The Project Assurance Manager

Chapter 8: Project Assurance

Project assurance is a fundamental requirement in enterprise IT projects, necessitating a professional with a broad range of certifications, diverse skills, and extensive experience. The Project Assurance Manager is pivotal, combining strategic oversight with operational expertise and hands-on capability.

This directive role focuses on creating strategies tailored to each project's unique demands and characteristics. The Project Assurance Manager proactively develops and drives these strategies, ensuring robust, fit-for-purpose project execution.

Project Assurance Role Qualifications

The qualifications for the Project Assurance Manager must be clear and stringent. Table 27 outlines the entry criteria required for this role, which ensures that only well-qualified professionals can effectively oversee and manage the quality aspects of enterprise IT projects.

Table 27. Project Assurance Manager Entry Criteria

Responsibility Description	Weighting	Qualification	Disqualification
Knowledge	30%	Certified in multiple project disciplines, including project and service management, at a minimum	No certifications in project management and service management
Experience	40%	At least ten years of solid experience in large and complex enterprise IT projects	Less than ten years of experience in large and complex enterprise IT projects, excluding experience in smaller IT project initiatives, production support, and business projects.
Skills	30%	A creative thinker who can turn strategies into action A proactive and capable doer Highly skilled at identifying project enablers (people, processes, and technologies) to suit the project needs	A thinker who cannot operationalise strategies An operational thinker without strategic awareness A delegator Preference for specific project enablers (people, processes, and technologies) without considering suitability to the project

Note: To be blunt, the Project Assurance Manager role is not intended for an underqualified participant who fails to meet the entry criteria. This role is critical to the success of enterprise IT project delivery. It demands expertise, strategic thinking, and the ability to deliver tangible value. The position is not an extra seat on the project gravy train or a box-ticking exercise.

Reporting Lines

The dual reporting structure of the Project Assurance Manager, as depicted in Figure 11, ensures a balance between independent quality oversight and strategic alignment with organisational objectives. By reporting directly to executive management, often represented by the PMO, the Project Assurance Manager evaluates the impact of project quality on overall organisational success. The indirect reporting line to the project board emphasises the specific delivery of project objectives, allowing timely attention to quality concerns that may affect project execution. This structure reinforces the importance of quality as a key consideration, even in time-sensitive projects, while promoting accountability and transparency in enterprise IT project delivery.

Figure 11. Project Assurance Manager reporting lines