Project Manager’s Role
Overall, a project manager’s role is responsibility and accountability for the successful planning, execution, monitoring, control and closure of a project. To be successful, a project manager must skillfully combine the art of leadership with management disciplines of planning, organizing, monitoring, and controlling. Successful project management further ensures actual procedures, processes, resources, tools, and techniques are focused on achieving the business mission, goals, and strategies.
Planning is a critical success factor for any project. This includes ensuring your project is chartered, has a business case, and a sponsor with funding authority. The first task that must be performed for any project is creating a feasible project plan. The initial project management plan must include the baseline scope, schedule, resources, quality, and risks. A project management plan’s value in saving time, money, and mitigating problems and risks during the project life cycle cannot be overstated.
To achieve planned project expectations, the project manager must balance competing stakeholder interests against the constraints of limited resources and ever-changing technologies as well as often unachievable demands and unreasonable people. Project management combines the art and science of the leadership and management of people, technology, business requirements, risks, and expectations. Often, project management is like a juggling act, with too many balls in the air at the same time.
Effective project management generally recognizes understanding of and uses best practice techniques and tools including work breakdown structures, critical path analysis, and earned value management. Beyond best practices effective project management uses skills and knowledge from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) as well as application domain knowledge and related standards and regulations such as FDA, FRS, DOD, ITIL, RUP/UML, Agile, and ISO.
When recruiting and building an effective project team, both the technical skills of each member and the chemistry among workers must be considered.
The successful project manager also focuses on risk as a key concern and attempts to reduce risk significantly, often by adhering to a policy of open communication to ensure project stakeholders are able to express their opinions and concerns.
A great project manager is one who consistently delivers projects on time and within budget, and who, when the going get tough, is the go to person. What qualities does it take to be a great project manager?
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Inspires shared vision
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Effective communicator
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Integrity
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Enthusiasm
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Empathy
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Competence
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Effective delegation
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Cool under pressure
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Team-builder
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Problem solver
Critical Project Manager Traits Are:
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Excellent, Quick Study and Puzzle Solver
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Active Listener and Collaborative Team Player
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Well Organized Strategist, Analyst, and Planner
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Excellent at Managing Scope and Change
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Quality, On-Time, Within Budget Delivery on Commitments
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Passionate, Excellence in Pursuit of Quality Solution Design and Product Innovation
A working model using mission-driven measures in a team approach is worth a thousand opinions
- Chuck Morrison, MBA, PMP, CPIM
©2003-2012 Chuck Morrison, Hollister, CA, All rights reserved
