Several organizations have implemented project management offices (PMOs) in their structures. Thus, the objective of this article is to unveil the actual perceptions of project management professionals about project management offices. The study of these perceptions lays on the application of the social representation theory. As such, this work identified, via the word evoking method associated with the theory of social representation, the perceptions of 716 project managers with respect to the project management office concept. Through the analysis of these perceptions, the study demonstrated that the social representation of project management offices according to project managers' perceptions is very similar to the role of the project management office as stated by its guidelines, which establishes an alignment between theory and practice regarding the role of project management offices in Brazil. However, this paper also indicates a high diversity of expressions associated with the PMO's social representation, which might indicate a lack of consensus on the actual role of this organizational structure.
Project management office; PMO; Social representation theory; Word evoking; Project management
