I'm the first project manager at a small company and I've just acquired a team member from another department to help me. As such, I'm being tasked from my bosses to update my job description and title.
I'm trying to adhere to industry standards to set myself up well for the future, whether I'm with my current company or not.
Do you more often see a Senior Project Manager leading a team of project managers, or, do you more often see a Lead Project Manager leading a team of project managers? Are there more options that you see more frequently that I haven't thought of?
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Amit brings up a valid point, leading to a follow up question. Are you simply leading the other PM's, or will you also be responsible for the projects they are working on? If yes, then Program Manager seems to be more suitable.
Senior denotes a level of experience with a number of years. Has nothing to do with leading others; that is management.
So, I'm with Amit, Program Manager. Good Luck. Saving Changes...
S RajasekarSenior Project Manager| AllscriptsBangalore, Karnataka, India
Apr 05, 2017 9:23 PM
Replying to Vincent Guerard
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Never seen Lead, Senior is use in many other profession,
Agree with Vincent Saving Changes...
Marcus ReisFormer President and CEO Razor Engineering Ltd| Project Results Calgary, Alberta, Canada
In our organization (so not written in stone) we use Senior Project Managers (for billing purposes) but they are essentially Project Managers and they manage the Leads (who we can also be senior for billing) who are the heads of the individual departments e.g. civil, mechanical and EIC. The Leads have Engineers (again can be senior for billing) below them and then there is technical support below them.
To control all projects we have a Manager of Engineering (my self), we have had a Director of Engineers who is above myself. This is usually a "top gun" with much experience and was probably around when the pyramids were built. When I gave up my position of CEO I personally tool the Manager of Engineering based on my experience.
FYI: Depending on project complexity our clients sometimes don't want the "senior" high bill out rates for the PM so a lesser experienced person is wanted based on the project needs.
For senior PM in our line of work (oil and gas) is a 10yrs+ recorded PM work not engineering.
For intermediate you are 5-10yrs
Hope this helps. Saving Changes...
Marcus ReisFormer President and CEO Razor Engineering Ltd| Project Results Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Apr 05, 2017 9:25 PM
Replying to Vincent Guerard
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You can also try "The Most Best High Exalted and Motivated Project Manager" more change not to fit on business card :-)
LOL! You can also have that title go around to the other side of the card. Saving Changes...
Moreover a Senior is a title and sometimes, a Senior is a PM..i mean rather than saying PM, sometimes...in some organizations, they may call as Sr. PM. Saving Changes...
If you are going to lead a team of projects managers, you might like to be called a "Program Manager"
Should it be Program Manager or Portfolio Manager?
Program refer to many project interrelated, a Portfolio is many project that may not be interrelated.
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1 reply by Thomas Walenta
Jul 09, 2020 5:38 AM
Thomas Walenta
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Maybe neither if you do not really run a program or a portfolio.
Just 'leading' a bunch of project managers does not tell what you do to them. Could be just career development, coaching, giving them a cost center to charge, ...
Julian was on point, the title shouldn't be used to align hierarchy. It typically does, but not uncommon to have a team of mixed PM's and Sr PM's working side by side. Conceivably the Sr PM's get the harder, more strategic/complex projects. The "boss" of the PM's should be someone at the Director level as the next step up, based on what I've seen. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
If other project managers report to you, your designation must be Project Leader or Project Director. In one company, the project was big and there were 3 project managers from different departments but they were under the supervision of an overall Project Leader. Saving Changes...
Edima OttohoBoston UniversityBoston, United States
From PMI's model, I think 'Program Manager' is the appropriate name. A Program Manager oversees/coordinates several related projects, with each of those projects having their own Project Managers who report to the Program Manager. Saving Changes...
