations who want
their strategies to be converted into change programmes and executed.
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com

9. 7.0 Summary
The diagram below summarises the different types of PMO. While it is easy to
see that the PSO provides the lowest "value add", it is not so simple to as
saying an EPMO provide the most value. Each offers a different type of service
so, a different value.
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com
Copyright www.pmmajik.com

10. 8.0 PMO resources
If you want more information, visit www.pmmajik.com where you will find lots of project
and PMO resources including the FREE guide, 7 Steps to Set-Up a PMO.
Visit http://www.pmmajik.com/set-pmo/
PM Majik Website
On the PM Majik website you will find over 100 articles that contain practical and
pragmatic tips and insights for designing, mobilising and managing a PMO. New
articles are added weekly. Topic requests are encouraged from the community.
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.pmmajik.com