Jump to content

Dual Program Managers?


Recommended Posts

Hi,

i posted recently about a weakness PM, I’m now posting about having Dual Program Managers (different contract than previously posted about). This particular program has a non-billable PM, DPM and Technical Manager. I’d like to promote DPM to PM as well and his focus would be strategy/future ops. Current PM would remain focused on deliverables, projects, etc. 

Additional information: we’ve had this contract for 2 years, at time of award there were about 60 positions on it, in that time it has swelled to close to 200 bodies and more growth expected.

Anyone have experience with dual Program Managers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m going to give you my personal advice which has nothing to do with contractual.  You need to develop a closer working relationship with your government client.  The positions are non-billable so from a financial and contractual stand point, it’s moot.  What you should be concerned about is performance at the highest level to make your client satisfied.

Talk with the client, explain the options, and get their input.  Long term business rests largely on client satisfaction.  If I were in your situation, conversations with the customer would started months ago.

The reason I’m saying this is you might contractually right with dual positions and your your deliverables and other work products meeting contract requirements.  But if the client isn’t happy, you end up losing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest PepeTheFrog
On 5/4/2019 at 9:07 PM, Aburns1 said:

Anyone have experience with dual Program Managers?

Yes, it has the same challenge as having two supervisors or two bosses or two CEOs or two consults. Where does the buck stop? Who's the boss? Is it Tony Danza?

You need to carefully delineate their authority, supervisory status, duties, and responsibilities. Which PM actively supervises employees or is it both? Which PM gets the final call on X decisions, Y decisions, Z decisions? Two leaders can be messy, but it can work.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations on growing the contract!

At this point, my feeling is that you may or may not need two PMs. But what you really need is a COO who can guide the strategy from a recoverable (through overhead/G&A) position. In particular, you could task this COO with persuading the customer that a PM team managing 200+ bodies should really be a billable function.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...