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Following my Prince2 training, I've gained a new appreciation for the role of the Project Manager. They might not be the person who gets up in front of the cameras, but a good PM is the lynch pin of a successful project.
The one thing that caused major confusion on the course was the idea that, unless special safeguards are in place, the PM should never come from the Supplier-side of the project.
Prince2 Organisation
That appeared to run counter to most people's experience. It seemed logical that the PM is best coming from the supplier, since they understand what's needed and when.
Take a house building project for example. An inexperienced client would love to have a builder who offered to project manage all the sub-contractors.
However, there's a major conflict of priorities here. The PM should always have the client's interests at heart. If they get their pay cheque from the supplier, then that may become difficult.
Prince2 does allow exceptions to this rule - but only if additional project assurance processes are put in place, to make sure the project is being run correctly.
No wonder good, independent project managers - skilled in specific domains - are worth their weight in gold!
