Project Management

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How do you estimate support resources for the Project Manager as our role expands?

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Francisco Herrera
Community Champion
Program Manager, PPM&PMO Specialist.| Coppel, Mexico. Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico

Colleagues, nowadays, the expectations for Project Managers are constantly growing. We are no longer just managing schedules and budgets; we are expected to act as strategic leaders. Initiatives like the M.O.R.E. mindset encourage us to focus on higher-level dimensions like Ownership, Perspective, and Adaptability to deliver true business value.

While taking on these strategic responsibilities is great, the daily operational and administrative work still needs to be done. It is becoming very difficult for a single PM to handle everything from high-level change management to detailed administrative tracking without burning out.

My question for the community is: How do you estimate and justify the need for support resources (like Project Coordinators, PMO analysts, or admin staff) for the PM?

Do you use a specific rule of thumb (such as project budget, team size, or complexity) to request a support team?

How do you structure your "PM team" so the main Project Manager can actually focus on strategy and value delivery instead of just paperwork?

I would love to hear how you handle this in your organizations!

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Francisco Herrera
Community Champion
Program Manager, PPM&PMO Specialist.| Coppel, Mexico. Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
Sep 09, 2026 4:24 PM
Replying to Aaron Porter
...
Where is the line between the scenario where the role of the Project Manager has expanded to include M.O.R.E. and the scenario where the person who was a Project Manager has actually taken on a new role?

I agree that Project Managers can and should develop broader strategic capabilities. But if we keep adding ownership of strategy, value realization, change management, business outcomes, and organizational adaptability, and then add coordinators and analysts to handle the project-management work, at what point have we created a different role with a PM support team?

Maybe the question isn't only, "How much support does the PM need?" It may also be, "What role are we actually asking this person to perform?" This is where I think some companies will see gaps between what PMI aspires to (not that all businesses are paying attention to PMI) and what businesses actually do.
Yes Aaron Porter when a PM stops managing the day-to-day tasks and focuses entirely on strategy, value, and change management, they are essentially acting as a Program Manager or a Product Owner. If we delegate all the traditional execution work to coordinators, the title 'Project Manager' might not be accurate anymore. Thank you for this great reflection!
Francisco
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