Page 368 - Global Project Management Handbook

MANAGEMENT OF THE PROJECT-ORIENTED COMPANY 18-9

The tasks to be fulfilled in the expert pool are personnel management, process man-
agement, and knowledge management tasks. Project-related tasks and their qualitative
control are not performed in the expert pool but rather in the projects. In accordance
with the model of the “empowered” project organization, the project team members
and the project contributors are personally responsible for the manner and method of
the performance—within the defined guidelines and standards—and for the quality of
the performance of the work packages.
Depending on the business operations of a project-oriented company, several types of
expert pools can be differentiated. In an engineering construction company, for example,
there are various technical expert pools (e.g., mechanical engineering, electrical engineering,
etc.), an expert pool “procurement,” an expert pool “installation,” etc. Also, in an infor-
mation technology (IT) company, various expert pools can be differentiated, such as
designers, programmers, testers, etc.
However, it is not only a sensible measure to organize expert pools just in contracting
companies. Persons qualified to work in projects should be allocated to expert pools for
internal projects, too. Not all employees in the marketing department of a bank, for example,
are qualified for project work. However, people who also can represent their depart-
ment’s interests in projects, who also have specialized knowledge and sufficient project
management competencies to work as project team members, should be assigned to an
expert pool “marketing,” possibly only in a virtual form.
A project-oriented company always should have an expert pool “project management.”
In larger organizations, an expert pool of project management trainers and project man-
agement consultants also can be defined.
Various different roles are performed in an expert pool. A distinction should be made
between the pool manager and pool members. The members of an expert pool can repre-
sent various qualifications. A distinction between junior experts, experts, and senior experts
enables the establishment of a career path as an expert in a project-oriented company.
The difference between an expert pool and a “traditional” department lies in the “empow-
erment” of the experts and in the perception of the management role of the expert pool man-
ager. The “traditional” department manager considers himself or herself above all as an
expert responsible for his or her employees’ performance with regard to content. The expert
pool manager considers himself or herself above all as the manager of the pool with person-
nel and organization responsibilities, not as a content expert. In this way, the expert pool
manager sees himself or herself as undertaking expert tasks in projects. However, he or she
is not responsible for the work performed by the other experts that make up the pool.

The expert pool manager should be assessed according to the performance of his or
her management tasks in the expert pool and not according to the project and program
results. The role of the expert pool manager is described in Table 18.1.

Project Portfolio Group
The project portfolio group presents a specific, permanent communication structure of
medium-sized and large project-oriented companies. Only organizations with at least 200
to 300 employees that perform at least 15 to 20 projects simultaneously achieve a com-
plexity that makes a separate communication structure for project portfolio management
a sensible measure. It is only then that the management of a project portfolio should be
given appropriate attention by means of establishing a project portfolio group. In smaller
project-oriented companies, these tasks can be performed by management in the course
of management meetings.
In the case of larger project-oriented companies, the project portfolio group should be
responsible for the assignment of a project or a program and for project portfolio