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How Delivery Manager's role is different than that of Project Manager in IT company

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Nagewara Rao Jakkuva Senior Project Manager| Persistent Systems Hyderabad, Telangana, India
There are various roles in IT companies viz., Project Manager, Delivery Manager, Portfolio Manager, Service Delivery Manager, Program Manager, PMO etc. I noticed Project Manager and Delivery Manager's roles in JD looks similar. However, they maintain two different positions in IT companies. What exactly the difference between Project Mangers and Delivery Managers in IT industry. I want to understand this difference with respective PMI standard's. Appreciate for sharing your thought process.
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Nagewara -

My experience has been that the specific accountabilities for such roles vary widely by company. In one instance, a DM might focus purely on the internal team's work whereas the PM takes the broader view including the successful adoption & sustainment by a client and in others, it's the opposite.

Kiron
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Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
In my experience the Delivery Manager role has been largely in the IT infrastructure and professional services companies that deploy resources both internally and externally to clients. These resources are used across projects and often more than one project at a time. A Delivery Manager might supply resources to a project. A Project Manager usually wouldn't supply resources to the Delivery Manager. The DM is usually a functional manager, full-time, and internal to the organizational. The PM may be full time, part-time, contracting, internal and/or external to the organization to which the project is being carried out.
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1 reply by Nagewara Rao Jakkuva
May 30, 2018 8:52 AM
Nagewara Rao Jakkuva
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Sante,

Thanks for your insights. In some IT companies, I noticed that DM's are responsible for project management. However, they manage more than one project similar to that of program manager or portfolio manager.

Thanks,
Nagesh.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
I was part of the new roles definition in my actual comapany then I have to work a lot on to understand all this "new vawe" pushed mainly for new enterprise architectures. So, as other mentioned, I will talk about my actual work place instead or writting what I saw in other companies. First of all, let me say that all our transformation was driven by Agile to create "on demmand business" model. Delivery Manager and Project Manager are not the same. Delivery Manager is one of the key roles (obviously depending on the intiative) or subject matter experts to support Project Manager work. Both roles are totally different. We have the Service Delivery Manager role defined and is the same.
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1 reply by Nagewara Rao Jakkuva
May 30, 2018 8:54 AM
Nagewara Rao Jakkuva
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Sergio,

Thanks for your insights. I noticed that some of the IT companies employ DM's for waterfall projects.

Thanks,
Nagesh.
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Nagewara Rao Jakkuva Senior Project Manager| Persistent Systems Hyderabad, Telangana, India
May 30, 2018 7:24 AM
Replying to Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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In my experience the Delivery Manager role has been largely in the IT infrastructure and professional services companies that deploy resources both internally and externally to clients. These resources are used across projects and often more than one project at a time. A Delivery Manager might supply resources to a project. A Project Manager usually wouldn't supply resources to the Delivery Manager. The DM is usually a functional manager, full-time, and internal to the organizational. The PM may be full time, part-time, contracting, internal and/or external to the organization to which the project is being carried out.
Sante,

Thanks for your insights. In some IT companies, I noticed that DM's are responsible for project management. However, they manage more than one project similar to that of program manager or portfolio manager.

Thanks,
Nagesh.
...
1 reply by Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
May 30, 2018 7:31 PM
Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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Yes that is true. Many organizations have their functional managers running projects. Many weak matrix organizations and functional organizations work this way.
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Nagewara Rao Jakkuva Senior Project Manager| Persistent Systems Hyderabad, Telangana, India
May 30, 2018 7:47 AM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
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I was part of the new roles definition in my actual comapany then I have to work a lot on to understand all this "new vawe" pushed mainly for new enterprise architectures. So, as other mentioned, I will talk about my actual work place instead or writting what I saw in other companies. First of all, let me say that all our transformation was driven by Agile to create "on demmand business" model. Delivery Manager and Project Manager are not the same. Delivery Manager is one of the key roles (obviously depending on the intiative) or subject matter experts to support Project Manager work. Both roles are totally different. We have the Service Delivery Manager role defined and is the same.
Sergio,

Thanks for your insights. I noticed that some of the IT companies employ DM's for waterfall projects.

Thanks,
Nagesh.
...
1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
May 30, 2018 9:28 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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DM role is totally indpendent of the method/process or approach you use. For example, we have IT companies that are our infraestructure providers and they have the role defined to support us totally indpendent of the approach we use for an initiative. Delivery is in charge to all related to create and deliver the solution.
avatar
Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
May 30, 2018 8:54 AM
Replying to Nagewara Rao Jakkuva
...
Sergio,

Thanks for your insights. I noticed that some of the IT companies employ DM's for waterfall projects.

Thanks,
Nagesh.
DM role is totally indpendent of the method/process or approach you use. For example, we have IT companies that are our infraestructure providers and they have the role defined to support us totally indpendent of the approach we use for an initiative. Delivery is in charge to all related to create and deliver the solution.
avatar
Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
May 30, 2018 8:52 AM
Replying to Nagewara Rao Jakkuva
...
Sante,

Thanks for your insights. In some IT companies, I noticed that DM's are responsible for project management. However, they manage more than one project similar to that of program manager or portfolio manager.

Thanks,
Nagesh.
Yes that is true. Many organizations have their functional managers running projects. Many weak matrix organizations and functional organizations work this way.

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