Incidental Owner Representative vs.
Career Owner Representative
When selecting an owner representative it is important tounderstand the focus of the Owner’s Representative and where their career and professional goals align.
Many owner representatives “incidentally” fall into the position without appropriate training or passion for the role. Some technical professionals have taken anOwners Representativerole without adequate preparation. Moreover, the skills developed to be a technical Subject Matter Expert are not directly applicableto the role as Owner’srepresentative, which requires broad general management knowledge.
Oftentimes technicalpeople see Owners’ Representation as a career step to a higher technical position within an organization. Others see this as an easy path to consulting, not fully realizing the full extent of their responsibilities and knowledge requirements to address the challenges of an Owners Representative.
The following chart compares the characteristics of an Incidental Owner Representative with those of a Career Owner Representative.
| Component | Incidental Owner Representative | Career Owner Representative |
|---|---|---|
Education | Technical | Management & Technical |
Entry To Project Management | Accidental | Planned After Qualifying |
Motivation | Return to technical field | Advance in owner representation |
Advanced Education | Unknown, possibly technical | Project Management / Advanced Management |
View Of Project Management | Necessary intrusion as a career step | Interesting and rewarding progression of increasingly challenging assignments |
Professional Goals | Specialist with technical recognition | Generalist with management advancement |
Knowledge, Skill Requirements | Detailed, in-depth, technological knowledge | Management& Technical generalist with broad scope of understanding |
Exploring the career choice and motivation of a prospective Owners Representative can help determine their qualifications to represent your project or program.