A Project Support Officer is a job title more commonly seen in the public sector, it’s a role that is essentially the same as a Project Administrator or Project Co-ordinator.
The role supports a project – that’s the project manager and the project team. They can sometimes be supporting more than one project at a time and therefore different project managers and project teams.
With the Project Support Officer role, it tends to be not part of a PMO.
The reason for this is often that the organisation doesn’t have enough projects to warrant having a PMO and just needs someone to provide the day-to-day support on the projects that they do have. As the organisation grows and more projects come online, that’s when a business starts to look at the PMO as an option for supporting more and more projects.
In this article we cover the main tasks, activities and skill areas of a Project Support Officer:
Reporting
If you are working within project support – or want to be working in this area – the number one skill is reporting. This is the part of the job that project support officers are most known for.
The different types of reporting extend over the project lifecycle and over a time period. Reporting progress; status; resources; plans; finances, KPIs; costs; reviews – you name it, the Project Support Officer will be doing it.
To be a great reporter you need a combination of information management; data management; analysis; communication and IT skills. It’s not just about creating a spreadsheet or producing a RAG report – a good project support officer talks to people, validates data and creates meaningful clear information that can be acted on.
Control
Project support officers are the custodians of project information – and the control of it. They pride themselves on maintaining the ‘only version of the truth’. If anyone on the project wants the latest status; figures; actions or issues, it’s the project support officer that controls it.
With control you’re overseeing the co-ordination of issues; risks, change control, documentation and any other logs that need control (contract management, procurement etc)
To be a great controller you are combining your analytical, organisational and administrative skills. You’re a person that likes to bring order to chaos and pride yourself on running a tight ship.
Good practice
Good practice reflects the method, processes, standards, procedures and tools of project management that your team needs in order to work efficiently. It’s your job to be as helpful as possible in making this happen. You might guide someone through the processes. You might even alter them slightly to adapt to a particular situation. You’ll also be using these tools and processes yourself so it makes sense that you know as much as about them as possible.
A good Project Support Officer knows the theory of project management, almost as much as the project manager does. The difference between the roles is you support the process whilst the project manager uses it every day to manage the project. A good Project Support Officer appreciates the flexibility in good practice too, especially if it means the outcome is better or greater than sticking rigidly to the process.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is the other side of good practice in a lot of ways. It answers the question, “have we done what we said we were going to do?”.
Audits, reviews, compliance, health checks, gateways and configuration management are all areas that a Project Support Officer will get involved. It could take the form of collating the data, setting up peer reviews, liaising with the quality department or maintaining the project information in a library or repository.
Quality assurance requires attention to detail. You become the co-ordinator of different departments and people and of course our old friend reporting!
Support
The clue is in the title – Project Support Officer – and support in whatever shape it takes is something that really makes the Project Support Officer indispensable. The nature of the role means you are often the centre point for the project – along with the project manager. The project manager relies heavily on you to make things go smoothly. If meetings need arranging, agendas set and actions chased, it’s the Project Support Officer that makes it happen. The same applies with travel arrangements, team events, last-minute project purchases and getting the client’s time in the diary. You remove any blockers!
It’s these little ‘support’ requirements that appear on every project at any one time that need a good project support officer so the project manager can delegate. And every project manager wants a right hand man (or woman!) that can provide support when it’s needed the most.
PMO Learning
PMO Learning offer the Essentials for PMO Administrators certification course – the perfect entry level certification course for those working in project support roles. Another course you may be interested in is the P3O® Foundation.
Looking to find out more about entry level PMO roles? Read more in our How to Get Started in PMO eBook.
The P3O® courses on this page are offered by PMO Learning. P3O® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited. P3O® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
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