MOA MOE: what's the difference between project ownership and project management?
MOA, MOE, maitrise d'ouvrage, maitrise d'œuvre, when you arrive at a company, you often hear these barbaric terms uttered in meetings. Do we really know what they mean and where they come from?
Guillaume Raoul, PMO at Blue Soft Consulting has the answer. By the way, if the term PMO doesn't ring a bell either, we invite you to have a look at our other articles on the subject. Project management and project management (and their acronyms) are basically derived from the building trades. It's much easier to understand them by applying them to this context.
So, in concrete terms, what is the MOA?
Please note that we're not talking here aboutAMOA, which is slightly different, and we'll see why at the end.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT :
The project owner (MOA) represents the customer or the person commissioning the work. It defines the needs, requirements and constraints of the project. They play a crucial role in drawing up the specifications needed to complete the project. In the example of building a house, the MOA would be similar to the homeowner detailing his or her expectations for the ideal home:
"I'd like a 3-bedroom, 90 m2 house with a rectangular shape and a roof with a 25° pitch in concrete and wood, etc." The MOA will then draw up the specifications required to complete the project.
Project management :
The project manager (MOE) then steps in to give concrete form to the directives laid down by the MOA. It undertakes the actual construction of the work, ensuring that the specifications and constraints defined by the MOA are met. In our building scenario, the MOE would be the construction team responsible for building the house in line with the owner's expectations.
MOA / MOE
In short, the Owner represents the customer's needs and ensures that the project meets those needs, while the Owner is responsible for the actual construction of the work in accordance with the Owner's directives.
What about project management assistance (PMA)?
Finally, in the case of project management, this is the function that helps the project owner, and therefore the customer, to best convey the need to the project owner. The AMOA possesses expertise in a given sector, and has the ability to translate the project owner's requirements as precisely as possible. In our example, the architect would act as the link between the customer and the construction team.
Note that the terms MOA / MOE and AMOA are only used in French, and are not present in international project management repositories such as Prince2 or PMBOK.
