ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 6 No 6 S2 November 2015 325 Determining the Role of Project Management Office in the Success of Project-Based Organizations Sarmad Kiani a Vahidreza Yousefi b Shahram Nouri c Amir Mohammad Khadivi d Ehsan Mehrabanfar e a. PhD Candidate of Construction and Project Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran; Email: sarmadkiani@ut.ac.ir b. PhD Candidate of Construction and Project Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran; Email: vr.yousefi@ut.ac.ir c*. MSc in Construction and Project Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran d. MBA. Faculty of Management, Science & Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran e. Young Researchers and Elites Club, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Corresponding Author Email: e.mehrabanfar@gmail.com Doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p325 Abstract The present research investigates the role of project management office in project efficiency and thus its success. The statistical population used in this work includes construction corporations active in the Iran construction industry and familiar with the concept of project management office. In such organizations, existence of the project management office and the success of their projects is firstly assessed and the role of the project management office in success of the organization’s project as well as comparison of them with each other is then studied. For this purpose, a quantitative research methodology in the form of survey, along with designing a questionnaire with the help of 5-point Likert scale have been used. The results obtained indicate the existence of a highly strong linear relationship between the existence of project management office and the success of project. The results also show that the more highlighted the features of this office such as methods and standards for project management, project history archive, cooperation between employees/human resources office, project management educating and project administrative support, the more the success aspect of the project will be. Finally, the mentioned inferential statistics and qualitative features lead to generation of practical guidelines for organizations which have or are seeking to establish project management office. Keywords: Project management office (PMO); success of project; project-based organizations Introduction 1. A lot of construction projects fail due to exceeding time and cost, making organizations incur great expense, in addition to wasting national resources. On the other hand, since there is not any certain definition for success and failure, exceeding time and determined budget is considered as failure in all projects, while exceeding time and cost may not be sufficient criteria for assessment of success and failure of projects. With respect to the above, organizations have become oriented towards project management science in order to deal with their project's exceeding of determined time and cost and achieve standard criterion for assessment of success and failure of a project. So, project management science was established so as to realize project objectives. Considering the growth of project management and its processes, it seemed necessary to create an organizational unit responsible for centralizing and coordinating management of the projects underway. So, the idea of establishing the project management office came up in order to reach this purpose and then reach the success of the project. But the question "Do cost spending for project management and establishing project management office have any impact on the success of a project?" has brought up a question for managers. Although the history of project management office returns to the defense industries and construction in the United States between the years 1950 and 1960, it has been brought up over the recent decade. So, it seems necessary to