MOA / MOE: Roles and responsibilities of these teams in a digital transformation project

The terms AMOA (Assistance à maîtrise d’ouvrage) and MOE (Maîtrise d’œuvre) were coined over 20 years ago in the public works sector. These terms are used today in the sphere of information systems implementation and there is often confusion between these two roles in companies. That’s why SQORUS now wants to clearly redefine these two notions. Indeed, the distinction between these two roles is important for the success of your IT projects.

The project owner (MOA) defines and manages the project

It has a role of principal, of decision-maker. It orders the project. It represents end-users and is responsible forfunctional and non-technicalexpression. The project owner, the entity that is responsible for the need, defines the project’s objective, its schedule and its budget. Furthermore, the expected result of the project is the production of a product called a “work”.

The AMOA, Assistance à maîtrise d’ouvrage, is the person/team who supports the company in all phases of its project (definition of objectives, planning, budgeting, training, etc.).

The AMOA can be internal to the company or external (consultant), when the decision-maker does not have the time nor the skills to carry out this work. So, for example, when implementing an HR information system, the project owner will have to define the scope of the project, and the processes to be covered: recruitment, training, appraisal and talent management, etc. The project manager is responsible for managing the project throughout its life cycle.

It plays this role during the various steering committees of the project. The project owner (or one of his representatives) is generally the chairman of the steering committee, in order to regularly monitor the progress of the project and to validate the different milestones (GO-NoGO) allowing to pass from one phase to the next.

Project management (MOE) carries out the technical aspects of the project

The EMO is positioned downstream of the Owner, it ensures the construction, the coordination of the works and is responsible for their successful completion. It implements the requirements expressed by the project owner.

It is the entity retained by the project owner to technically carry out the work under the conditions of quality, costs and deadlines defined by a contract.RH.

In practice, who writes the specifications?

The drafting of specifications is generally the subject of debate within the company… Functional specifications should normally be supplied by the project owner and given to the project manager.

In practice, it turns out that writing a specification is complex and can rarely ignore (even if it should, in theory) all the underlying technical issues. However, these issues are the prerogative of the project management team, which is often called upon to draw up these specifications…

In fact, a good solution can be the writing of a purely functional specification by the project owner and then the proposal of a more formal version by the project manager, or a collegial writing of the functional specification.

MOA/ MOE: an essential collaboration

The project manager expresses the users’ needs, the project manager responds with the technical solution! It is essential on a digital transformation project, which is by nature complex, to understand and enforce these roles for the smooth running of the project. The skills of the two teams are different and complementary.

If the former master the business and its uses, the latter will be the only ones able to customize the solution according to the expectations of technical neophytes. Therefore, from the beginning of an implementation project, it is important to clearly define these roles, their differences and the importance of working together hand in hand to achieve the common goal: an information system that works well and is adapted to the needs of the company.

Sqorus expertise

SQORUS, with its 28 years of experience in the field, can help you achieve this goal. We propose to help you in the choice of a solution and in the implementation of a solution in relation to the Finance and Human Resources professions.