‘Fractional’ is a bit of a management buzzword at the moment, but if you’re setting up a small Project Management Office, it could be a model worth looking at.
This article is for you if you’re evaluating PMO resourcing options, in the role of a business owner, operations lead, or project manager asked to advise on PMO set up. We’re not going to talk about governance structures (centralized/decentralized/federated – I have a different article on that), and a fractional model pairs with whatever governance or operating model you choose.
What a fractional PMO actually is
Let’s make sure we are talking about the same thing.
A fractional PMO is part-time, shared, or outsourced PMO support. It could be one experienced person working a few days a week, or a consultant/agency providing PMO-as-a-service. It could be a freelance PMO consultant. It fits with the concept of the gig economy – contractors taking on the roles they want, meeting the needs of companies who want certain skills without having to pay for an expensive, full-time senior resource. And the people filling fractional roles aren’t looking for full-time employment.
A fractional PMO is still a deliberate, resourced function, just not a full-time in-house team, which is great if you don’t need a lot of PMO functionality for the size and scale of your projects.
“A Fractional PMO Lead steps into a complex environment mid-flight and creates traction where ambiguity and delay are doing the most damage,” says Christina Ewoldt, Owner & Principal Consultant, PM Oh! Services. “My role is less about administration and more about judgment: separating what is genuinely at risk from what merely looks messy, then giving leaders the clarity to make confident decisions without burying them in detail.”
You could also put a fractional PMO in place to support a single, large-scale project or program – one that needs a more supportive PMO structure that you can’t provide with your existing resources.
Fractional PMO vs full-time PMO at a glance
Comparing fractional to full-time won’t take you long. Neither approach is better. They suit different situations, and I’ll talk about those in a bit more detail later in the article.
| Aspect | Fractional PMO | Full-time PMO |
| Resourcing | Part-time, shared, or outsourced support | Dedicated, full-time employees or in-house team |
| Cost | Lower cost, budget-friendly | Higher cost — salaries, tools and overheads |
| Scalability | Flexible, scales with demand | Needs formal expansion or restructuring to scale |
| Speed of setup | Quick to establish | Slower — hiring and process design take time |
| Focus | Tactical: dashboards, templates, quick wins | Strategic: portfolio management, standards, benefits |
| Tooling | Lightweight tools (spreadsheets, Trello, ClickUp). | Enterprise platforms (e.g. Planview, Clarity, MS Project) |
| Governance model | Light-touch, informal, often advisory | Structured, with compliance and oversight duties |
| Typical use case | Small/mid-sized organizations, early-stage transformation | Large enterprises, high-maturity delivery environments |
| Longevity | Often transitional or project-specific | Long-term business function |
| Leadership | Ops manager, consultant or fractional PMO lead | PMO director or portfolio manager |
Having said that, fractional does not automatically equal “PMO lite”. You can have a heavy-weight fractional PMO leader if that’s what you need, who uses your own project portfolio management software. Fractional roles are part-time (literally, someone taking a fraction of a full-time role), so if you want them to be full, strategic, enterprise, structured and all that, you can specify it. I’m sure you will find a consultant or contractor who will be happy to take that on!
When a fractional PMO makes sense
So when is it worth exploring a fractional individual or team?
Perhaps you are:
- Running your first few multi-project initiatives and testing whether formal PMO support is worth the investment
- Constrained on budget but in a position where a senior, experienced part-time resource would be better than a junior full-time hire
- In a transitional period e.g. standing up governance ahead of a planned full-time hire, or covering a gap
- Looking for someone who can come in and set up a PMO and do system implementation for your chosen tools and processes
- Needing a bit of extra help for process improvement, from someone who has been there, done that, got the T-shirt
- Not able to secure support for a full PMO so you need someone who comes with all the project governance support tools and project reporting tools as well as their expertise.
All those scenarios would work fine for a fractional PMO, and you can probably think of others too.
“Organizations get seasoned PMO capability precisely when they need it, without waiting through a long hiring cycle or carrying a permanent role before one is warranted,” says Christina. “I work as an extension of the team, not an outside observer, leaving behind clearer ways of working and a team better equipped to sustain the progress.”
Another optional for fractional staffing is to have someone in a role as a virtual assistant for project managers – a PMO support role or PMO analyst job could easily be filled by someone virtually in many teams.
Staffing the PMO with fractional project managers
Another staffing option is to hire part-time project managers, or fractional project managers who work a few days a week, or lead a particular project for you. How is this different to contract project managers? It’s not really, although ‘fractional’ tends to mean part-time hours so your resource might juggle two roles during their week, and be on an open-ended contract. Contract PMs could be full-time for a fixed period.
Outsourcing project management to a PM-as-a-service company is also an option. There are firms specializing in providing project management services for small businesses, offering project delivery support.
Remote project management support might work depending on the types of project you want them to get involved with, or you might need someone who can be in the office.
When a full-time PMO makes sense
I’ve not worked as a fractional PMO leader, but I have been part of a full-time PMO. These work well when there are:
- Large or complex portfolios where the coordination workload alone is a full-time job
- Regulatory, compliance or audit requirements that need consistent, embedded oversight
- Lots of project managers who require support through mentoring, coaching or with facilitating meetings
- Requirements for deep institutional knowledge that’s hard to maintain with rotating or part-time support.
My article on how to structure and staff a PMO has other considerations.
The hybrid path: fractional to full-time
As with so many things in project management, you don’t need to firmly be down on one side or the other. You can tailor ways of working to fit what you need in your organization, for wherever you are on your PMO set up journey.
For example, you could start off with fractional to show the value of having a PMO at all before asking for funding for full-time heads. They could help you set up a PMO playbook or toolkit, plus a specific RACI matrix and project governance checklist, or any other processes you need – with a view to doing themselves out of a job as you take those resources and move into a permanent model.
If you have a fractional resource who is constantly at capacity (or you are a fractional PMO leader struggling to stay on top of things), that could be a sign that the business is scaling faster than the part-time model can support. If governance decisions are being delayed by availability, you might need to extend the team.
‘Fractional’ doesn’t have to mean one person working part-time (although it often is). If you outsource the PMO-as-a-service, you could ask the company to scale up and bring more support in.
What to look for if you’re bringing in fractional PMO support
So, convinced about the idea of testing out fractional PMO support?
Look for someone:
- Who has references they don’t mind you contacting.
- With a track record in your industry
- Who has worked in organizations of a similar size.
Before you reach out to a contractor or service provider, get your own requirement straight. Do you need them to design the governance, or just operate what you already have. Is it reporting support or strategic? What part of your target operating model or service catalogue are they going to be responsible for, if you have one? Or do they need to build that for you for future-proofing?
Do you want the person to be on site in your office, or are they working remotely? How many hours do you expect? I’ve seen fractional PMO jobs advertised as 20 hours or 4-days a week, so don’t assume you can get away with having someone for a morning a week and expect to get a lot of work done!
Whatever you decide on, they will have to talk to other people in the organization, so you’ll want them to have good stakeholder engagement skills.
Cost considerations
According to Indeed*, the average PMO salary is £50,238 for a full-time role. A PMO Director could cost you £80-90k + on costs, plus the cost of enterprise tools and the team around them. Full time roles carry the cost of training, pensions, healthcare and all the extras for the management overhead, so that may make a fractional or outsourced function cheaper to run.
You’ll want to make sure there is budget available for permanent or contract, full-time or part-time roles. There isn’t reliable data available on fractional salaries that I could find, but expect to pay at least contractor salaries for experienced professionals (and part of the cost benefit analysis is having experienced professionals).
There are pros and cons for fractional staffing models, and you’ll have to decide what you think is going to be the best fit for your PMO now, and in the future. I think there are a lot of advantages to having a Goldilocks PMO – one that is the right size for the work you are doing and the commitment you want to make. The only thing left to do now is to work out whether the model is right for you.
*Indeed, accessed 23 September 2026.
