Differences Between a Service Delivery Manager and a Project Manager

A project manager takes a project through standard phases of initiation, planning, and execution. Then she hands over the application to a service delivery manager, who is responsible for sustaining the application. A service delivery manager maintains service levels as set by end users.

Project managers have set deliverables. They move on to the next project when they are done. Service delivery managers oversee the continued delivery of the service. Service delivery thus is an ongoing effort that includes service-level agreements and metrics reporting, as defined in Chapter 3.