Project and portfolio management

SmartSuite for the Project Manager

The Project Manager plans and delivers a project: scope, schedule, budget, team, risks and stakeholders. They keep tasks, milestones and dependencies current, run status and change control and close the project with lessons learned.

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Reports to:

Program Manager

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What you own

The Project Manager plans and delivers a project: scope, schedule, budget, team, risks and stakeholders.

Define scope, schedule, budget and the delivery approach
Plan and assign work, milestones and dependencies
Manage risks, issues and change requests
Run status reporting and stakeholder communication
Track budget, time and resource usage
Close the project with acceptance and lessons learned

Reporting lines

Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.

Reports to

Program Manager

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Direct reports

Works closely with

How SmartSuite supports this role

Lead

Planning. Builds the plan with tasks, milestones and dependencies in timeline, board and Gantt views.

Execution. Assigns work, tracks progress and automates status updates to stakeholders.

Risks and issues. Logs risks, issues and change requests with owners and decisions.

Financials. Tracks budget and actuals against the plan.

Reporting. Produces status reports and dashboards without manual compilation.

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Products this role uses most

Project Management

Plan, execute, and track projects with tasks, dependencies, Gantt and Kanban views, and dashboards that share one set of records across teams.

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Project Financial Management

Plan, track, and manage project budgets, actual costs, and investment performance across projects, programs, and portfolios.

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Time & Effort Tracking

Track time, measure effort, and see how work is spent across projects, teams, and billable activity with the Time Tracking Log field.

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Resource Management

Plan, allocate, and balance resources with visibility into capacity, utilization, and demand across projects, programs, and teams.

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Issues Management

Track and remediate issues across audits, risk, and compliance with structured workflows, clear ownership, and real-time visibility into resolution status.

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Industry reference

The PMI's PMBOK Guide (8th edition, November 2025) and PRINCE2 7 (PeopleCert, September 2023) are the reference methods for project delivery: PMBOK's principles and performance domains, PRINCE2's principles, practices and processes, and the tailoring both expect to the project in hand.

In regulated sectors the project record is also evidence. Change requests and approvals are sampled under SOX where a project changes financial systems and under SOC 2 change-management criteria, FDA validation expects a documented history for regulated software, and government gateway reviews read the plan, the risks and the decisions at each stage.

Related roles

Program Manager

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DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Explore Further

Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.

All articles

What's new

What is a PMO (Project Management Office)?

What is Earned Value Management (EVM)?

What is Project Risk Management?

What is Agile vs Waterfall In The Program/Project Context

What is Project Lifecycle Management?

What is Project Portfolio Analytics & Reporting?

Frequently asked questions

What does a Project Manager own on a project?

The Project Manager owns the delivery of one project: its scope, schedule, budget and delivery approach, the plan of work, milestones and dependencies, the team's assignments, and the risks, issues and change requests that arise along the way. They run status reporting and stakeholder communication, track budget, time and resource usage, and close the project with acceptance and lessons learned. Whatever method the organization follows, PMBOK or PRINCE2, these are the things the role answers for.

How does SmartSuite help a Project Manager build and keep the plan current?

Project Management builds the plan with tasks, milestones and dependencies in timeline, board and Gantt views, so the Project Manager plans in the Gantt, the team works from the board and both show the same tasks. A date change on a dependent task moves what depends on it, which keeps the plan honest without rebuilding it each week. Resource Management shows who is assigned and whether they have capacity for what the plan asks.

How are risks, issues and change requests handled during delivery?

Issues Management logs risks, issues and change requests with owners and decisions, so a change request shows who raised it, what it affects, who decided and what they decided. The Project Manager runs change control from that record and escalates to the Program Manager when the decision is above their authority. In regulated delivery, where SOX or FDA validation expects evidence of change control, the log is the evidence.

How does SmartSuite track project budget against actuals?

Project Financial Management tracks budget and actuals against the plan, and Time & Effort Tracking supplies the hours behind the labor cost, so the Project Manager sees spend to date against the approved budget on the same project record as the schedule. A forecast overrun is visible while there is still time to raise a change request. The FP&A Manager can read the same figures when the portfolio's financials are reviewed.

How does a Project Manager report upward to the Program Manager and the PMO?

SmartSuite produces status reports and dashboards without manual compilation, and automates status updates to stakeholders as work progresses, so the report to the Program Manager and the Head of PMO is a view of the live project: milestones, progress, open risks and issues, budget against actuals. The PMO Analyst does not re-key it into a portfolio pack, because the program and portfolio views read the same records. The Project Manager spends the saved time on the conversations that need judgment.

What does a project need to start running in SmartSuite?

The scope, the task list with milestones and dependencies, the team and the approved budget. New customers can start with SmartSuite Onboarding, a guided four-week program around one or two priority workflows, and for a project team that is the plan itself. Teams that already have a plan in a spreadsheet load it into Project Management and refine it in the Gantt view, assigning owners as they go. Time & Effort Tracking and Resource Management are switched on when the project needs to see hours and capacity, usually in the second week.

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