More and more work is project based in organizations leading to more and more demand for project managers. What is a project manager and what is the role of a project manager? As defined by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) standard published by the Project Management Institute (PMI), a project manager is the person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives. A project manager can be assigned to be over only one project or several different projects and try to lead several teams to accomplish the objectives of the different projects. To effectively accomplish project objectives, project managers must possess several competencies: knowledge, performance, and personal.
Knowledge of project management methodologies and tools. Project management knowledge allows the project manager to know which and what methods or tools best facilitate achieving the objective of a project. As an example, the PMBOK outlines ten different knowledge areas with 47 different processes that fit into five different process groups. These processes are guidelines to standard projects but may not necessarily be used in every project. A project manager’s knowledge determines the tools and methods available for application to a project.
Performance is the project manager’s outcome from applying his or her project management knowledge. What is the consequence of the application of the project manager’s knowledge? Did the project successfully achieve its objectives as a result? Or did the project overrun its budget or cost? How effective was the project manager at working with the project team? A project manager needs to be equipped with the right knowledge and personal competencies to result in strong performance.
Personal or emotional and social intelligence is key to a project manager’s success. A project manager work with many people including the project team and other stakeholders. Effective guidance and interaction with those associated with the project by the project manager directly impacts project success. Some of the key skills of project managers are communication, leadership, decision making, political and cultural awareness, negotiation, conflict management, team building, influencing, motivation, coaching and trust building.
A project manager can best achieve project objectives by building knowledge and personal competencies which will result in sound or even outstanding performance. Even equipped with all the knowledge and personal skills, a project manager will still sometimes experience negative performance. Sometimes project failure is unavoidable (the organization changes its strategic direction, project resources become unavailable, the project objective is no longer relevant to the current course of business). Building competencies will improve the likelihood of accomplishing project objectives leading to increased success of the project manager and organization.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are those of the blogger and are not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.
No comments:
Post a Comment