This paper is the third of a four-part series in which an attempt has been made to capture the collective wisdom of the leading participants in an extended LinkedIn discussion over the first six months of 2014. The actual original texts have been edited for grammar and spelling to make for easier reading online. The observations quoted are the opinions and property of the contributors as noted.

Published here October 2014.

PART 2 | Introduction | Max Wideman's Thoughts for Further Discussion
Larry Moore | Max Wideman Intervenes with Other Suggestions
Larry Moore | Vince McGevna | Brian Phillips
Mounir Ajam - Cliona O'Hanrahan | David Hatch | PART 4

Mounir Ajam[9] on Project Managers vs. Owners.
Cliona O'Hanrahan[10] Points to Product Management Responsibility

Mounir Ajam

@Larry: Project owners do not pursue projects for the sake of the "project" (meaning the limited view of delivering a product). Project owners pursue projects to gain benefits — and deliver on the objective behind launching the project. In other words, their views are long term and strategic in nature. However, the period post delivery of the product is operation and not another project — but it is linked to the "business objective".

To close, there are two distinct views of projects — one that is limited to the project manager's perspective of delivering the product (which is also a common view for service providers); and there is the project owner view that is not limited to just delivering a product, but also to its exploitation.

Cliona O'Hanrahan

This is such a great post and really great remarks coming through. Reading through the feedback what I am seeing I believe is that where a project is rolled out for a major corporation (e.g. banking) there is a lot of process and red tape to take into consideration. I believe that using a Prince2 approach will help, as each phase of the agreed project has to be approved before moving onto the next phase. This ensures that the benefits for the project are still on track. I also enjoy tailoring Prince2 to allow for bringing in a PMBOK method to manage suppliers and contractors.

@Larry, I hear you! The Production environment in the majors is a tricky one indeed, and they will not accept the handover of any project until you have verified all of their check boxes. Nevertheless, I don't think I would run separate projects. I might phase them out and ensure that each phase had business approval before moving onto the next phase to ensure that the costs, scope and schedule is still on track. Corporates are sticky when it comes to costs/financials that move away from their roadmap budget. But for any training to be performed to use the new system this should be planned within the project and performed before moving the system to live and there are really great ways to do this digitally

@David: I agree with you on this and yes there is a difference between successful project management and how the deployed product is managed post go live. However if all of the requirements were done correctly at the beginning of the project and roles and responsibilities clearly defined then I believe it will help. As a project manager, once you hand over the product to business or product management it does become their responsibility to kick their marketing and business model into action, as agreed during the concept phase of the project.

In the big corporations, this is where it does become the responsibility of product management. In digital work, the online or community manager takes over the running and management of the website in conjunction with the appointed production supplier or team. And for the management of suppliers once the contracts are in place I like to involve them in the project from requirements through to handover. I have found doing this that the suppliers become part of the overall product life span and want the product to become a success.

Brian Phillips  Brian Phillips

9. Mounir Ajam: PM Author | Entrepreneur | CAM2P™ Developer | Speaker | Consultant
10. Cliona O'Hanrahan: MPM Prince2 and PMBOK Project Manager specializing in project delivery for Telecoms, Banking and Digital enterprises
 
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