What do you think of PMaas? (Project Management as a service)

Sure. Just to comment, my recommendation is going to find the definition of what aaS (as service) meant. It is very important to understand the model because as project manager there will be a high probability you have to deal initiatives with that model. When you take aaS model you must forget about everything related to the service. It includes the layers that are components inside the service architecture but basically the process/method and the support of the process/method. If you take PMaaS then you are taking the project manager "entity" (because it could be a non-named person), the process/method to perform project management, the software tool to support the process/method, etc. etc. For you, all related to project management is a "black box" that will give you the expected results stated into the SLA (Service Level Agreement). With that said, then you can select what layer do not take. For exaple, you can say "ok, I take a PM but not the process/method and the software that support it". In this case it is the same than to contract an external project manager. Time ago I was Professional Services Manager for LATAM working inside a US company that was one of the pioneers of this type of architectures then I have the opportunity to define this type of services for being selling to our customers. At this time instead of cloud a similar technical concept was available to implement aaS.

Thank you very much Sergio! Let me know if I understood your words correctly, summing up like this:
as a PMaaS you can decide what you want to use from the client’s PM processes, tools and methods in order to achieve project results; as a contractor, you’ll be expected to approach the project independently from client’s organization.

Perhpas I did not understand your statement but not exactly. Take a look to SaaS, IaaS, TaaS architecture. Over all these (and others) you have what is named Cloud Computing. One of the key is you can buy service on demmand. The same for PMaaS which in fact is supporting for all the architecture I wrote above. Take a look to Microsoft Azure as an example and think you can add project/program management as a service too. Remember that between program/project management service there are things like PMO, project governance or you can buy each PMBOK knowledge area you need as service. Think about different "flavours" to contract a project manager: the person will be in my office or not?, the person will use my own project management process or not?, the person will user my own tool to support the work or not? etc etc. All these stuff (and others) can be buying on demmand when you use PMaaS, including it you decide if a "physical" person is needed or not.

Maybe I’ve been providing some PMaaS services as a contractor then. :)
Some of my collaborations were related to particular knowledge areas of the PMBOK, such as planning, resource management, monitor and control, and others, always as a contractor.
In my experience, both perspectives are applicable as a contractor project manager.
The only difference I can point out based on my experience is that PMaaS the services might be presented structured, to address identified market needs. On the other hand, I see contracting a bit as the way to fulfill an identified need for a company, being a support service (PMaaS) or a goal or result to achieve.
But thank you very much for your explanation Sergio, it help me to consider some of the related subjects to each of the forms.

Sérgio,

Your perspective is very interesting, Honestly I had never thought as a customized set of services, where it will be added building blocks of project management according customer needs and the service level agreement chosen by him, but as a full package where all services of project management were delivered together with a project manager.

Thank you for sharing that precious point of view with the community.

Alexandre.

You are welcome. At the end the key point is the architecture, the possibility to adquire services on demmand, the "location hidden" feature of aaS. The only way to understand it is going to Microsoft Azure DevOps (for example) and starting adquiring a service (pm tool, servers, disk, etc). When you see the dynamic you really understand what aaS is. On the other side, most of the services are for free up to a level of SLAs. On important thing: is you do not have SLAs clearly defined then it is not aaS. Most of the times you do not have it inside contractors contract.

Just to comment, is not my perspective or my point of view. It is what the aaS model meant and is defined for vendors. I am writting this just with the intention people go to search for the definitions and understanding the model because in my personal opinion it is the model more and more organizations will adopt in the future (in fact they are adopting today perhaps with not to much focus on PMaaS).

Sergio,

Probably i expressed myself in a wrong form, it's clear that is the model of the business and i believe in you, however in my country is not used at least at that level of granularity.

Alexandre

Alexandre, no problem. What I tried to say is "do not believe in me, make your research" that´s my point.