23.7. MENTORING

Project management mentoring is a critical PO activity. Most people seem to agree that the best way to train someone in project management is with on-the-job training. One such way would be for inexperienced project managers to work directly under the guidance of an experienced project manager, especially on large projects. This approach may become costly if the organization does not have a stream of large projects.

Perhaps the better choice would be for the PO to assume a mentoring role whereby inexperienced project managers can seek advice and guidance from the more experienced project managers who report either "solid" or "dotted" to the PO. This approach has three major benefits. First, the line manager to whom the project manager reports administratively may not have the necessary project management knowledge or experience capable of assisting the worker in times of trouble. Second, the project manager may not wish to discuss certain problems with his or her superior for fear of retribution. Third, given the fact the PO may have the responsibility for maintaining lessons-learned files, the project mentoring program could use these files and provide the inexperienced project manager with early warning indicators that potential problems could occur.