Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I'm at PMI's EMEA Congress in Dublin and one of the presentations today was about the role of Chief Project Officer. What do you think someone in this role should be doing? Do you work in a company that already has board-level representation for projects? I'm interested in how widespread this concept is. Thanks! Saving Changes...
Interesting discussion but... aren't projects usually the implementation of Corporate Strategy and if they are not, is the Board even interested in them? Shouldn't the Execs who own the strategies be reporting to the board?
On the other hand there may be a place for Portfolio Reporting at Board level to highlight resource and priority conflicts etc, although not sure that the Board is interested in this level of detail. We need to consider what the Chief Portfolio Manager (CPM) (?) would bring to the board over and above what they already receive. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
What is a strategy if not a project to be delivered? I think having one person would eliminate some of the politics. Board members reporting on their own projects would require the CEO to facilitate discussion around priorities and dependencies. Saving Changes...
Read all your comments on this topic - Julie Goff has put it into perspective, totally agree nothing more to add! Saving Changes...
david littenFounder and CEO| Projex AcademyPego, Spain
Interesting topic, here's my three'penny worth:
Senior managers on a Project Board should be focused on being responsible for managing organisational change effectively.
Senior Managers could include; departmental heads, business area owners, functional heads, those responsible for sales and marketing, or those who provide resources, human or otherwise....
For projects to have a chance of success, they need strong and focused control from the top. I'm talking about the Project Board. So called because they and they alone, are responsible for proving direction, control, and authority.
A typical Project Board will comprise THREE focused roles;
The Project Board Executive (Business Assurance - the owner of the
Business Case)
The Senior User - (User Assurance, champion of the user-related requirements)
The Senior Supplier - (Supplier Assurance, champion of project resources and technical integrity)
If you are to be a member of the Project Board, then as an absolute minimum you will need a high level view of the essential features and functions of the PRINCE2® method.
Why?
Because it provides all types of organisations - public and private sector, whether large and small, with a consistent, generic, approach to managing change through the use of projects.
A Project Board needs to fully understand the answers to the following questions:
What is expected of me?
What should I expect of the Project Manager?
How do I know if the Project Manager is applying PRINCE2 appropriately?
How do I delegate authority - yet keep control?
What decisions am I expected to make?
What information will help me make decisions?
What constitutes an effective Project Board?
How do we Tailor PRINCE2®?
Did you notice the inclusion of the Project Manager?
But to make the Project Manager a MEMBER of the Project Board would result in a conflict of interest. However, the Project Manager must have a well oiled communication conduit to the Project Board, AND report into them.
Now, as you can see above, I am a PRINCE2® devotee since it implements project management best practice. In summary, the Project Manager must have a presence on the Project Board, but without actually sitting on the Project Board.
In effect, the Project Board delegate parts of the project (for example Stages) to the Project Manager, who then is responsible for reporting progress, issues, changes, etc, back up to them.
