Common attributes influencing PMO practices in UAE Construction Industry

Abstract

This paper explores the attributes influencing the Project Management Office (PMO) exercise in the UAE construction industry. A qualitative mode of data collection was used to record the perception of the experienced practitioners involved in construction works was collected with the help of a structured questionnaire form. A questionnaire form was devised based on the 30 common attributes influencing the PMO identified from the literature review. The attributes were classified into three categories: resource management containing 12 attributes, project management having ten attributes, and organizational culture containing eight attributes. The relevancy of these attributes with the construction industry of UAE was assessed based on a 5-point Likert scale. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that 28 of the 30 investigated attributes are relevant to the construction industry of UAE. The attribute Implementation period and plan challenge in the category resource management and Reports, data entry, and dashboards challenge in project management are found irrelevant. Besides these, the practitioners highlighted that all the performance indicators used for investigation, i.e. Objectives of implementation, Goal/Aim of implementation and Key performance indicators (KPIs) are relevant for PMO and should be emphasized for achieving successful projects. These findings point out that the attributes should be considered proactively for observing the benefits of PMO in the construction industry of UAE.