2.4 Identify an appropriate infrastructure to support project delivery
What is infrastructure, in the case of Project Management? Infrastructure provides support for projects, programmes and portfolios, and is the focal point for the development and maintenance of P3 management within an organisation. Infrastructure can be existing within a company or can be purchased in at the project’s inception in order to support deliverables (Mema and Al-Thani: 2018). The governance of P3 project management requires a permanent organisational infrastructure that supports the temporary organisational structures of projects, programmes and portfolios. Many different names are given to the structures that ‘own’ P3 management within an organisation. The terms EPMO (Enterprise Project Management Office), PSO (Project, Programme or Portfolio Support Office), Project Services or Centre of Excellence are all in common use (APM: 2019). The name often reflects the scope of responsibilities. For example, a Project Support Office will provide predominantly administrative support to a project, while a Centre of Excellence will often be responsible for improving P3 management maturity. Routine administration is required on all projects, programmes and portfolios. On small projects this may be performed by the consultant project manager, but on medium to large projects and all programmes and portfolios, a P3 manager needs support in handling day-to-day administration (Association for Project Management: 2020). Some projects and most programmes and portfolios also require specialist skills in areas such as risk, quality or finance. Separating the finances out for a specific project, and also ensuring that the overall project has a budget (that is proactively managed) is key to delivering a successful project (Ochieng: 2017).
Project Administration For larger projects, an administrative support function can operate at different levels depending upon how it is constituted. It may provide:
