All too often smaller specialist providers of Project Management are mistakenly viewed as lacking in capability and credibility. Often this is due to their relatively young age and shear weight of numbers, or rather the lack of them, in respect of resource.

Larger project management providers tend to be major QS or multi-disciplined practices where PM was "bolted-on" to their service list once it became popular and was made credible by the independents. Specialist project managers, who are independent of any parent or multi-disciplinary organisation, often appear to struggle to convince some clients who approach procurement of PM services with a distinct leaning towards headcount, perceived years of experience and reputation.

Many client organisations fail to realise that smaller, specialist companies such my own company, CPC Ltd who are one of the UK’s leading independent PM providers and other independent competitors, often have:

• Greater numbers of dedicated project management resource available who “do what it says on the packet"
• More "miles on the clock" than the PM resource of many of the larger multi-discipline firms
• Genuine well founded reputations for projects done right first time, every time.

Sadly with the procurement of many of the larger public sector projects the due diligence eye remains focussed on the big safe pair of hands rather than the specialist dynamic offerings from CPC and their kind.

This concern can easily be countered by the fact that even on major projects the likely resource requirement from the PM is for a good senior team leader with 1 or 2 capable support players providing planning, contract administration and document control. Most members of the design team including the QS, however, will more often require large numbers of resource to deal with the technical input to managing a share of the many work packages that a large project typically breaks down into.

The capable PM, a trusted advisor to the Client leading his lean team, acts more like a conductor overseeing the project and timing the intervention and input of others to the piece, just like an orchestra responding to a timely signal that might be a need for more effort, to slow down or speed up and ultimately to deliver the finished work as the composer or client actually envisaged it.

In essence, the PM plans, leads, reports, facilitates and coordinates progress but allows the participants to use their skill to the right effect at the right time and does not need the many pairs of hands of the other members of the orchestra and when it comes to PM, bigger does not necessarily mean better!