Administrator or Manager: Which One Are You?

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

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Before exploring the distinctions between a project manager and a project administrator, it is clear that both roles are essential and integral to the success of a project. Often on small projects (ones with under 10 team members, for instance) the PM and administrator role are combined. The rub comes when project managers spend more time administering projects than managing then. Even worse is when the PM, in trying to keep the project plan properly updated, relegates themselves to little more than a project tracker--someone who spends all their time chasing project team members for updates, posting updates to the plan and running status reports.

In “5 Things Project Management is Not”, Joelle Godfrey, PMP ends her list with the following item:

“Just schedule tracking
Tracking the schedule is absolutely necessary to successfully delivering the project, but it’s just a part of being successful. The schedule is just an indicator of everything else that should be happening: communication, risk management, stakeholder management, etc.”

So let’s clear the air and define the differences between what project managers and project administrators do. As always, a good place to start is with some simple definitions. In his posts at http://www.projectsmart.co.uk, Duncan Haughey, PMP provides a clear and concise definition on the role of…

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