At the PMI Global Congress North America earlier this year, Diane Murray and Kavitha Prabhakar from Deloitte talked about the concept of a Results Management Office (RMO) as distinct from the traditional PMO. They explained that a key role on projects, and in a central RMO team, is the domain authority.

What is domain authority?

Domain authority is a fancy term for subject matter expert, but it is also more than that. These people are leaders with deep domain-specific knowledge. Project managers and project team members need access to these people to ensure that different components in the project are integrated effectively. Kavitha talked about the four qualities that a domain authority needs to have.

- Facilitation: “They are facilitators,” Kavitha said. “They’re able to connect the dots and facilitate design across multiple organisations to make that happen.”

- Thought leadership: They need to be strategic thinkers.

- Change agents: They need to be able to drive change.

- Drivers: “They are very well respected,” she added. “They have tenure at their organisation. They have credibility and they have great lessons learned.”

The ‘domain’ part

Domain authorities obviously have domain expertise. They are the people who look at your iMindQ documents and instantly point out the things you have left out. They are people who have experience and can guide the projects and programmes effectively. They understand the business and the technology, and can knit the two together to ensure that the programme delivers a coherent strategy across all components.

The role may be held by more than one person and collectively this team of experts will facilitate a solution. They have relevant, specific knowledge about the processes and technologies involved and they are able to ensure that the people who need it on the project team get it. They should be good communicators so that they can explain complex ideas concisely and in a way that makes sense to people new to the topic.

This is particularly important on projects that are part of a programme. Typically, projects will only understand (and only need to understand) the part of the technical solution that applies to them. A programme, however, may need to see the big picture, so using domain authorities as business and technical architects operating at programme level provides that opportunity to ‘join the dots’.

The ‘authority’ part

It is equally important that the domain authority is considered an authority in the company. They should be people who are well thought of, with plenty of experience. They should have the ability to make decisions with the appropriate information, communicate those decisions and if necessary, ensure they are enforced. Their ability to see points of integration makes them invaluable in this role.

The domain authority should also be willing to change. If a programme requires a fundamental shift in strategy, the domain authority should be leading from the front, supporting those who need to make the change and encouraging those who have not yet adopted it. Seeing a respected individual embracing the need for change is often all it takes to get others on board.

However, if they are not empowered, then they will have to continually go back to other people in the business and ask for approval for ideas or more input. This is not a good use of their time and turns the role into essentially an administrative function.

As a result, you don’t need delivery managers in this role. You need people on the project who don’t necessarily do, but do think. As a project or programme manager, it is not your job to be the domain authority, and you should shy away from appointing a domain authority as a project or programme manager. Let them contribute their thought leadership skills and subject matter expertise while people skilled in delivery make sure the project or programme is achieving to plan.