Set up the Project Office

Set up the Project Office

The Project Office is the physical premise where Project Administration staff (e.g. the Project Manager and support staff) reside. The Project Office also contains the communications infrastructure and information technologies required to support the project. 

Every project team relies on the tools, guidance and processes provided by the Project Office to undertake its project tasks quickly and easily. So setting up and running an efficient Project Office environment is critical to the success of the project. The Project Manager also depends on the Project Office team to provide the information required to monitor and control the project effectively. 

Project Offices can come with many different names: Project Management Office, Project Support Office, Program Office, Program Support Office, Program Management Office, Strategic Project Office, Strategic Program Office, and more. Large organizations, which run multiple projects simultaneously, often even have a permanent Project Office function within the business. Regardless of the name, organization and number of projects undertaken, the core responsibilities of the Project Office environment (as described below) are usually the same. 

So what exactly is contained in a Project Office? The Project Office contains all the administrative staff (usually including the Project Manager, Project Office Manager, Quality Manager and Procurement Manager) as well as the tools, office equipment, communications equipment, documentation of project processes and standards required to support the project throughout its lifecycle.

While it's common for the entire project team to be based in a single Project Office environment, in this modern age, project teams are often dispersed throughout the world. In this case, a "virtual" Project Office is formed, which relies heavily on technologies such as email, web access, remote dial-up software, mobile phones, laptops and hand-held devices to facilitate communication among members of the project teams. The following steps define the procedures involved in setting up a Project Office from scratch.

The first step taken when creating a new Project Office environment (whether it's a physical or virtual environment) is to define the role of the Project Office function. You need to identify the purpose of the Project Office, the reasons why it must be established, the support services offered to project staff and the timeframes for establishing it. Most importantly, you need to define the responsibilities of the Project Office in detail. To help you to do this quickly and efficiently, we have listed the typical responsibilities of a Project Office environment below: