It is astonishing to observe how, even in project-oriented organizations that execute large, complex projects, project managers are generally placed on a lower status than functional managers. This happens although project managers directly influence the business performance, which is not the case of functional managers. In particular in organizations that deal with large, complex projects, it should clearly be the contrary. Why is that and what should be done?
In this controversial new White Paper 2012-14 “Why Project Managers of Large, Complex Projects Should Have a Higher Status in their Organizations”, Project Value Delivery makes the point that in the case of large, complex projects, project managers often have a crucial impact on the overall’s organization financial results. And still, even mature organizations consider functional managers to be higher in terms of status.
Dilbert project manager struggling to be heard by management. Will he be successful in his project?
The appropriate approach is to recognize explicitly that large, complex projects require a different skill set and to give a different title for the project leaders of these projects. They will not be numerous because they are dealing with a few large projects. Actually it is a constant observation of Project Value Delivery that large, complex projects leaders often have a large influence in their organization, which is not formally recognized or only through ad-hoc organizational setups. Why not give them the status they actually deserve as part of their contribution to the performance of the organization?
