Effectiveness of having two project managers delivering a project
Anna OrlowskaProgram Manager, PMO| City of GuelphKitchener, Ontario, Canada
I am looking for insights specific to project delivery on Co-PM type shared leadership. From your experience what are the pros and cons? Can this become an effective approach or not? Saving Changes...
It can be an effective approach provided there is a clear division of RAAs. If both try to be THE leader, you are likely to have conflicts over priorities, approaches, etc. When that occurs and the team needs direction, who do they follow? It can turn into a situation known as "design by committee" which is a notoriously bad way to manage.
I have had multiple PM assistants on large projects. That can be very helpful once there are many sub-tier plans working in concert. I would often assign a PM to significant portions of the WBS like a project within a project.
In the classic systems engineering model, there is also shared leadership with the PM at the top of the org chart and responsible for business management. The SE is responsible for technical leadership and reports to the PM. There is a lot of overlap since technical approaches affect the whole plan and the 2 work closely but the division of responsibility is clear. Saving Changes...
It is a very common practice to have multiple PMs when you have third-parties involved on a large project. In such cases, each vendor might want to have a PM managing their scope of work which would fall under the overall scope of the project managed by the "prime" PM.
However, if you are looking at a situation where both PMs have exactly the same responsibilities and focus, that's where problems might emerge with confusion about "who is on first for what"...
Anna,
As Kiron mentioned is a common practice in some types of projects.
I personaly worked in enviroments were there is a need of different pm's, or 2 pm's and 1 scheduler. And it was very effective.
The key of success is having a clear roles and responsabilities definition and that all the stakeholders understand who does what.
Mayte.- Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Anna,
shared (or balanced) leadership works, but must avoid confusion on part of the team, customers, and the PMs themselves. So exact division of responsibilities and timing has to be documented and shared.
There is award winning research sponsored by PMI on the topic and a webinar on this page and as well a webinar coming up on https://pmi-gc.de/eventkalender/757 on 12. May 6pm German time. Presenter is PMI Fellow Ralf Mueller who also is chief editor of PMI's Research Journal.
As to 2 or more PMs working on a 'project' in a contractual situation, be it as customer PM or contractor PM, I tend to see this as separate projects, even if scope and success criteria might partly overlap.
I worked as a contractor PM for 30 years, and had to deal with customer PMs all along. We did not share sponsors, targets, or success criteria. Often I did not know the hidden targets of the customer and they would not share it. And my targets were to make the project profitable for my employer, which they did not share.
Yes, it is good to have a trustful working relationship, but - like with states - there is no friendship, only shared interests for time periods.
I have worked on a big global project with multiple PMs and it was very effective but everyone had clearly defined area of responsibilities. We all 3 worked very closely monitoring and delivering based on each others milestones. I believe it was successful as we all worked with a mind set of cooperation & collaboration vs. competition. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
In my actual work place, depending on the type of initiatve and the approach we are using, for example some times we have a business project manager and an IT project manager working together adding to add project managers for each provider in case we are working with providers. We call it "cascade management" and it is because the large amount of people working on the project. But the key is: who is responsible for the alignement? That´s what you need to define. Just to put an example (beyond that we are in the first steps to use it) you can take a look to SAFe model regarding ARTs. Saving Changes...
Anna OrlowskaProgram Manager, PMO| City of GuelphKitchener, Ontario, Canada
Thank you All for your insights. Your comments covered various arrangements, which will be useful to me. I appreciate you sharing your experience. Saving Changes...
Troy EdelenBusiness Transformation Consultant | Solopreneur| Aspiri Consulting, Inc.San Francisco, Ca, United States
A former boss of mine, who was the Co-Head of Business Banking once told me, "To be the co-head of something, is to be the head of nothing."
It obviously didn't work for him, but I agree with many of the preceding contributors - clearly defined roles, authorities & responsibilities are the key. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
I'm not going to add much as other have covered almost everything, the only issue you need to pay attention to is: who will be the single point of truth relevant to project status? Agree on this, and multiple PMs shouldn't be an issue. Saving Changes...
Mishirika ScottPMO Portfolio Manager, IT Strategic Initiatives| University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)Greater Los Angeles Area, Ca, United States
Hi - we are utilizing a Co-PM approach (for the first time). While it's too soon for a full lessons learned, here are 5 observations so far that are working well: 1- ensure the roles and expectations of the PM and Co-PM are clear 2- invite the co-PM to the kick-off meeting 3- make sure the Co-PM has some valuable insight or skill (such as deep organizational knowledge) that adds value to the lead PM 4- consider having the PMO or a Director check in with with PM and Co-PM on a cadence (weekly or bi-weekly) depending in the duration, complexity and work effort of the project so that any roadblocks can be addressed early and often, and 5- consider adding the co-PM to the official project docs as this may positively impact this person's Co-PM'ing experience and help to foster shared ownership. Hope this is useful. Thanks for posting @Anna Orlowska -Mishirika Saving Changes...
