So, with those questions in mind, I though I'd take some time and write up my thoughts on being a Project Manager. Hopefully, this will help some of those individuals that have in one way or another kind of stumbled in to the role and maybe help someone who is trying to figure out if being a Project Manager is the next right move in their career.
So, what do Project Managers do and why are they needed across most organizations and professions? The simplest definition is that the Project Manager has the overall responsibility and accountability for the successful planning and execution of a project. The title has been formalized across a broad range of professions including, but not limited to, architecture, construction and information technology. For the purposes of this posting, we'll stick to the role that the Project Manager plays within Information Technology projects.
So, the Project Manager, in short, is supposed to make stuff happen. And now for the tough part, they are supposed to make stuff happen, while limiting risk to the overall organization, ensuring that costs stay in-line with initial projections and limiting conflict between individual resources/teams involved in the project. Here are some of the items that a good project manager makes happen:
- Planning - identify the sequence of events/tasks needed to complete the project.
- Resourcing - ensuring that the right resources are available at the right time to handle work activity within the project.
- Budget Development - identifying the various budgets and successfully managing them to ensure no cost overruns.
- Quality - ensuring that quality is accounted for throughout the entire lifecycle.
- Risk/Issue Management - through work with the Project Team, early identification of items that could impact the timeline, costs or resources associated with a project and creating and executing mitigation plans to reduce or eliminate the risk.
- Documentation Oversight - oversight of the artifacts to ensure that those artifacts needed within the overall project lifecycle are created and maintained.
- Team Leadership - act as an escalation point for the team and actively work to remove roadblocks.
Managing Interruptions
On a day to day basis, the Project Manager looks to minimize interruptions to the activity planned within the project schedule. The building of complex systems requires focus and attention. Each interruption is a cost to the task underway - studies have proven that an unplanned interruption in the concentration of a developer can mean 15-20 minutes of lost time as the team member refocuses back to the work task. Just five interruptions a day means one lost hour of productivity - or a loss of 5 hours for the week.In most instances, these interruptions focus on the most senior members of the team. They typically have been with the organization the longest and have the most knowledge of the inner workings of the systems in production. Additionally, they are probably the team members that have been involved in the overall planning/design work for the activities underway. People naturally gravitate to them to resolve issues or to understand what it is that they are supposed to be doing. A Project Manager understands the natural conflict in the responsibilities of these resources. They need to find ways to give these resources uninterrupted time in their day to handle the tasks that they've been assigned, they also need to find windows of planned time where team members know they can approach these individuals and resolve outstanding questions or get help on production related problems.
Removing Roadblocks
One of the most significant roles that a Project Manager can play for the project team is to clear the road ahead of the team - removing the obstacles that continually pop-up and want to derail the team. Project Managers tackle the politics at play within an organization and make sure that they don't touch the team - allowing the team to focus on the work. They identify issues early and then work with leaders across the organization to remove those issues before it impacts the ability of the team to move forward. If there are open decisions, they will manage activity to ensure that decisions are made. If there are contracts to be completed before an outside resource is made available, they will find the necessary people and get the contract approved.Prioritization
Some people don't understand how to prioritize work. A good Project Manager will stay abreast of what their team members are working on. They will walk about the office checking in on team members, or if they are remote spend time on the phone talking with the team member. Yes, some of this will be related to the assigned project activity, but they will also steer the conversation to find out what else might be on the plate of the team member. They then actively engage in making sure that the project activity is getting the priority it deserves. Sometimes this will be in 1-on-1 conversations with the team member, and sometimes the Project Manager will escalate the issue to make sure that team members can maintain the right focus on their work activity.Project Managers are essential to the successful completion of projects. They work the issues, they manage conflict and they keep the companies management team aware of the current status - that means they are regularly informing the Project Management Office of the work efforts and whether they are on track to meet specific milestones related to cost, timelines and resourcing.
How do you use Project Managers within your organization and within the overall SDLC process?
Blog Tags: SDLC, Project Management, Project, Management, Manager, Project Manager
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