Less Stress, More Success in Projects: Why a Project Management Master is Really Worth It.

Efficiency emerges when clear priorities meet qualified project management. The collaboration between the Project Manager and a Project Management Master brings structure and success.

Uwe Mierisch

May 05, 2025

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In classic project management, the Project Manager is a superhero.

He is the general responsible person, responsible for everything that happens in the project, including delegating responsibilities and tasks to a team, which he usually cannot choose himself, and ensuring that everything gets done.

This sounds logical and is convenient and clear for everyone.

The project stakeholder has the same contact person for every concern, and if something doesn't work, the same person is always to blame.

For the project manager himself, it also feels good.

He has unlimited power in the project, can instruct and delegate, and doesn't have to report to anyone except the stakeholders. The feeling: "It's my project!" feels quite good.

I've been in both roles, stakeholder and project manager, so I know what I'm talking about.

It's from this experience that I have learned that this concept is the reason for the failure of many projects.

The project manager is a jack-of-all-trades; he has to do everything and therefore has no time to do any of it right. He rushes from problem to problem and is so busy dealing with problems that he doesn't have time to make sure that new problems don't arise.

He delegates because of time constraints, and because of all the hectic activity, he doesn't even know what he's really delegating.

Time to prioritize?
Time to take care of the team?
Time to properly understand the product?

Everything is compromised and insufficient.

The team totally gets what the project manager is going through, and they're making the most of it.

“Project manager — handle this, handle that.”

Shortly after the project starts, the project manager has a whole troop of monkeys sitting on his shoulder.

All experienced leaders know it's unwise to let employees put monkeys on your shoulder — meaning you take over tasks that they should be handling themselves.

For years, I didn’t really have a solution.

Then I came across the roles in agile project management.

That’s when it clicked — there are a lot of smart things going on there. And honestly, some of it would work great in classic projects too.

One of the smartest ideas is to divide the project manager's responsibilities among several people.

Instead of one person juggling everything, you've got a few people, each focusing on a specific part of the project - and giving it their full attention. That way, they can really dig in, build up expertise, and bring serious skills to the table.

Another major advantage is that it allows for dialogue and resolves conflicts of interest that the project manager would otherwise have to deal with on his own.

You're wondering what conflicts of interest a project manager has?

Please have some patience, I will explain it in the following.

What Does a Project Management Master Do?

The Project Management Master is the mediator between the project manager and the project team. He has the responsibility to ensure that the project "runs smoothly."

He is a proven specialist in project management methods and supports the project team in their professional application.
He asks intelligent questions to uncover misunderstandings and conflicts of interest and moderates their resolution.
He supports the project manager in planning by organizing the planning process and ensuring that the plan is properly documented and communicated.
He defines and organizes project KPIs and keeps them up to date so that the project manager can make decisions based on correct data.

Why Project Manager and Project Management Master?

Conflict of Interest Between Project Goal Achievement and Resource Availability.

Let's start right away with the first conflict of interest, which is the compromise between realistic planning and ambitious delivery of project content.

In the last article, I described that the Project Manager is responsible for planning all necessary project activities and assigning them to the right project members.

Regardless of whether it's an agile or a classical project, the division of labor is the same.

The Project Manager needs to know what is needed, and the project team needs to know how it can be done. This is exactly where the conflict of interest lies.

On the one hand, the Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that the project goals are achieved.
On the other hand, he must also manage the available resources.

This means he has to negotiate with the team about what is possible and what is not.

At the end of the planning phase, the team must be motivated to deliver the agreed result under all circumstances. For this, they must have understood the purpose and context.

If it turns out that the project goal cannot be realized in the agreed form, then he must negotiate a new compromise with the stakeholders.

You can imagine that the project manager often comes into a conflict of interest with his two responsibilities here.

Does he demand too much from the team just to avoid negotiation with the stakeholders?
Or does he report project goals as unachievable because the team is not trying hard enough to achieve the goals?

It's always unfavorable when a participant with his own interests tries to negotiate a fair compromise.

In these situations, the Project Management Master is the neutral third party who has the opportunity to speak with both sides and help find a good compromise that is acceptable to both sides.

Division of Labor in Planning

Once the Project Manager has defined and communicated the goals for the next stage, it is necessary for everyone, yes, really everyone involved in the project, to become clear about their contribution to achieving these stage goals.

This requires a very well-structured planning process with a large number of planning discussions.

Each employee must:

understand the goal,
plan their activities,
arrange necessary inputs with colleagues,
include inputs for others in their plan, and also
keep an eye on their resources, and
be careful not to promise too much.

In the inevitable case that not all activities are possible simultaneously, prioritization must take place.

To make the right choice, it's important to consider the different options and find the best middle ground.

That's a lot of work that needs to be done in a short time.

The focus of activities in the project should be on implementation, not on planning. Therefore, planning must be focused, short, and well-coordinated.

Organizing and administering this is an effort that the project manager himself cannot manage because he has to define the project goals in terms of content at the same time.

This is where the positive effect of the division of labor between the Project Manager and the Project Management Master comes into play.

The Project Management Master concentrates 100% on the process of defining the plan for the next project increment, the next milestone, or the next quality gate.

The Project Management Master puts his focus on the planning process and ensures that all tasks are identified, all agreements are made, and all activities and plans are properly documented and communicated.

Division of Labor in Risk Management

Risk management is a core pillar in project management.

As I have already written in the article about the responsibilities and tasks of the Project Manager, it is the responsibility of the Project Manager to know and manage all project risks.

In my observation, the assessment of project risks is a very complex process that requires high methodological precision.

Often, risks, root causes, and risk impact are mixed up, although for a clean assessment and risk avoidance, it is essential to perform these steps precisely, one after the other.

First, the actual risk must be identified, then the possible root causes that could lead to this risk must be determined comprehensively and systematically. Only then does it make sense to define measures to avoid the risk, implement them, and check their effectiveness.

The Project Management Master has the training and time to help the team work methodically and cleanly.

The Project Manager doesn't have to be at every risk workshop. It's enough if he handles the analyzed data and makes the right decisions.

Also in this context, the Project Management Master helps the project team to work independently and responsibly, thereby relieving the Project Manager.

Tracking of Planned Activities

I hate tracking!

By "tracking," one generally understands the monitoring of whether everything that was agreed upon is also completed on time.

If you see that a result is not there when it should be, and you realize that something went wrong earlier, it's too late to fix.

The time has passed and cannot be brought back. Now, an irrecoverable project delay has occurred.

This is exactly what needs to be prevented.

So, a way must be found to identify approaching delays so early that there is still reaction time to complete the result on schedule.

How can this be achieved?

One way is to regularly ask the project team members how things are going.

Are you progressing well with your planned activities?

If someone is already stressed, they might not ask for help in time. In this situation, it's a good idea to ask.

Another way is to assess the status of planned activities in the project planning tool.

The Project Management Master invests the time to continuously look at and evaluate the status of activities in the project planning tool.

He is also continuously in conversation with the project members.

If he recognizes approaching delays and delivery problems, he immediately helps the team find countermeasures. In doing so, he can assess whether the Project Manager or even the stakeholders need to be involved.

There is no more unpleasant situation for a line manager than being approached by other people and not knowing that his employees are struggling with a serious problem.

In my projects, I have introduced a "red telephone - mail" This is an email to the project manager and the relevant project stakeholders, which contains the following text:

"There is a problem with issue xxx in project xy. We have recognized the problem and are working on a solution. We will contact you if we need support."

These emails usually can come from the project management master.

The Project Management Master is Not an Assistant

The Project Management Master is not disciplinarily subordinate to the project manager but represents an equal and independent project role.

It is common in classic projects to employ one or more project management supporters (PMS).

These people either report to the Project Manager or are hired from outside the company to work on the project for a limited time.

I do not want to deny that such a resource can take over part of the tasks of a Project Management Master. I also recognize that PMS employees can be proven project management experts.

Nevertheless, the disciplinary dependency stands in the way of the possibility of making a valid balance of interests between the project manager and his team.

To put it briefly, a Project Management Support is better than nothing, but it does not replace a full-fledged and independent Project Management Master.

The concept of a Project Management Master is not widespread in classic product projects.

Do you have experience with the role of the project management master in classically organized projects?

Would you like to try it out and realize the positive effect on your projects?

Then let's talk about it. Write to me in the comments or in the chat.