What does it take to be a Good Project Manager?
A professional in the field of management is called as Project Manager where the main duty and responsibility of the project manager are the project management. The planning, execution and procurement of the project are handled by the project manager. Any issues or discrepancies are first reported to the project manager by the team before reporting it to higher authorities. The project manager should have the managerial and personal characteristics, as well as, he/she should be able to lead a team, regardless of the project.
There are three key factors that define how to meet the objectives of a successful project. These are cost- which defines the required resources, time- which defines how much time will be taken to complete the project and quality- that defines the expected outcomes and products. Thus, the fundamental skills needed by any project manager include following characteristics:
Communication: Being a good communicator is an essential project manager skills. The project manager should be persuasive or he/she should be capable of selling one's idea. A good project manager should also have the skills of receiving information i.e. good listening skills. It is a common saying that "The good project manager manage not by the seat of their pants but by the soles of their feet".
Organization Skills: Organizational skills are the must for any person to have to be an effective project manager. The person should have the planning and goal-setting abilities, and he/she should be analytical at the same time. A good manager should stay on track and be able to prioritize their tasks. The project goals should also be kept in perspective. The person should have the capability to analyze the situation and act accordingly.
Problem finding ability is one thing that differentiates a good project manager from others. He/she should be able to find and solve the issues before they become problems as they possess good communication and planning skills and have good clarity about goals.
Team Building: A good project manager is always able to build a great team. They always maintain an empathetic relationship with other team members. In describing any project, the best project manager uses the 'we' statement, instead if 'I'. To be an effective project manager, he/she should motivate others, be sensitive to other people's needs and build a strong sense of team spirit. The project should be broken down into smaller schedules which help the team members to understand the interdependencies among themselves and thus, the need for teamwork.
Leadership: An effective project manager should be able to set a good example and take initiatives. Having a possible outlook and being enthusiastic are the must so that people should look to them for any problems. They should always trust their team members and see the bigger picture.
Coping skills: Stress-management skills is another requirement to be an effective manager, how well he/she can handle the stress, defines their success or failure. Coping with any change requires them to be flexible and creative as well as having persistence and patience. Project managers generally have to handle a high level of stress and they should have good coping skills to handle that.
Technological skills: The final skill set, a good project manager should have is having good technological skills. They should possess good knowledge and relevant experience about the technology the project is going to work on. Only, when they have the good knowledge about technology, they will be able to ask the right question from their team members because it is must to know what people are responding.
Thus, a good project manager possesses all the above-mentioned skills and be able to implement them.
How would you judge if a particular project could be called successful on completion?
When a project is completed, it has to be constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their flexibility, effectiveness and efficiency. The success of any project can be determined with the help of various metrics which helps in laying out the progress, efficiency, performance, quality and productivity of any project. These project management metrics helps project managers to check:
any potential risk
verify the status of the ongoing project in terms of profitability, schedule and cost
finding the problems before they cannot be solved
checking productivity of the team
verifying profitability of the project
accessing the products' quality that is to be delivered.
Following are some of the metrics that helps in finding the success of any project:
1. Schedule and effort/cost variance: Performance, as well as progress of any project, can be measured with the help of this metrics. The schedule performance of the project can be measured with the schedule variance which is the difference between the earned value and the planned value. The positive value means that the project is ahead of schedule whereas the negative value means behind the schedule. Cost variance which is the difference between the earned value and the actual value is used to measure the cost performance of the project. Cost variance should have the positive value as it means that the project is under budget. Variance at completion can be used to verify that the estimate at completion should be less than the budget at completion.
2. Resource Utilization: Project manager can measure the under or over utilization of the resources involved in the project with the help of this metrics. Thus, it can be used to measure the productivity of the resources. Utilization is defined as the percentage of the total effort spent by the resources to the total budgeted effort for the resource. There is an impact on the profitability of the project if the resources are under or over utilized. Thus, PM should do the optimal utilization of the resources in order to ensure that the project should be successful. This metric can be affected by the unplanned leaves by the resources, increased ramp up activities, delayed projects and less work provided by the customer.
3. Change requests to the scope of work: The number of change requests coming from the customer should be tracked by the project manager for the scope of work that has already been signed. Every change request has an effect on cost and schedule baselines and resources utilization plan. When there are a large number of change requests, it often impacts the projects' cost and schedule which is very negative for any project. Thus, for any accepted change request, the written agreement from the customer will be taken agreeing to the impact on the project cost and schedule.
4. Quality and Customer Satisfaction: During the execution phase of the project, the quality should always be verified by the project manager i.e. the number of low, medium and critical defects delivered throughout the execution of the project. The health of the product to be delivered is measured by this metrics and it drives the customer satisfaction as well. If defects are found in the later stage, they have a huge impact on the project. The defects raised by the customer should be closed as soon as possible. A project manager needs to concentrate on what are the causes that are impacting the project most.
5. Gross Margin: This is the most important metrics and helps in determining whether the project is on track or not. It may provide an early warning to the project manager if the margin is not good and he/she should take the margin improvement initiatives. Gross margin is the difference between total revenue and total cost spent on the project. A Project manager can track his/her GM metric any time with the help of project profit and loss statement. All the above four mentioned metrics impact this metric if they are not handled properly.
Thus, all these five performance management metrics helps in improving the decision- making ability of the project manager and he/she can take necessary steps to ensure that the project will be successful once it is completed.
Right Choice for being able to manage a multimillion dollar project
I would be the right choice as I have the potential that is needed to manage a big project. I know my personal strengths and shortcomings and I am really good at managing the work and the team that would be assigned to me. I have good experience of already handling such kind of projects and am good at technological skills needed for this project also. I am good at project management and have good knowledge of all the project management metrics that are used for effectively tracking the project and ensuring that projects are successful when completed. I can very well do the planning and procurement for the project.
I know my areas of weakness and I can delegate those work to others who can complement my skills rather than supplementing it. I am also working on my areas of weakness that improve my leadership quality. I always try to have honest communication with my peers and my teammates and have a thorough understanding of how they are perceived. I always welcome feedback from my peers and always work on the areas that they feel I need to improve on. I can do planning for the project and procurement of the team that will be needed to complete the project. I believe in integrity and always demonstrate ethical practices. I realize that everybody has a life outside of work, and so I show empathy towards the team members that entitle them to their own feelings, emotional history and ideas. As trust is an important factor for healthy relationship between project leader and his/her team, I demonstrate trust in others through my actions. I delegate the tasks and allow people to participate. I always maintain my cool, whatever be the situation.
Knowing the needs of the team is one of the most important things for me and I always build a strong team knowing the goals and values of each individual and what are their expectations from me. On the organizational level, I know the organization's overall goals and purposes and would work according to the agreed-upon strategies to achieve those goals. I, together with my team will play our part in helping the organization thrive and grow.
A positive attitude is one of my biggest quality. I always remain positive, in whatever situation and motivate my team members also. I take the right risks at the right time, that helps me to take better decisions. I articulate my vision for the organization and follow the goals that are needed to achieve it. Since I have all the qualities that are needed to be a good manager and manage a big project, I consider myself suitable for this position.
References
Greer, M., 2002. The Project Manager's Partner: A Step-by-step Guide to Project Management. Second Edition ed. New York: HRD Press.
Kerzner, H. R., 2013. Project Management Metrics, KPIs, and Dashboards: A Guide to Measuring and Monitoring Project Performance. Second Edition ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Meredith, J. & Mantel, S. J., 2009. Project Management: A Managerial Approach, 6Th Ed (W/Cd). 6th Edition ed. New Delhi: John Wiley & Sons.
Rad, P. F. & Levin, G., 2006. Metrics for Project Management: Formalized Approaches. First edition ed. Vienna: Management Concepts.
