To whom should PMO report?

Dear Emre,

In order for a project manager and the PMO to get the job done delivering the project that meet stakeholders requirements, the PMO must be Apolitical. By this I mean they should have everybody's interest considered for the project but not strategical aligned themselves with one department, functional manager, board of director or even owner over another. This will only lead to internal division, create conflict and pitch one set of people against another.

Some workplaces may have thrived on this kind of animosity but steer clear of it as it is not a constructive work environment.

As a result the stakeholder registry will be the most important aspect of the project with regards who has the final say on aspects of the project.

In some way managing a project is like building a boat. You always need to maintain a balance, make sure the project is sea worthy, that you know your going in the right direction, that a hierarchy exist and its known throughout on who can give orders and who's jobs it is to execute those orders, A person who has overall responsibility for the project and assumes all the risk in the event of project failure and being able to manage and monitor the project and be able to make course adjustments when necessary.

So a project manager could be seen as a modern day captain of a ship.

Daire

Dear Adrian, Peter,

You both present different views as to how you see the role of the project manager.

One is a "gun for hire" who seem has no formal authority, then probably no respect from his "crew" and can only manage by favors and kowtowing to his superiors.

The other view is a project manager who does not know how the ship works but got the job because his father owns the company.

A captain must know and understand every aspect of his ship before he/she can move up through the ranks. That includes how the engine works, how to repair the propellers and how to steer the ship.

There are no shortcuts to being a captain just like the example of the Costa Concordia and how lack of knowledge led to the deaths of innocent people.

So a distinct and understood chain of command that can be implemented is what is required.

Also project sponsors and owners are sometimes so far removed from the project they have very little if any interest in the project.

It is the project managers responsibility and job to know what project success is and to ensure that it is delivered.

Functional manager and the hierarchy of the organisation will hire an outside project manager to mitigate the risk to themselves in the event of project failure and sometimes will contribute very little as a result.

Also if the project requires change management then this will further distant the functional mangers from the project managers.

Ultimately the project manager devises the project plan that all the stakeholders agree and sign up to and so should be self sufficient that requires little overall guidance and management but to adhere to the project plan and any change requests that come in.

Daire

Hi Daire,

I don't disagree with you but comparing PMs with ship captains can only apply in some cases and I don't think we can generalize.

In many companies a PM is considered a subject matter expert in project management in the same way an electrical engineer is considered a specialist in electric engineering.

In these case you don't get promoted to PM but instead you start your career as an entry level PM and then grow. Many companies also have project management internships for fresh graduates or students. You can frequently see PMs in their mid 20s with no other work experience in anything else than project management. And this does not happen because the PM's father owns the company. :)

On the other hand you can't start your career as a ship captain, there are no ship captain internships.

On small ships the captain is a very experienced sailor that most likely had other leadership roles on the ship before becoming captain.

On large ships the captain is an experienced deck officer. In order to become a deck officer you must graduate from a maritime college where you learn also about the job of the sailors. You must also gain a lot of technical knowledge on how the ship operates in order to be able to lead it. PMs in many cases are not required to have technical knowledge in the domain of the projects they manage.

The ship captain always has full authority over his crew and also, to some extent, over all the people on board. PMs often work in matrix organizations and have no formal authority over their team members and many times they don't even have the proper knowledge to formulate orders.