Are Project Managers a ‘commodity’?
by jed simms on March 10, 2010
One organization is getting rid of its pool of project managers as “you can just go to the market and buy them as necessary”.
Another organization outsourced its project managers to a major systems implementer on the basis that “we cannot give them a career path in our organization but they can.”
This seems to me to confuse function with effectiveness.
On the surface, project management is a function, a skill set or a competency. Different project managers will have different types of experience that will affect their ability to work on certain types of projects. (If you’ve ever seen a package configuration only experienced project manager take on a custom build project, you’ll know what I mean.)
But, to be an effective project manager you need to know how the organization works, who is who in the zoo, who are the real power brokers and how to get things done fast. This is not commodity project management.
Another dimension is that the same firms that outsource their project management, whether to the market in general or to specific vendors, often have methodologies that they then expect the contractors to pick up, absorb and use instantly.
Is it just me or have we lost the plot here by seeing project management as a commodity?
What do you think? – post your comments on the blog.
© Jed Simms, Australia 2010.
One comment
Jed,
I very much agree with you that project managers are NOT/should not be a commodity. Much of the value comes from the project manager having a deep understanding of the organisation, its people & processes as the environment into which the project is being implemented.
regards, Ian
by Ian Spencer on March 10, 2010 at 10:48 am. #