The Roles of Project Management Offices on Management Execution and Project Success in Saudi Arabia Evidence from KSA 2030 Vision

Abstract

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia unveiled “Saudi Vision 2030” in 2016 to increase economic efficiency and reduce the country's dependence on oil by facilitating the emergence of a robust private sector. In order to translate Saudi vision 2030 into implementation programs, Project Management Offices (PMO) were established to support, enable, monitor, and evaluate these programs. The main objective of this study was to investigate the impact of adopting PMO service on improving project management execution and project success. Based on the research scope, the research sample size was 134 projects managers who utilized the services of PMO in the health sector in Riyadh city and this will be the selection criteria for the research sample respondents. The researcher developed a well-structured electronic questionnaire as a research tool, and distributed it among projects managers in the health sector who have an experience in utilizing the PMO services. Collecting the research data took two weeks. The researcher adopted the quantitative research method, interpretive philosophy and inductive research approach to achieve the study objective. The collected research data was analysed by using SPSS. The results of this study indicated that the (PMO) in KSA provides different services for supporting project managers in the field of project planning, initiation, execution and closing. These services were categorized into six main categories: developing and maintaining PM standards and methods, developing and maintaining project historical archives, assuming project administrative tasks, human resources and staffing assistance, project management consulting and mentoring, and providing and arranging PM training. Each main category includes several useful services for project managers, staff members and higher management teams. More over the results indicated that there is a positive impact for adopting PMO services in improving project management execution and project success. Based on the research findings, the researcher recommend to increase the support and focus in improving (PMO) and increasing its geographical coverage because it will will have a positive impact on the execution and success of the Saudi vision 2030 projects that aim to increase the economic efficiency, reduce the country's dependence on oil and facilitating the emergence of a robust private sector.