What is the Difference Between a Regular Project Manager and a PMI?

In fact, there are 2 ways to say about PMI, the official definition is an organization, but there will also be PMI positions on the recruitment website, but I think this is a containment relationship, the organization needs people who can hold the organization to manage the organization, naturally it also produces this position, it is not surprising, the essence is the same… 

For the problem of this type of difference and contrast, I often share with you the idea: first understand their noun explanations, then the scope of use, and finally the development of their respective interspersed relationships… 

First, what are PM and PMI? 

Then compare their differences with the current situation 

Finally take a look at the development of PM and PMI interspersed!

What are the project manager PMI? 

What is PMI? 

Definition 

PMI Project Management Office Manager, also known as Project Management Office Manager, Project Management Center, or Project Management Department. 

Generally speaking, the PMI is responsible for the formulation of the company’s project management policies and standards, coordinating, coordinating and supervising the development of the company’s internal projects, and ensuring the overall progress and quality of various projects.

Basic type

In the enterprise organization, PMI generally has three basic positioning types: guaranteed, controlled, and strategic. 

The level of these 3 types is gradually increased, a map to see clearly, to do PMI, you have to go to the control type and strategic type. 

The three major roles of PMI

One is to set standards for internal problem solving, the other is to negotiate and deliver support to external customers, and the third is to empower personnel. 

To be clear, PMI is not a simple PM, in order to complete the project delivery and exist, if only for this purpose, the project manager is enough, PMI exists, is to make the project manager responsible for delivering the project more excellent. Let the project manager know what are the good standards and how to do it? 

Now we have the position of Customer Success Manager, which is a bit similar in nature, which is to help the people who are directly responsible for the success of the project succeed. 

General Project Manager

A PM (Project Manager) project manager is an individual delegated by the executive organization to achieve the goals of the project.

Depending on the organizational structure of the enterprise, the project manager may report to the functional manager, or to the project set manager or portfolio manager. 

The work content of the project manager is to coordinate project resources, sort out the project organizational structure, integrate the project plan, and monitor and manage the entire project throughout the life cycle. 02

What’s the difference

In fact, the difference between the two is still quite obvious, one is the organization, the other is the person. It’s just that the recognition of PMI is not very high, so it is silly to distinguish. 

They all have one thing in common: they all revolve around the project and are ultimately responsible for the project. But what is the difference between them? 

The goal is different

The premise of the goal is the needs of the customer, the needs are different, so the goals are different. 

The project manager is responsible for achieving specific project outcome goals under various constraints of the project, while the PMI is an organization with special authorization, and its work objectives include an organizational perspective. 

Project managers focus on project goals, and PMI focuses on changes in the scope of large projects. 02 Recognized value and effectiveness of different project managers have a strong popularity, and there are also PMP such authoritative project managers professional certification, gold content and promotion are very high. 

However, PMI has not yet had a generally recognized PMI structure, and in many enterprises, PMI is a temporary small workshop, and the leaders will disperse when they leave, and they will often become “guaranteed” PMI organizations and become the logistics unit of project managers. 

However, the establishment of PMI is also very flexible, you can set up a PMI for a project, you can also set up a project in the department to manage all the projects of the entire department, you can also set up a PMI for the entire organization, so that if the organization needs, in fact, there can be a level 3 PMI in an enterprise organization at the same time. 

Although PMI is recognized as having low value, its use in organizations is still high. 03 Scope of work There is also a clear difference between the work content of PM and PMI, I summarized two elements, namely: the use of resources and the scope of management. 

The project manager makes reasonable allocation and control of project resources in order to better achieve project goals, while PMI optimizes the use of shared organizational resources between all projects. 

Project managers manage a wide range of content, including schedule, expense, cost, and quality, while PMI manages overall risks, overall opportunities, and all project dependencies. 

The development of PM and PMI is interspersed with

In fact, the entire career development of PM and PMI can be interspersed, whether it is the primary of PM or the primary of PMI, it is only in the stage of miscellaneous work, which is not helpful for personal growth. 

I’ve seen a lot of people who aren’t really project managers, who don’t know how to do project management at all, just because they’re the biggest on that team, they’re project managers. This is okay in the past and some traditional enterprises, but now this agile era is about to lose pace. 

Therefore, whether it is PM or in PMI organizations, it is necessary to have a sound project management knowledge system and become a professional project manager. To do it, first of all, the professional project management qualification certification PMP certificate to the examination, lay a good foundation, while learning while practicing. 

So how to intersperse development after having a foundation? I made a whole table and looked at it intuitively! 

Written before the end in the same PM, what is the difference between a project manager and a product manager? It is said that project managers and product managers are the right thing to do, one to do the right thing. 

Similarly, between PM and PMI, the project manager still has to successfully deliver the project according to the PMP project management knowledge system, according to the methodology and execution of the 5 process groups and 10 major knowledge areas, and finally successfully deliver the project to the satisfaction of the relevant stakeholders, that is, the complete project management cycle. Success or failure requires the full involvement of the PM. 

And the PMI is more important to do the right thing, jump out of the project this separate perspective, everything is centered on the organization, because the leader of the PMI is the top level, it has to do is to put the high-level decision-making into practice, life and death are in the hands of the top level. 

So for PMI, what matters is not what you want to do, but what the organization needs you to do. 

The higher the dimension of the station, the simpler and more essential it is to look at things, which is reverse thinking, and the positioning of PMI is still not very clear.