What Does a Project Manager Do?

Project Management as a Career Path

Career Full-time role Career progression Cross industries Those who choose project management as a career can expect to be hired full time in that capacity. Titles vary by industry. Common titles include project engineer, senior consultant, business analyst, and of course project manager. Entry-level titles include project coordinator, project expeditor, junior project manager, or sometimes project manager - level one. As a project manager, you can cross over to other industries because these skills are transferable. For example, as a project management consultant, you may find yourself working on projects within industries ranging from software development to process improvement projects or even new product development in a manufacturing setting. You'd expect to progress in your career both in terms of the type of projects you manage as well as the titles and pay scales.

Project Manager Competencies

Let's take a closer look at the skills you need. To be successful in your project manager role, you'll need to develop your competencies in two key areas: interpersonal skills and technical skills. Interpersonal skills include communication skills, leadership, and influencing. You'll need to be able to focus your staff through team building, motivation, and negotiation. You'll also sharpen your problem solving, decision-making, and conflict resolution skills. Technical skills include scheduling, estimating the work in both hours and costs, and gathering and analyzing business and technical requirements for the work. Project managers are responsible for project planning, including all aspects of scope, schedule, budget, and risks. Once the project is implemented, required skills include controlling changes, statusing, and reporting. These are just some of the competencies a project manager needs. Some project managers have high competencies in their soft skills but lack technical skills. Others have finely honed technical skills but aren't big on people skills. The goal is to recognize your strengths that make you most suitable for specific types of projects and work to improve areas of weakness as part of your overall professional development plan.

Is Project Management a Career Path or Skill Set?

Project management is a career for some people. For others, it's an added skill set they can use regardless of their industry or type of job. Surveys of executives confirm that project management skills are one of the top five highly desirable skill sets for current and potential employees. Career Full-time role Career progression Cross industries Skill Set Improves productivity Helps prioritize Provides more tools

Project Management as a Skill Set

Skill Set Improves productivity Helps prioritize Provides more tools But learning about project management can be useful even if you don't intend to become a full-time project manager. It can be very valuable to add this skill set to your lists of capabilities, regardless of your job title or work responsibilities. Project management skills improve productivity because you learn how to organize and estimate work efforts more effectively. You'll also be able to prioritize and schedule your work better because you'll understand how work efforts impact each other or identify a logical sequence to approach them. Throughout this program, you'll be introduced to many project management tools and techniques. These will enhance your current tool set and provide you with greater abilities to perform your assigned work.

What does a project manager do?

So, now you've seen the value of project management. Let's tackle the next big question: What does a project manager do? First, the project manager leads and manages his or her team. When you're assigned to a project, you'll have to acquire the team, assign their tasks, and direct their work. The project manager also needs to ensure that work aligns with the project's objectives. After all, each project is approved to achieve specific objectives. As project manager, it's your responsibility to understand those objectives and keep your team on track to fulfill them. For a project to be successful, the project manager and team will also need to develop a good plan designed to meet the stated objectives and then implement the actions according to the plan.

Project Management Components

To do this work, you'll use a combination of skills, tools, and techniques. Project management skills include the ability to build a project schedule, estimate the amount of work effort, and identify risk. Common project management tools include schedule analysis tools (such as network diagrams), work identification tools (such as work breakdown structures), or quality tools (such as Pareto diagrams). Project Managment Skills, Tools, and Techniques Skills Tools Techniques Build a Schedule Network Diagrams Decomposition Estimate Effort Work Breakdown Structures Inspections Identify Risks Pareto Charts Verification You'll find that project management will involve processes, procedures, and techniques to use these tools effectively. For example, you'll break down the work or decompose it using the work breakdown structure. You'll want to make sure project work was done correctly and as planned utilizing techniques like inspections and verification processes. Don't worry if these terms are unfamiliar. We'll be covering them in upcoming lessons.