Developed in parallel with project ownership (MOA) and project management (MOE), project ownership assistance (AMOA or AMO) is now an integral part of the organization of IT systems for companies of all sizes, activities, sales figures and market positions.
More or less fastidious and demanding, the AMOA must be able to support, help, advise and assist (as part of its name suggests) the project owners, who in turn must satisfy the project managers.
All these clearly distinct, yet complementary functions take their essence from the IT field, and form a solid and effective network of skills, provided they are clearly organized.
What skills do you need in a project management assistant?
The scope of AMOA’s skills and activities logically depend on the size of the company concerned.
The larger the company, the more diverse its areas of activity, and the more complex its information systems.
AMOA can be counted on to consolidate the accounting, administrative or management approach to business activities.
In all cases, however, AMOA personnel must have common professional skills:
- The ability to formalize and analyze the company’s requirements and expectations in terms of IT development (the ability to listen and explain requirements in layman’s terms in order to interpret them accurately, initiative and the ability to make proposals are all qualities that are necessary for the successful organization of the project management and engineering teams).
- An ability to approach IT engineering (drawing up specifications, defining the technical functions required to implement functional and operational support, etc.).
In addition to these criteria, which are common to all the AMOA positions we came across in Geneva, there are obviously qualities and skills that are specific to each company.
The expectations of the MOA and MOE will be different in sectors such as home automation, watchmaking, administration (payroll, accounting…) or mechanical engineering, to name but a few.
The main missions of Project Management Assistance
In Geneva, as elsewhere in Switzerland, AMOA ensures that companies can rely on smooth, efficient processes.
While the job of project management assistant has the power and duty to combine with all sectors and fields of activity, it also always carries the same missions, with varying degrees of scope and importance.
In all cases, they are involved in all phases of the project, both upstream and throughout, right through to completion.
Mission upstream of the project and in collaboration with the project owner:
- definition of needs with a requirements repository
- validation or proposal of functional solutions
Mission during the project in collaboration with the project management team:
- quality control and compliance with specifications defined upstream
- assistance in defining criteria for selecting partners and service providers to support project implementation
- project management
Mission at the end of the project :
- user training in certain cases
- follow-up on corrections and modifications to improve the project
An indispensable link with the company’s various entities
So, as you can see, project management assistance is essential to the definition of a company’s IT functional requirements.
As an inseparable partner of the project owner and the project manager, project management has become a key position.
It is not only essential for setting up technical organizational processes, but also for training human skills in the field.
It’s thanks to an efficient operational organization that a company’s entire IT system can evolve and improve, and thus ensure that its objectives are maintained.
Here again, the aim is to optimize the processing of certain tasks and missions, in terms of time spent and effectiveness, while always maintaining an unconditional focus on performance and efficiency.
