Dear George, your definition of project management roles is excellent. Your summary is the best one page summary that I have seen put together. I especially like your Senior Project Manager definition. Far too often, project managers hoard information rather than share as well as seek to position themselves as the subject matter expert and "hero" rather than a key member of the leadership team that not only contributes but truly leads in the institutionalization of project management best practices, skills, and organizational end results. The Project Management Institute has done a wonderful job on so many fronts in promoting project management, but the resulting culture has become a little bit of a "we and they" thing in some places. The "we" being those that have a PMP and know a lot, and the "they" being those that don't have a PMP and need to get one if only to better compete in the job market. How many times have we heard PMs jokingly say that job security is having skills and information that others don't have, need, and therefore need you for. That is not leadership. Management needs senior PMs and we need them to not only contribute but to "proactively lead" in process improvement and organizational maturity. Management can't do it alone or wish it to happen. In addition to project lessons learned, etc, such things as leading in the set up and use collaboration tools such as SharePoint or Lotus, etc, to deploy best practices and manage project information, leading in how best to set up and use project portfolio management applications (capabilities) and dashboard metrics that not only meet but anticipate the needs of management, etc. Twenty-five years ago, we used to call this "Floor Leadership" and we recognized it, valued it, and paid for it in the form of pay raises, bonuses, promotions, etc. Perhaps years of outsourcing and downsizing are partly to blame for some of what we no longer have in the workplace as by necessity individual contributors must protect their livelihood. Nonetheless, there is a need and place for leaderhsip. Your definition of project management roles does a very good job at this. I hope to hear and learn from others. Very nice post, George. Thanks.
Cheers..!
Mark Perry
VP of Customer Care
BOT International
