Ever Wonder What a Project Manager Actually Does?
As a Senior Project Manager (and PMP and a member of number of SAP PMOs), who has managed projects for SAP, i2, Oracle, Hubspot and many military projects as well, I have to say, the company (i2) that was actually clearest about what they expected a Project Manager to deliver was profit-for i2.
Project Management Responsibilities
Let me repeat that, the clearly defined top level goal of a project manager is to deliver the project profitably. It doesn't matter whether SAP Project Managers are called SAP HANA Project Managers or SAP Transformation Project Managers, the project goal remains fixed. The successful SAP project manager both delivers the project on time and within budget, but as well, at a profit.
Surprised?
I have to admit; my focus was and has always been to get to Go-Live - however that might be defined. Generally speaking, this involves managing the Project Manager's iron triangle.
What's the Iron Triangle?
Well, during SAP Project Manager Training sessions, and as well, during all of the other Project Management courses I have attended, the iron triangle was defined as thus:
Project Management Iron Triangle
It still is.
However, and as you might expect, the real business goal of a SAP Project Manager is to deliver the SAP project while making a profit.
So What is a SAP Project Manager and What Do They Do
What then, should a customer, the ultimate consumer of a project manager’s efforts, keep in mind then, especially with regards to a SAP project, or as we refer to it, a Significant Emotional Event (SEE).
- The profitability of the project is defined differently for the implementor than it is for the customer.
The business case made by the customer team to justify the project isn’t the same as the business case for doing the project on the part of the implementer.
A customer has a vested interest in having his SAP implementor make a profit-or you may be faced with lack of resources, a lower quality resource, or less interest than needed from your implementor. - A SAP project can be delivered at a profit to the implementer, yet still not yield a profit for the customer.
This is why it is critical to have a solid business case for your project, and SAP Value Engineering or a SAP Certified Value Engineer who knows how to use SAP Value Engineering should be involved on every SAP project.
As a SAP project manager, I see this aspect of the project as part of the project.
I regard developing the SAP project business case as among one of the key SAP Program Manager Roles and Responsibilities. It's not simple. But it's a key part of project planning and requires expertise with various project management tools, such as our business case builder and other project management tools as well. - If you focus on achieving profitability, even if your project is challenging, your SAP implementation project will be much more likely to be successful and you will get more from your SAP investment.
- Why focus so much on achieving profitability as a SAP Project Manager. What about all the other aspects of the project?
It influences your actions in terms of SAP Consultant selection, your leadership style, and at what level you will interact with the customer. - A SAP Project Manager will carefully select his Project Team to ensure success. A common mistake is to select the Project Manager after the deal (Statement of Work (SOW) in particular) is already signed.
You should hire an experienced SAP project manager to actually help draft an executable SOW. That way, you have a defined scope that the project manager can be reasonably sure is executable.
There are, of course, many other characteristics to understand about successful project managers and project manager duties.
But the criticality of selecting the right one, and getting him onboard early, should be clear to any customer when they investigate who is typically blamed for a project failure.
It is a high stress, high risk job.
Many people, particularly SAP Consultants, initially want to be a SAP Project Manager.
Few make it, and many of them decide they do not like it and return to SAP module consulting.
What Don't SAP Implementation Project Managers Do?
They typically are not using the SAP PS module or project management module. They could, but then you would already have implemented SAP.
The one exception I've seen is where the project is the roll-out or migration to the SAP Project System module. In that case, they would use it, but the context is usually part of a broader strategy to integrated other processes, such as procurement, logistics execution, field services, data warehouse and many other variants.
Enterprise Portfolio Management
Most large scale SAP implementations, evolve into a portfolio of projects, some purely SAP implementation projects and others, part of supporting or ancillary projects, such achieving PCI DSS compliance for those that accept credit cards in their Retail environments. While a Senior SAP project manager may well be a Portfolio Project Manager, (as this author often is), if the SAP implementation is of sufficient scale, it is probably already enough for him to manage that single project, which often has 150 or more members on it.
This then, spawns the PMO or Project Management Office. Generally, this is required when dealing with very large, complex business organizations, that have been fully productized.
Managing Key Client Projects is Our Speciality.
We can help you manage your SAP project to success. Though consulting rates for project managers are high and rising, having an experienced SAP project manager leading your SAP implementation remains a critical success factor.
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