The 'Shifty' Role of the Project Manager

Michelle Stronach has over 20 years of experience in the project management field, with experience creating successful PMOs and implementing project, portfolio management and IT governance frameworks. Michelle truly appreciates the value of feedback and welcomes comments on her articles. https://twitter.com/mlstronach

  Business Case   Governance   PMO   Strategy  

Is the role of the project manager evolving, or is it just revolving? Large organizations dealing with challenging economic conditions for the past decade or trying to keep up with the rapid change invoked by technology progression have had to re-think the way support infrastructure sustains the business. Turning to various flavors of shared services models, the role of the project manager has had to take on several different faces within the organization.

The Decline of the All-Purpose Project Manager
Not all that long ago, technology supported the business by performing calculations and analysis, tracking transactional activities and automating certain types of work; itwas one of three favorite communication methods (phone, mail and email). Smartphones and other mobile devices have taken the idea of personal computing to a whole new level. Now, technology impacts every aspect of our lives and our jobs. Technology has become the main communication method, with a rapidly growing variety of channels: email, messaging, social media and collaboration. Technology now touches every part of the organization, and while providing value, it also provides significant overhead.

Technology adoption has exploded so fast in the past decade that it has outpaced the organization's ability to appropriately organize and staff itself. Technology capability silos …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.