Chapter 2 : Role of Project Manager
Topics covered in this snack-sized chapter:
A project manager is the person who has the overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, execution and closure of a project.
- The person responsible for developing, in conjunction with the project sponsor, a definition of the project.
- The project manager then ensures that the project is delivered on time, within budget and to the required quality standards.
- He/she ensures the project is effectively resourced and manages relationships with a wide range of groups including all the project contributors.
Responsible for managing project constraints while delivering a quality product:
- Scope: What do we want to do?
- Cost: How much will it cost?
This includes planning, execution and managing the people, resources and scope of the project.
Integration Management: This includes developing and managing the direction of the project.
Scope Management: This includes planning, defining and managing the scope of the project.
Time and Cost Management: This covers developing a schedule, allocating resources and managing funds for the project.
Quality Management: This involves taking care of the quality of the process in question such that it meets or even exceeds various quality parameters set earlier.
Human Resource Management: A manager needs to take care of his team, encourage and motivate them and make sure the team moves in the right direction.
Communication Management: The manager needs to prepare a communication plan and make sure that there is a healthy communication, both horizontally and vertically.
Risk Management: Various risks involved in a project should be identified and a mitigation and contingency plan needs to be developed to ensure that the project is not derailed at any point.
Procurement Management: Various materials needed during the project needs to be procured and managed with the vendors and suppliers for successful completion of the project.
Define scope of the project.
Identify stakeholders.
Develop task list.
Estimate time requirements.
Identify resources and budget.
Evaluate requirements.
Identify and evaluate risks.
Identify interdependencies.
Identify and track milestones.
Manage the change.
Report project status.
To become a successful project manager, one should need to develop some useful skills that are indispensable while completing the project profitably.
A project manager can direct the goals by communicating various aspects of the project stages with every group member in an efficient manner.
- Being a project manager, one should need to develop sound leadership skills that should not only glue the workers together but also center their efforts toward the specific target.
- A good PM encourages other workers to achieve the objective by setting high standards of performance and in doing so; he leads the way by himself instead of playing a ‘waiting game’.
Skill of resolving disputes among group members and organizing them to get ‘Back on Track’.
Responsibility of a project manager to put an end to the differences amid workers
- A project manager has a particular characteristic of designing the best team such that the team skills correspond precisely according to the project requirements.
- He must recognize the significant differences that might crop up over and over again among the team members and should also be mentally geared up to have a go at resolving those differences of opinion since most of them didn’t have a prior experience of working in unison.
Proficient in dealing with various project issues through ‘Give and Take’.
- Negotiation is a part and parcel aspect for every project since it involves the complex mechanism to find the middle ground amid employees and the manager.
- A PM needs to have sound negotiation skills so that he may persuade the entire group to arrive at the mutual objective that is beneficial for the project requirements.
Must have a skill in making plans about the whole project and achieving coordination.
Planning is an essential component of project management
- Planning is of course the most significant portion of project management which cannot be avoided at any cost. Hence, a project manager is also responsible for taking charge of the various development stages that comprise the whole project.
- He must have a mental strategy and can also see through the walls beyond which a normal worker does not have the ability to contemplate.
Ability to estimate probable costs to be incurred throughout the project.
Project cost estimation
- When it comes to feasibility study of the project management, cost estimation is the most important concern that influences the verdict of the PM to a great extent.
- In order to achieve this, he should possess an in-depth understanding regarding various accounting standards in addition to the monetary practice that will assist him to analyze the project from a financial perspective.
Managing and leading the project team.
Recruiting project staff and consultants.
Managing coordination of the partners and working groups engaged in project work.
Developing and maintaining a detailed project plan.
Managing project deliverables in line with the project plan.
Resolving cross-functional issues at project level.
Managing project scope, change control and escalating issues wherever necessary.
Monitoring project progress and performance.
Providing status reports to the project sponsor.
Managing project training within the defined budget.
Link with, and update progress to, project steering board/senior management.
Managing project evaluation and dissemination activities.
Managing consultancy input within the defined budget.
Final approval of the design specification.
Working closely with users to ensure the project meets business needs.
Identifying user training needs, devising and managing user training programs.
Set a clear vision
Good communicator
Integrity
Enthusiasm
Empathy
Competence
Ability to delegate tasks
Cool under pressure
Team-building skills
Problem solving skills