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A Most
Helpful Customer Review
New
Responsibilities for the Project Manager
By:
Craig L.
Howe (Darien, CT United States)
Future project managers'
success will be graded by their contributions to the
enterprise's economic value than their completing a
project on time, within budget.
The authors argue project
managers will function as
entrepreneurs
or
CEOs,
assuming responsibility for the ultimate success of their
projects. In the business that means they will be
responsible for producing a level of customer satisfaction
high enough to produce sales generating enough cash flow to
cover project and operating expenses,
make a profit and pay back the cost of capital used to
produce the product. Only at this point will the project
produce enough economic value to enhance shareholder value.
To accomplish this, project
managers will require new skills. They will rely not only on
traditionally operational skills, but also knowledge of the
enterprise's:
1. Accounting and Finance
2.
Organizational Strategy
3.
Marketing and
Value Propositions
4. Human Relations
5. Internal Processes.
This will require, the authors
say, a radical change in the measurement and control systems
of most organizations. For project managers to act as
CEOs,
they will have to be treated as CEOs. They will have to be
judged not only by detailed assessments of their project
outcomes, durations and costs but by new metrics based on
increases in shareholder or stakeholder value.
If the authors are correct,
the Project Manager's maxim of "Make it fast. Make it good.
Make it cheap.," is in the process of being replaced "Make
it Economically Viable."
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