Once upon a time Project Managers and IT Departments went hand in hand; Project Managers tended to be IT Professionals who over the years became very knowledgeable and respected in their areas and the natural progression was to become an IT Project Manager.

With the rapid advancement of technology, IT Project Managers have become an integral part of many companies, so much so that many companies wouldn’t dream of implementing a new system or technology without a trusted Project Manager leading the way. Many senior business leaders have quietly been taking notice of the Project Managers keen ability to create order from chaos, deliver complex projects on time, within budget and within scope and have been thinking about how these skills could help their own departments succeed…

Therein lies the emergence of the Business Project Manager. Senior business leaders are finding these Business Project Managers in their own mid-level leaders, business subject matter experts or employees who naturally demonstrate the key traits of a successful Project Manager. Often these people are sent on professional development courses to formalize their Project Management skills or they learn on the job from others already in similar roles and begin leading less technical projects in their departments such as process re-engineering or preparing to take on new market segments.

My own company has recently expanded on this practice to reach out to business leaders to ask if they would like to loan high performing employees to us to receive on the job Project Management training, then returning back to their own departments. This unique opportunity will provide sharing of knowledge and skills throughout the organization, provide internal employees with a new career development option and should make running projects in these departments easier because they now have a better understanding of what goes into running a successful project.

Does your company have Business Project Managers? If not, what are your thoughts on this? If yes, how is it working?

I’d love to hear your feedback…