Inquiry Spotlight: The PMO, Q4 2008

Program management offices (PMOs) continue to evolve, taking on increasing responsibilities and widening their scope. To understand the nature of this evolution within Forrester clients, we sifted through the more than 20,000 client inquiries we got from January through October 2008, looking for questions using the phrases "PMO," "program management office," or "project management office." Needless to say, there has been keen interest in the subject — 159 inquiries on the subject in that 10-month period. While the inquiries fall into a broad set of topics, the majority of them sort into three areas: 1) what are the trends around project portfolio management (PPM) tools? 2) what are the trends around the role of PMOs? and 3) how does one measure the value proposition and performance of a PMO?