Project Manager Today reached out through their PMOs to discuss how to integrate project management within organizations.
Jack Lewis, Project Management Office Manager for Eversheds-Sutherland, an international top 15 law practice, says the project managers report directly to the PMO, and the PMO reports directly to the CIO.
He believes the reporting structure works well for internal staff, but it can sometimes be problematic for external contractors. He believes that external PMs think they have the support and backing of the CIO, which is why some of the most difficult challenges arise.
Michelle Venezia is Director of the Project Portfolio Office at the University of Rochester Medical Centre. She claims that her office has 15+ project managers, in addition to 10 project managers without titles, who manage projects nonetheless.
She said that only core team members report to her, while highly skilled project managers are focused on their area of expertise and functional organisation. The Chief Technology Officer reports to the portfolio office.
“The intention is to ensure alignment with IT Strategy & Enterprise Architecture and to report into a neutral leader chain that is focused upon taking an enterprise view.”
Kathy Shives, Senior Technical Project Manager at a large national health insurer, claims her organization is more flat than her peers. “Project Managers from each division report to the Senior Management for that division.
“Scrum masters and Agile team members report directly to their manager with dotted line to Project Manager for the project to which they are assigned.” She states that the organisation is dispersed.
“Each division reports to a PMO in its own reporting chain, but the actual PMO has very little authority beyond reporting, risk, and issues.” The culture’s level determines who the PMOs report too.
“The Senior Manager of PMO reports directly the head of organisation,” she says. This is because the Senior PMO manager has “higher authorities than divisional Senior managers who report to Directors that, in turn, report to the head.”
Phillip Long, Ericsson’s senior vice-president of service delivery, is the head of digital services business area delivery. He said that their half-dozen project directors report to a single project management office.
He explained that project managers report to the PMO head, who then reports to him. “Our project-based delivery teams consist of PM, Architects and Engineers, Deployment specialists as well as trainers and integration test teams. All of these functions are under my control as the Head of Delivery.
Ericsson’s desire for a project-centric environment is the reason he says it. He describes it as a “consolidation strategy around project-centric delivery models.” I keep the PM’s in my PMO for career growth and development.
Long is not a stranger to project management, despite being an executive. “As the lead for delivery, I believe it is very important that I have strong PM experience. It has been a great asset. We still have to deal with scope control and value management.
He believes that he must know what the project managers are offering to their customers. He believes it is important to get to know the project managers early on in the process. It’s easier to engage in the pre-sales process early and then carry the ball through the effort estimations and execution phases.
The Head of Delivery is responsible for all customer-facing projects/programs. It’s important that his office has process ownership.
Scott D. Gedicks, a PMO leader at a large technology company in Silicon Valley, has 23 project managers under his supervision. He believes their dispersed model is important because they need to collaborate with technical personnel.
“We
