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.
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
|
Brian
Phillips
