Who should be responsible for organizational project management?

First, let me establish the context. By way of the term, organizational project management, we were not referring to OPM3, rather we were referring to all of the project management that workplace professionals do that takes place in all of the various business units and departments throughout the entire organization. Some refer to this ubiquitous project management as "informal" project management or "accidental" project management. Whatever the term, surely reasoned professionals can come to agreement that many people (perhaps most) in an organization have some kind of project (or projects) that they manage as part of their normal work mix. One could even posit that it would be more unusual for a workplace professional to not have a project from time to time than it would be to indeed have a project from time to time.

So, in that context, "Who should be responsible for organizational project management?" That is, who is on the hook for some kind of goal, objective, plan, and strategy to ensure that all those managing a project within the organization do so with some level of skill and degree of capability relevant to the needs of the project? We debated the following answers:

• HR should be responsible as project management is a core skill and strategic organizational competency


• Functional management should be responsible as the ability to manage a project within the organization is a performance plan expectation


• The PMO (assuming one exists) should be responsible as it is the organizational unit that possesses the domain knowledge


• The Project Management Community of Practice (assuming one exists) should be responsible as this is best met by a grass roots approach and a good wiki


• There is no need to have and hold someone responsible and accountable for organizational project management since project management is intuitive, common sense for the most part, easy to do, and no one ever makes mistakes in the management of their projects (big or small), and the difference between doing a really good job vs a really bad job in managing a project is not that great

Since I was losing the debate with my colleagues (again), I added this last answer which is intentionally satirical and intended to expose the ridiculousness of not taking organizational project management seriously. Anyway, my colleagues maintained that this is a Community of Practice responsibility (or opportunity) and not a management (HR, functional, or PMO) concern. I stood alone in disagreement, but what do you think..?