The key responsibilities of the senior management or executive leaderhip in any organization are to craft, implement, and execute strategy. Period. Everything they do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis should be acting in accordance with those three key responsibilities. It’s what they were hired or promoted to do. They craft strategies in order to shape their company’s course of action and coordinate a company-wide game plan.
The project management function within any organization should require the approval and “go-ahead” of the executive team for all IT project engagements, thus ensuring that the appropriate processes for the delivery of the business and IT have been scrutinized, reviewed, and prioritized. The tie-in between project management and senior leadership in terms of the goals and objectives of the organization must be there in order for project management to experience success within the organization. Any projects run by the project management function (a project management office, or PMO, if such a formal unit exists) that are not reviewed and approved by executive leadership run the risk of not aligning with the company goals resulting in wasted effort, dollars and focus. Executives and project managers should agree on the following objectives:
- Alignment of the proposed IT investment plan (i.e., projects) with the company business objectives
- Commitment to delivery of measurable business benefits within schedule, cost, and risk that are realistic and appropriate to the business
- A shared understanding of the responsibilities for delivery of the project between system users and the IT specialists
- A plan to benchmark the performance of existing processes in business terms and to track improvements
- Risk management that recognizes the need to accommodate change
I have long held that without executive backing, no organization’s project management practice is going to be successful. It just doesn’t happen. I’ve seen several PMO failures and the lack of buy-in or backing by executive management or a strong tie between PM and senior leadership is usually the downfall of the project management practice.
Project managers should be held accountable to the company for the success of the project. Likewise, senior leadership must be held accountable to the project management organization to support it, help maintain its visibility and to ensure that its processes aren’t circumvented by these same individuals who likely created it.
Information for this article was derived, in part, from Jason Charvat’s book entitled, “Project Management Nation.”