The following article is part of the self-preparation for the modern BVOP® Certified Project Manager program.
All activities of the BVOPGM office may be applied on a project level by representatives of the Business Value-Oriented Project Management office.
Combination of offices and activities
For any number of reasons, an organization may choose not to maintain the program management office, as a result, the BVOPM office executes the needed activities. Under these circumstances, the BVOPGM and BVOPM office are considered as one combined office.
Strategies of an organization may include maintaining only program management roles, where program managers are responsible for multiple projects and all project management activities.
Depending on the organizational portfolio, missions, strategies, structure, and other specifics, the Business Value-Oriented Product Management (BVOPDM) office may also be included in the combined office. In this instance, management roles should be able to perform program, project, and product management activities and need to possess the knowledge and skills to do so.
Mixing and merging offices, roles, and activities may be part of the strategies when organizations have limited resources, and classical management roles are obscured. Such roles in the project realization process are replaced directly by organizational executives or other multifunctional figures.
Organizations may try to accomplish maximum results with minimum resources and roles involved. The BVOP supports the idea of combining roles and suggests that multifunctional and advanced figures inside organizations need to understand all activities and principles of the business value-oriented program, project, and product management.
Comments from the BVOP™ community on “Offices specifics”
Felix Gagnon
Not every organization can afford a whole set of management roles. Project Manager, Product Manager, Program Manager. These are specialists who require a serious salary, but this is not the only reason small start-ups do not employ such a large management team. To work together productively, these people need mutual understanding and ability to work with one another.
A long path of reason must go through all management roles while clearing conflicts of interest and internal team tensions. This is one of the reasons why BVOP creates interchangeable roles that have a rich array of skills and competencies. Sometimes it is better for one or two managers to be at the heart of the team and the product, while in other cases where the scale is too large, many professionals cover all the necessary activities.
The organization itself decides how many management positions to assign to the projects. To this end, executives should have a deep insight into the essence of products, the needs of teams and their goals in detail. At the same time, development teams need to share their management needs. Joint views and solutions give the best results.
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