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If you’ve read the posts on PM4K, you would know by now that the world expects an awful lot from a Project Manager. The worrying fact is that, organizations that do not understand and appreciate the value of the profession of Project Management, expect its Project Managers to be SUPER HEROS!!!!!!! (feel free to read the post titled "A PROJECT MANAGER IS A SUPER HERO!!!")
Agreed there are many things a Project Manager is expected to be good at, however, what is the ONE quality that should be made the 'BARE MINIMUM' eligibility requirement/quality for any Project Manager?
Mind you, this question may have no ONE correct answer. Each of us may have our own version of the correct answer based on our experience. Here at PM4K we would like to hear from you.
[Mathew@PM4K]
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169 Comments:
Self Confidence - since she/he has to take critical decisions whether to move ahead with the project or dump it and convince others of the same.
If a second requirement would have been asked then it would have been : Determination (as per me)- as he has to weather through the challenges faced in any given project.
Atul Sharma,PMP, ITIL
Before I comment, I'd like to say that there is no 'Right' or 'Wrong' to this discussion. There are only point of views.
Although I agrees with Atul that Self Confidence & Determination are very important, but for me "COMMUNICATION SKILLS" takes #1 position when it comes to the most important/bare minimum eligibility requirement for a Project Manager. As they say "90% of a project manager's job is to communicate". If this is an agreed Project Management principle, then a project manager should be most efficient in what he needs to do for 90% of the times. Having said that, having Self Confidence & Determination would add to his Communication Skills.
AMM @ PM4K @ HTTP://WWW.ANISHMATHAIMATHEW.BLOGSPOT.COM
The communication thing is so blown out of proportion. Do you really spend 90% of your projects communicating? what about learning?
Communicating is business is just like breathing! Some do it well to maximize air exchange and others just do it to survive.
3 things I think are important
not being afraid to challenge
juggling knifes
hurding cats
Mark Parrish
Project Management is more of an art than a profession, mainly because its not about delivering a certain piece or make of work but the art of making that piece of work through a team and making sure the teams hands make what your mind is thinking
Aarthi Sitaraman
I can not name only one quality/skill that is the most important/bare minimum. The best I can do is list three. These are not in the order of importance (or any order for that matter).
1. Leadership. A skilled project manager must be able to lead the team. He/she must have strong leadership skills in order to overcome obstacles and resolve conflicts.
2. Scope/schedule/cost management. A skilled project manager must be able to build solid project timelines (I found it to be difficult especially in organizations where functional departments/leads are not well-verse in project management discipline), have a good understanding of cost management (identify and resolve cost overruns among other things) and be able to monitor scope to prevent and/or resolve scope-creeps.
3. Communications. I somewhat agree with Mark that Communication is blown out of proportion (any project manager who spends 90% if him/her time on communication has no time left for scope management, timeline management, budget management, etc.) but I still believe it is a very important skill. A project team that does not have common understanding of the project status or issues because project manager is not a skilled communicator will run into much more problems that a well-informed team.
Jalal Balayev
@Mark: Love the way you convey the 3 most important qualities of a project manager. Although I agree with the 3 qualities you think are most important for a Project Manager, I wouldn't discount the need of good Communication Skills. Mind you, when I say Communication Skills, it involves Written & Oral Communication. I do not see a project manager being able to manage Status Reports, WBS, Project Meetings, Status Update Meetings, Risk Meetings, Scheduling Meetings, Brainstorming sessions, Conflict Resolutions, Negotiations, Stakeholder Management, etc without having effective Communication Skills. If you agree with the fact that "A Project Manager is the official Spokesperson for his/her Project" you would agree that he/she should be able to communicate well. Come to think of it, Challenging fearlessly & hurding cats would also require a Project Manager to communicate well. Don't you think??
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
Everything you do can be broken down into a communication activity. Just like PMs think that everything a business does can be managed by a PM.
Like I said it's like breathing. it gets the oxygen in and the carbon dioxide out but it is not everything you do. What good is a body at rest with great O2 saturation
I have worked with many PMs that cannot speak english and ones that can't write an email. They were good SMEs and PMs too. Just poor communicators. I do not mean to be culturally insensitive, but if I went to another country I would also be a poor communicator.
Mark Parrish
Interesting takes on this. First: Is not effective communication competencies an element of leadership? Second: Fearlessly challenging is good - making smart decisions about when you stake yourself and your team is even better----even if your team is acting like cats who requiring herding!
Kimi Hirotsu Ziemski
Common Sense.
@Malcolm: Excellent Point. Totally agree with you.
But as they say, "Common Sense is the only one thing that is NOT common anymore".
AMM @ PM4K @ HTTP://WWW.ANISHMATHAIMATHEW.BLOGSPOT.COM
Anish: That's why only a select few will ever make successful Project Managers.
@Kimi: I agree with you that Leadership call for effective communication skills. I personally have not come across an effective leader who does not know how to put across a point to his/her audience.
Thanks for your comments.
AMM @ PM4K @ HTTP://WWW.ANISHMATHAIMATHEW.BLOGSPOT.COM
Mark, some great comments but spoken like a true consultant, what does that mean in plain English for my simple brain?
I would agree with Jalal. After all it is important to have these skills. One solution, never! Project management focus is always on cost, time and quality (one never overrides the other two – at least it shouldn’t)
I also agree with common sense, but then there are no classes for that and you don’t know what you don’t know, so if you do not have common sense, you will not know - oh dear, riddles.
Simon
Hi Anish,
From my viewpoint project management is 80% experience and 20% knowledge. I think a PM has to be good at knowing a PM Body of Knowledge together with an associated project management methodology (one such is PRINCE2). Thereon self assessment to a competency framework could aid to identify gaps in learning and experience which then acts as a catalyst for development of a self-improvement plan.
A sample from one such framework can be accessed as below. Consider to post up your viewpoint.
http://www.apm.org.uk/page.asp?categoryID=2&subCategoryID=205&pageID=0
Overview
The APM Competence Framework provides a clear and simple guide to the range and assessment of individual competences in project management. It is linked to the APM Body of Knowledge 5th edition and the International Project Management Association (IPMA) - International Competence Baseline (ICB v3.0).
The APM Competence Framework is an essential component of any project professional’s toolkit. It allows project managers to assess their competences offering a framework for improvement. The authors and editors of the framework have consulted widely on the detail needed to make this document a workable solution for the assessment of any project professional.
The APM Competence Framework provides:
a tool to assess the individual’s knowledge and experience against a recognised project management benchmark,
help in identifying training and development needs including the individual’s readiness to obtain internationally recognised professional qualifications,
specific areas of knowledge and experience needed as part of their Continuing Professional Development.
Many organisations have developed their own project management competence frameworks to meet their individual and organisational needs. This framework provides a pan-sector project management standard for competence which has been mapped to the international standards and qualifications available worldwide. As such, the APM Competence Framework is an essential extension to the APM Body of Knowledge in the UK and beyond.
Leadership is the single most important quality that a PM must have. One can know the PMBOK, OK, and communications is key to success, for sure.
Knowledge of a specfic area is for the SMEs to provide.
Given bad schedules, lack of knowledge of an area, and poor communication skills, Leadership is the quality that I have seen most lacking in poor PMs and present in those who actually get to the finish line...
@Richard: Thanks for the information.
@John: I haven't personally come across a great leader who does not have a way with words. Wouldn't you agree that Leadership calls for Effective Comunication Skilss??
AMM @ PM4K @ HTTP://WWW.ANISHMATHAIMATHEW.BLOGSPOT.COM
I'll second the idea that leadership is the key skill. The real purpose of a project is to lead a team to deliver a particular business outcome. All the other skills, including PMBOK basic knowledge, various methodologies, and communication techniques are in service to the goal of hitting the business target.
While communications is key, it is also part of the package that comes with any good leader.
When hiring PMs, I look for good leadership abilities first. It is much easier to teach a leader a particular methodology than try to teach a "technically" competant PM to be a leader.
Regardless of the methodology,it is paramount to know WHAT is going to be built (and in some instances, knowing WHY is very valuable); then determining HOW it is going to be built; BUILDING and VALIDATING it is key, and IMPLEMENTING is the ending step; PMBOK knowledge, Communications ability and technical approaches are all secondary... If Leadership is not demonstrated through each of those steps, it does not matter how well you communicate, know your PMBOK or other technology.
The pyramids were built with that methodology, and nothing you or I build will last 4000 years!
Organization Skills - I may be the best communicator in the world, but if I cannot organize my way out of a paper bag, I will fail. When people think PM, they think organization - I can always add someone to the team to aid with communications. Yes, 90% is communication, but you must know what to communicate and when to communicate it and that takes organization...
Hate to hedge my answer here but both of the above responses are correct as I thought "organization" first and then moved to "communications" in my head before I read the answers. You absolutely need BOTH.
PMBOK says communications is #1, with 90%. Organizational skills aren't far behind.
Great to see everyone's experience being shared here. Communication and organization definitely get my vote.
Organization is #1 for me - followed closely by communication. I think a very under rated skill is leadership. Its important to all projects but it seems hard for most people to define.
@Susan: Organization Skills no doubt are required to be an effective manager (not just Project Manager). Having said that, I'm not sure what you mean when you say "I can always add someone to the team to aid with communications"? If you mean that you could delegate Project Communications to someone, then I'm not sure if that's a good idea!! Maybe a few Status Reports; but not overall communications. As they say, "A Project Manager is the spokesperson for the project". What do you think?
AMM @ PM4K @ HTTP://WWW.ANISHMATHAIMATHEW.BLOGSPOT.COM
All terrific answers. I'll venture a little outside the box here and add the ability to simplify complexity. In my industry being able to assimilate and condense large amounts of information effectively is critical.
Common sense! Take that away and any other competencies will not be sensibly directed.
1. Attitude 2. Planing 3. Focus 4. Analysis 5. Communication 6.Organization 7.Decision 8. Common Sense :)
Re "I can always add someone to the team to aid with communications." -- It is just aid or help, not a delegation of the communications.
As a PM, I spend much of my time in meetings, communicating, which is the 'visible' piece. Behind the meetings, help with the communications leaves me the ability to focus on planning and organizing what is going on, using my common sense to analyze, assimilate and condense large amounts of information. It is the organization ability that allows me to communicate effectively when working with stakeholders.
Communication takes it all in. If you are disorganized, you will not be able to effectively communicate, if you cannot plan you cannot effectively communicate. If you cannot meet deliverables and schedules you are not communicating. Remember communication is all of the information flowing throughout the project to all the right areas when needed - which really encompasses most other skills.
Absolutely, the first and foremost quality required is organizational skills.
While these are all important skills, I think that it depends upon the organization and how PM fits within the organization. In some organizations, PM is much more of a tracking function rather than full leadership and management of a project. In these organizations, organization seems more important. In strong project-based organizations, communications skills and leadership are more important. You can use support folks (like project coordinators, schedulers, etc) to provide more of the organizational skills.
This post is a great question and you did state that their are many things that a Project Manager is expected to be good at (billing, staffing, scheduling, etc.) but we have many Project Managers who all are not all obviously the same or interchangable. Communication, Organization, the ability to assimilate and condense information and problem solving rise to the top of the bare essentials of a Project Manager. The best Project Managers are leaders. I'm defining leaders as people to have the respect, trustworthyness, motivational skills and experience to lead a team. You can be a great communicator or car salesman but if the team doesnt' believe in you, or respect you the Project will still get done but it won't be as successful as it could have been.
I just attended a webinar by Frank Payne. I think he made a strong argument that it's critical for the PM to be able to think like a CEO. It doesn't matter if you are organized and communicate well if your project is not bringing strategic value to the organization.
@Chad: Thanks for your comment. The true intent of this discussion is to find out what are the basic 'bare minimum' qualities requirement from a Project Manager.
Thanks to all those who've participated, so far we have been getting great & eye-opening point of views. Looking forward for more.
AMM @ PM4K @ HTTP://WWW.ANISHMATHAIMATHEW.BLOGSPOT.COM
true
Effective Communication take #1 for any Project Manager in any industry. People confuse between Fluent English and Communication in some of the JD's. People communicate more effectively with appropriate body language.
Communication Management is the most important aspect that a Project Manager is supposed to have, Leadership Skills in resolving the issues related to the Project and Motivation of the Project team member is also required for the Project Manager.
Integrity... in its many forms from acting from a set of principles to as simple as 'to honor your word" (but not as in absolute morality, which doesn't exist).
I believe that the most important aspect for a successful PM is the ability to influence. His or hers sphere of influence should be able to extend effectively across departmental and even company boundaries, to all stakeholders, especially customers/clients. One could argue that the level of influence a PM has is tied to effective communication skills but I believe there are numerous factors that make up the influence and leadership skills of the consummate PM.
For me it has to be communication and this covers a multitude of sins, such as stakeholder management, team building, understanding requirements, etc. and indeed influencing as I have never met someone able to influence without being a good communicator.
A good communicator is not necessarily someone with a degree, for example, in the language concerned . It is the ability to put a point across clearly and effectively and who is a good listener (not always the same as listening to someone's spoken or written words) .
A good Project Manager needs to have strong facilitation skills, which comes from keeping 2 way communication alive and balanced. The rest falls in to place as a good facilitator keeps things moving and people engaged in addressing the matter at hand.
@Abhinav @Rajesh @Sreeram @Ian: Thanks for agreeing about the importance of Communication Skills. Come to think of it, a lot of people consider it as a basic skill, but I think it is something that people have to specialize in. There are simply too many aspects to it, like 'What you communicate', 'How you communicate', 'Active Listening (not Hearing)', 'Ensuring 2 way communication', 'Timing of Communication', 'Method used to Communicate', etc. As they say, "Communication is the Lifeline of any organization/project"
I agree. Communications is 95% of Proj. Mgt, yet it's the one area in which many organizations ( and practicioners) fail to plan and execute.
On one hand one cannot argue on the communication capabilities but we perhaps need to reflect on whether communication in a process issue or a interpersonal one and in what ratio.
Are we saying that managing expectations, aligning stakeholders and validations are key to success and is all this covered under communication?
Communications and stakeholder expectation management are the two most important traits of a project manager.
I believe Communication is not only key factor for PM. I remember in my early career my one of Customer says to my PM that "You speak much better than what you do" and company has lost that big project later development stage.
so one thing which even consist many qualities is "Management" skill is key point whether it comes to Customer / Project / Man etc management.
Communications
Leadership! Making sure the team has a vision and the ability to execute the vision. What is important here is that the Team is effective, not just the PM. An effective organizer and/or communicator still may not drive the team to a suucessful outcome. LEADERSHIP is needed.
That should be Risk Management. Senior management cannot deal with uncertainty, and that's where most of the Project management skills come in: to deal with that uncertainty. You can count almost any of the technical skills under Risk Management, also making your breakdown structure and adding control accounts is to minimize a Risk, namely the Risk of exceeding the projects end date. Sure you'll need your contextual, behavioural (communication) and organizational skills but I think that's not the minimum eligibility requirement needed for practising Project Management.
If I have to say only one it would be for sure the capability to listen...
WOW... Saverio, you opened yourself up, there... I think what you are trying to convey is that the PM should not isolate themselves, and be open to discussions rather than be autocratic, and I agree. However, ONLY listening is what a therapist does... and then asks, "How does that make you feel?" and then collects your money and schedules another session.
Listening is part of the process of being a good leader. But I would say that you wouldn't want to be the single most important characteristic.
Comfort being uncomfortable.
Anyone can author a GANTT with perfect waterfall form or facilitate a status meeting. Project management is all about what happens between the bars - chaos, conflicting stakeholders, unforeseen risks and dependencies.
It's funny - on one hand PM requires an organized personality but on the other, it also requires the ability to let go of the notion of perfect organization and shepherd chaos towards a result that is "good enough" to satisfy most. This aint your sock drawer :)
Flexibility
I would say planning, effective and timely communication and the ability to influence.
I would suggest that it is the ability to focus on the customer, and to structure and lead a project team in a manner that is aligned with the customer (s) of the project. This requires the skills & attributes that others have mentioned here, built and managed within the overarching framework as driven by the customer.
Common Sense, People Management & Communication Management. Even if you have excellent communication skills/Management skills & all management skills mentioned in Pmbook or any other book but if you don't know which one to use, when to use & how to use them then having these skills matters little. At end we deal with people & manager need to know how to handle people and have to use his/her common sense
Communications skills.
Being a manager/leader (and all that encompasses); guess that means there is not just one thing.
Communication skills are essential to effectively set and manage expectations among all team members and sponsors. Think about the last time someone involved in your project was upset . . . it was probably because he/she did not "know" something. Communication is key, in my opinion.
Agreed. Communication skills is the #1 skill for a PM to be successfull.
yes, communication and presentation skills.
Integrity and transparency (the two go hand in hand).
#1 is a solid track record of results that is backed up with referances by clients. This shows the PM has good judgement which is the one thng a PM needs to have to really be good at the job.
Communications #1, but please don't forget "What should be communicated? how? and when?" is the key element here. You need a person who have the answer for that "What" & "how" & "When". "What" will be based on the project scope, "how" will be based on the methodology picked for industry and "when" is associated as and when the events will happen during project life cycle.
Believe me it will only work when you have a qualified PM with good Communication skills instead of having someone who can only talk.
Thats my humble advise.
Cheers.
This is an interesting conversation. I view communication and organization abilities as learned skills. Both of these skills are enhanced through repetitive use and years of experience. In addition, people pattern themselves after other people they most admire. Nearly all of us agree that these words (communication, organization) represent some of the cornerstones of an effective PM. However, I urge the readers to simply look up the word quality at www.dictionary.com, or any other source. The definition is a description of something much more than a learned skill. For example, this passage is the first definition listed: "an essential or distinctive characteristic, property, or attribute". And this is the second: "character or nature, as belonging to or distinguishing a thing".
Okay, back to the original question: 'bare minimum' required?
There is no single functional quality that defines the bare minimum required to be a Project Manager. Well, sure, maybe one. All you need is to be a fully functional human being, having all your mental faculties intact. Everything else is a learned skill.
If I were cornered into identifying another quality that is absolutely necessary, I would have to say...
You must have the deep desire to be a Project Manager. This is not a game for the squatter (short-timer) or the timid.
@Brad: Agree with you when you say, "the profession of Project Management is not for the Feeble Hearted"
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
How about Charisma??
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
Leadership + Adopting common sense + strong interpersonal relationship + trustful attitude + honesty + sincerity + bravery.
I like the addition of bravery. We ARE expected to be super-heroes, but sometimes need to give messages that are not well-received. Hence the need for bravery. We need to be honest and timely in our communications, but sometimes encounter 'shooting the messenger.' Perhaps a key resource is no longer available, so the project is delayed, or we are over budget because that key resource cost more than we expected.
In addition, we need to be brave when utilizing good PM techniques in a shop that 'shoots from the hip' with their projects. This may be why they initially brought in a PM, but they still didn't expect the PM overhead to add to costs. It's an education process to let them know why a PM and the PM processes are important. They need to understand that the PM processes are less costly in the long run because requirements are fleshed out early in the project, change management in enforced, and regular communication is the norm.
Hence, I am going to add educating/mentoring/coaching to the mix of required skills. This is a 360 degree process. A PM mentors the project team, coaches sponsors on what is needed from them, educates the company on the value they add, mentors peers (especially junior PMs) on good PM practices, etc. IMHO.
Hi Anish,
In respect of a team it's recognised that there be role and responsibilities assigned to all members and it would be rational that the team have a head. As a suggestion could you consider:
i) making general comments with respect to leadership on a new new discussion thread that I have posted in recent hours. Try to make comments on difficult areas wherein you may have a PMO in a matrix organisation and a few projects and address where you have a head of a PMO and each of the projects has a leader as th eproject manager.
ii) consider initiating an online linkedIn poll wherein you include various attributes / qualities inclusive communication ,leadership, ability to listen, charisma etc. Thereon set a limit of say to end June 2009 for persons to poll and then persons use one vote on an honour system. Perhaps consider the scenario during an interview where you may be asked to describe one such quality and provide pragmatic examples to support the argument.
It's just an idea Anish, hope it appeals.
Should be able to THINK BIG !!
Can I cheat and say leadership skills in general? Leadership skills include communication, ability to influence, conflict resolution, negotiation skills, and general management ability to manage risks, issues, etc.
Listening Skills. You have to know what someone is saying. Its not just in the words. It is translating what they are saying into tangible work efforts. It is also about reading body language or tones in a voice or any correspondence. Listening is #1 in my book because if you only depend on the words you will most likely get it wrong.
Amy, I totally agree with you. Your comment reminds me another discussion that was sent recently, questioning if a Project Manager could be a better CEO than a person certified by a MBA course.
Communication skills, no doubt about it. And the ability to foreseen things (that sounds kinda scary, I know)
Let's not forget about time and task management skills. These are something that most PMs have an aptitude for (why they're in the PM role), but it's the cornerstone of managing anything. We often take for granted that PMs have these skills.
BTW, Excellent communication, leadership, experience, listening, PMBOK, charisma, comfortable with being uncomforable... Sounds like a SUPERHERO to me!
@Mark: LOL. Exactly my point. Very soon a PM job requirement will read, "SUPER HERO WANTED FOR A PROJECT MANAGER ROLE".
Feel free to read the post on PM4K. I'd love to hear from you:
http://anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com/2009/05/project-manager-is-super-hero.html
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
Leadership
@Richard: Great thought. Looking forward for your discussion on Leadership.
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
The one key skill for a PM is to be able to communicate (effectively) with everyone. This encompasses everything from being able to motivate team members, to carrying news to the stakeholders, and right down to negotiation with resource managers.
My 2 pennies on LEADERSHIP:
A good leader takes his/her followers where they want to go. A great leader does not necessarily take his/her followers where they WANT to go, but where they OUGHT to go.
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
This may seem odd but if I was to pick the one minimum quality of a great PM it would be "gray hair". Meaning that its almost impossible for someone without substantial relevant experience to master being a PM. Of course this begs the issue of "how does one get this expereince," which is valid, but the answer is mostly "in a related field." In my experience most good PMs have 15+ years under their belts in diverse areas related to the industry that they PM in--could be engineering, business, sales, manufacturing, contractor or functional management, etc. In theory a stint as an assistant PM or some such might work but I haven't seen any examples.
Then, and here I admit it gets dicey from a sustainability point of view, I want a PM that has managed a few projects before mine and made all the mistakes already... I admit this doesn't work for the industry as a whole but in truth that is what is needed.
yeah and a red cape helps...
I'll add again - communication. And let me go into my theory on that.
A PM who can communicate can keep people informed and keep them talking, and ensure everyone is up to date. Even if the PM has problems with other skills, they communications skills ensure everyone else is on top of things.
Or to put it more bluntly, if you're a PM and you can keep everyone informed and communicating, they can function even when you screw things up.
Anish, that is an excellent point and one that is often overlooked. Project managers generally manage without authority, and the ability to get the team motivated and instill loyalty is a valuable skill indeed.
achieving completion aka produce positive results is the star, all the rest is the supporting cast
The best answer would probably turn your question on its head.
As the PM is essentially the 'keystone' or 'hub' that moves a whole system forward productively and efficiently, the most important quality is the ability to holistically view and manage the operation. Communication is important but without a good understanding and appreciation of the underlying motives and technologies used for a project, and a working system to plan/track/correct deliverables, and mechanisms for motivating and manipulating (in addition to comms), etc etc, communication itself might restrict you to just give good speeches.
Concentrating on just one 'essential characteristic' unravels the whole rope of strengths that a PM needs to work with.
I propose there is another skill, as yet un-mentioned, that to me is the umbrella under which all the others fall and that skill is: Flexibility. Without it none of the others can be used effectively.
Why do we have to pick one quality? Doesn't it take a good balance of all the above?
And as Chuck said, it takes a lot of experience and may be even failures to be able to achieve success.
Cheers
Jim | https://twitter.com/jimfatou
If it's only one attribute, I'll go with "situational awareness". Same thing that keeps fighter pilots from getting shot down or flying into the ground.
I agree communication is one of the bare minimum skills required of a PM; however not the only one. Lots of Marketing folks are also great communicators but will make lousy PMs. I believe the bare minimum is a group of skills, not just one.
:) Anish. Outside this topic. Sorry i couldn't find a way to comment on the super hero story of yours on your blog, but its very true. Great sense of humor mate. Well i also use to describe the headhunter that your requirement is for CAPTAIN PLANET.
Well based on your super hero comments i would say that PM should also have a good sense of humor to sometime diffuse projects tensions and stress :)
@Zafar: Thanks for your comments on the PM4K blog. I'm glad you took the time to go through the "SUPER HERO" post. Would be flattered to have you back on PM4K :) I agree with you that a PM should surely have a Sense of Humor to diffuse the high tension environment that builts up during a project.
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
I second a lot of opinions here about a PM needing to be a good communicator. I think it also goes further than that.
A PM needs to build relationships and, thereby, get buy in to the project.
A PM is really a Change Manager.
Adapability.
Assuming you have the hard skills, i.e. you are applying the core principles in all competency areas of the PM discipline, 80% of being successful as a PM is determined by how good you are at the soft skills.
Communication is #1 - - but don’t forget that Listening is the most important ingredient of the communication process.
At the bare minimum, a successful PM should have the ability to 'communicate' with all the project stakeholders. When i say 'communicate' i mean real communication; not just talking!
The next most desired quality for a PM is domain knowledge. Trying to manage a project with no domain knowledge is like flying on auto-pilot over the bermuda triangle!
Communication is obviously key as nearly everyone has mentioned in their post. But what does that really mean? It doesn't mean being an eloquent speaker. It doesn't just mean responding clearly to questions. I think it means being an 'information radiator'.
Know who needs to know what and figure out how to get it to them. Often, PMs fail because they don't communicate to execs or other "invisible" stakeholders. And the PM is surprised because they didn't know these folks were engaged in some way.
Identify stake holders proactively, and determine the best medium, channel, content and frequency to deliver and do so consistently.
Communication/Organization. I have recently been working with several other Project Managers with Vendors on Projects. I have met ones that were Organized but could not communicate and there was one that could communicate but was not organized. In dealing with projects large or small you need both to be hand in hand to be effective and the project a success.
Communications. More importantly 'listening' and providing feedback to the stake holders and team members.
WISER THAN FUNCTIONAL SPECIALISTS;
MORE ACCURATE THAN TECHNICAL EXPERTS;
MORE POWERFUL THAN THE SPONSOR HIMSELF;
ABLE TO LEAP OVER PROJECT OBSTACLES IN A SINGLE BOUND;
FIGHTING THE UNENDING BATTLE OF SCOPE-TIME-COST.
WHO IS HE?? IS HE SUPERMAN.... IS HE SPIDERMAN.... NO HE IS PROJECT MAN(AGER)!!!
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
After thinking about this some more, I think that I'd go with ability to build trust and support. If the project team, sponsors, and key stakeholders don't trust you, it doesn't matter how well you communicate, organize, or do any other project management task. If these people trust in you and support you, you can also overcome deficits in other areas.
I think these are all great comments and agree that communication, leadership, organization, etc. are all important skills for a successful project manager. In addition I would suggest analytical skills and networking skills. Most of the projects I work on take a great deal of research to assist the team in identifying the most effective solution to client challenges. Without the ability to sort through and understand all of the variables, it is very easy to come up with a less than effective solution and / or create a lot of additional work that does not add to the value of the project.
We are a matrix organization and I would not be able to get the support and participation needed to complete any project without the ability to create and maintain a strong network across all levels of the organization.
Hmm. I wonder what Projectman's superhero costume/uniform looks like? I am guessing he/she has a big Gantt chart on the chest:-)? And a Action Item Register on the back:-)?
There are a lot of qualities I like to see in PMs. I particularly like to see an analytical mind, good judgement, and good relationship skills. But if forced to reduce things to a single, essential quality, it would be the ability to function independently.
The superhero story reminds me of a CIO I knew who was constantly comparing his PMs and managers to warriors. At the time, I thought it was motivating. Since then, I've come to believe that highly-charged, emotional environments are symptomatic of institutionalized problems. If you are always fighting your sponsors, are always flying to the rescue hero-style, have to have a domain expert at the top of every project, and if the firm has to find such PMs to get things done at all, there is something in the firm's processes and controls that needs addressing. I'm happy to see your blog's take on this, especially since the crisis and superhero model seems more popular.
As you said there are so many, but if option to choose one, i would like to share one based on my experience i.e.
One quality as bare min for PM -- Able to communicate through domain knowledge, which should be clearly understand by sponsor, stake holders and working team.
Best Regards
Ravi Sharma
--Helping companies into IT Infrastructure cost reduction, customer satisfaction & Improving Biz performance
@Bill: I'm glad you took the time to read the "SUPER HERO" post on PM4K. In my opinion, expecting a super hero to manage the project may be like laying the foundation for project failure. Any thoughts?
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
Agree with all.. Communication Skills
It's not ONE quality. But having excellent verbal and written communication skills, exceptional inter-personal skills, and good planning and management skills with the understanding that the emphasis is on the triple constraints.
Communication skills.
Anish: love your super hero piece!
Persuasion and Change management skills
@Wendy: Glad you like 'Super Hero' piece. Hope you would find it worth your time reading the full post on PM4K and commenting on it.
http://anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com/2009/05/project-manager-is-super-hero.html
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
The very bare-minimum quality for a PM to have should be strategic awareness. PM's should concentrate on the mission at hand and not try to read more into their assignment than what it is. This is for the program managers to manage.
People skills.
As for me, the most important skill a PM must have is leadership. Every leader is a good/excellent communicator already - they go side by side. As PMs, we have people working with us but they are not our direct reports. They may follow you because they have no choice or they may work because they like how you do things. Which one would you prefer?
You maybe a very good communicator, but if you don't make it as a leader you'll never make it as a real PM. This is the brutal fact.
great discussion
The correlation of management by hero isn't with success or failure. Rather, it correlates with lack of organizational maturity (e.g., low on the CMM scale). Star systems can produce exceptional results ... as long as you can find star performers and keep them going. The problem, as in astrophysics, is that when a star dies, it takes everything in its system with it. It's a trade-off of high rewards at high-risk against predictability.
The irony is that high-predictability models can also produce stellar results. Getting there is difficult, however, and there's a lot justified cynicism arising from the long history of expensive process reinvention failures. The status quo in lots of places is careful maintenance of a small handful of heros to run the important stuff and letting everything else muddle by.
I will put them as:
- People Skills
- Communication Skills
- Customer Orientation
Recognizing and surrounding yourself with good people for implementation and developing and keeping a great relationship with them as well as the customer.
I reviewed the responses.... either your question was written poorly that no one understood or that everyone with a PMP certification couldn't see the forest because of the trees. You asked for a quality in a PM that was a "bare minimum" eligibility requirement for a PM ~ and most, if not all, answers were what the top quality that a PM should have.... tsk.
Business experience!
The most serious gap in PM culture today is the lack of business experience at the PM level. Anyone with reasonable study skills can take a PM certification course, pass it, and become certified. All that proves is that they're good at memorizing. It does not mean that person has the skills and business savvy it takes to lead corporate change.
All projects represent an effort to change how something works at some level within the corporation. To fully understand the business needs and how to translate that to an effective project, the PM has to understand how business works and be able to use that knowledge to help design and manage better projects.
I believe that lack of business experience at the PM level is why so many projects fail.
To Jeff's recent post "You asked for a quality in a PM that was a "bare minimum" eligibility requirement for a PM ~ and most, if not all, answers were what the top quality that a PM should have.... tsk. " I don't think this is the issue; it's that there are more than one "minimum eligiability requirements" for a good PM
@Jeff: Thanks for participating in the discussion. As mentioned in the beginning, this discussion does not have ONE correct answer. The objective of this discussion was to understand what the audience (business professionals) feels was the most important quality that should be considered as a bare minimum eligibiliy requirement for a Project Manager. As highlighted by Chuck, considering what a project manager is expected to manage, it's very difficult to pin-point ONE quality/bare minimum eligibily requirement for a project manager. I am personally very happy with the responses and am looking forward for more.
@Chuck: Thanks for your clarification to Jeff :)
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
People skills. The PM needs to influence the team to make his/her project a priority and incent them to achieve project deliverables on time. In addition, the PM needs to read between the lines to bring out issues and concerns. All other PM skills are secondary to the soft skills.
Even though I think that the knowledge and experience for applying a project management methodology, or having excellent soft skills are very important aspects for project management, I think that for a successful project manager is indispensable to have “focus” and “vision”. Why? Because that is going to give him the guidance to take the project where is best and to select and apply the best tool for some situation, without this two elements I think a lot of problems could appear.
Three cheers for Bob, who came up with Business Experience! I couldn't agree more. Without it, it's hard to understand the true business target of the project or what it will take to actually get the change to stick.
You need to understand the objectives and drive forward in making sure those objectives are met. We all know there are a number of elements to consider for, plan for, prepare, monitor, forecast, make assumptions but knowing exactly what the organisational requirements are and delivering to those needs is the key to successful product delivery. Sure, no project goes according to plan and no matter what discipline you are delivering, deviations will occur but effective planning and control will alleviate a lot of the problems and Bob, that is not just text book talk in case that's what you are thinking.
Great discussion!
I think I too, agree with Bob. Business experience is very important for Project Managers. I would even expand that idea further and say life experience is very important. A good Project Manager has experience getting things done, [not so much in doing things themselves – but in getting others to cooperate on achieving a goal]. It takes life experience to understand that different people need to be motivated in different ways. A PM needs to be able to address these differences and encourage the discussions which ultimately will have the different people seeing the benefit of working on the project or perhaps even in seeing the need for the change the project will bring. Business needs can motivate business executives, and personal growth opportunities can motivate team members.
Sometimes it is the goal and seeing progress towards that goal which get people on board. Don’t overlook people with volunteer experience especially those who get things done with a team of strictly volunteer members. Those PM’s know how to motivate and maneuver through a multitude of challenges.
A good PM has good leadership qualities and not "manager" qualities. There are so many facets that one needs to be situational when you are dealing with different clients, objectives, goals, cultures (Especially in the ME) and the resources available to you. Business experience is important but it goes a lot further than that if you are to succeed and produce results that satisfy the needs of all stakeholders.
I would agree with leadership / soft skills. There are a number of ways to learn what to do (academics, experience etc.) but if you cant get it done by your team (finally people) with diverse motivations, cultures and beleifs the project would fail.
Rana, I agree. There is always the challenge of getting the right team to support you on a project but as the leader of that protect, it is your responsibility to understand the individuals who will support you in delivering which is as equally important in making sure you deliver the set objectives and please all parties who have a stake in the outcome.
You will also not always have the right people on board depending on resource availability but this is not necessarily a negative situation. Always seeking a win-win and understanding the competencies of who you have on board to drive the project forward is important and making sure the team is cohesive so that they all compliment one another and share responsibility and take ownership because if one fails, the team has failed.
It seems like we're back to being a super hero for a project to go really well :) Also the PM has to be a good coach, mentor, motivator, psychologist, etc... and still if the PM doesn't have the right team, the project might not go too well. So a new question comes out: At what point does the PM raise the flag if a project doesn't have the right team?
@Jamal: Good point. We're back to expecting a SUPER HERO to manage a project!!! and to answer your question, Mathew feels a PM to his/her project is like a Captain handcuffed to his/her ship. If the ship goes down, everyone including the team would run for life, but the Captain goes down with it. Sure the PM can raise the flag, but not sure if raising a flag would uncuff the PM incase of project failure!!! Guess the PM would have to use his SUPER HERO powers to figure out some way (or the other) to get the project out of the woods. Would you agree??
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
Jamal,
The question is, how did you end up with the resources who are not capable of supporting the project delivery? Sometimes and all to often, you only find this through the lifecycle of the project and quite correctly, what do you do?
It is never easy 'raising the flag' as it only reflects on your competence to run a project in the eyes of serious stakeholders who love to watch every move you make and trust me, there are those out there. However, if changes need to be made, then it must be actioned. This to me forms part of addressing risks so if I feel that at some point or right now, particular resource is a risk, it needs to be addressed and changes must be made.
What I have learned is if projects deviate and are not managed correctly or we fail to deliver, while I mentioned earlier on we are working as a team to deliver a product, there is one man / woman standing when it all goes wrong and the handcuffs are too tight I am afraid. It really is 'do' or 'die" as the onus is on us regardless of who you have, should have, shouldn't have on the project.
@Justin: Spoken like a true & seasoned Project Manager ;) Thanks for your comments.
AMM @ PM4K @ http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
Hi Anish,
Thanks and really a stimulating discussion, so very pleased to review everyone's comments and learn from other professionals like yourself and others. Hopefully we will reach that point of win-win and not win-lose or lose-win which is how I like to go about projects as one approach in PM.
Something I learnt with the 7 habits by author Stephen Covey.
I do agree that the PM is ultimately responsible and is the one accountable for the project success or failure. But by documenting all the risks, assumptions and roles/responsibilities, he does have an exit strategy. So another question is would you stay on the project and just transfer the responsibility to the stakeholders when no solutions are provided to the problem (eg. resource replacement) or would you just resign from the project when you know that it is doomed for failure?
Food for thought :)
Hi Jamal,
For me personally, resigning is NOT an option. This indicates to the stakeholders who have an interest in the project that I was not 'cut out' to deliver a project which may have been complexed, challenging, out of my league or plain and simple, unmanageable.
If you have done everything in your power baring in mind we may have had dependencies on others and taken all necessary steps to try and mitigate all the problems you are challenged with, it may be hard but you drive forward.
Sometimes trying to make people understand is not easy and that is why creating a positive solution which is beneficial to all (win-win) is always good to try and apply so it comes down to good negotiation skills and making the interested parties truly understand the positive and negative impacts if decisions are off course.
I would rather look down the barrel of a shotgun knowing I did everything in my power, followed procedure and gave it my best shot and then be asked to leave if considered incompetent as opposed to "throwing in the towel'. This is their " get out of jail' free card to say 'I was wrong'. If I deliver to a point where they are not satisfied and get replaced, the truth comes out. Sadly though, sometimes it comes down to personality and people simply make it difficult because of personality clash or even cultural differences and before you know it, the new kid on the block is 'golden balls' as they would say in sport!!
It' communication, as Project Managers in real life spent 90% of the time in communications by doing activities like Joing Calls/Conference/meetings, Presentations, Wrting mails etc.
The Will to Win. When time, cost or scope are at serious risk it takes tenacity, personal courage and determination to claw your way back. It's a decision made not to give in and suffer "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.." with grace.
Common sense and stamina. If you have that as a PM you will know what techniques and methods to apply when - including leadership qualities. I agree that methodologies can be learnt, for soft skills this is more difficult. A person can improve on those but it is generally harder to change a persons behaviour than their knowledge. A person with a good common sense will most likely also have a broad mind, and this in turn is essential to gather experience, both in business and in dealing with clients, teams and managers to get the job done.
What I have used in interviews for PM candidates are questions like "what would you do if ..." in absolutely grotesque situations to find out whether they are solution oriented or prone to complaining and delegating upwards. Those who showed creativity and imagination were the ones who were most likely to succeed in a PM career.
Craig's got it right. Here we call it Play to Win (don't play to be on the field). If success isn't important to the PM, it's not likely to be important to the project team.
A simple test for any project manager - watch them park their car.
If they reverse in then they are PM potential, they are considering their next move (in the car), they are de-risking the exit (from the car park), they are investing their time now (in case they are in a rush later) ... if they just drive straight in and leave the car there then suggest they get a sales job, they never consider 'what next' :)
Truth? or just tongue in cheek?
www.thelazyprojectmanager.com
I would add Virgo's who can park their car properly but that would probably upset the other 11 star signs ....
Peter,
Nice analogy. Well thought out and see some hidden truths in it.
Hi,
Thanks for all your wonderful comments & experience sharing. This discussion was discussed across 5 Project Management related groups and we ended up getting 145 comments on it. As a token of Mathew's gratitude to your time and effort, Mathew has consolidated all the comments from this discussion in one place. This is to enable all (those who are interested) to review & learn from all the 145 comments from fellow Project Management Professionals. Find below the link:
http://anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com/2009/06/top-1-quality-of-project-manager.html
Mathew's surely learnt a lot from this discussion. Hope it has added value to you all as well.
Looking forward to your participation in more PM4K discussions :)
Cheers,
[Mathew@PM4K] @
PROJECT MANAGEMENT for KIDS [PM4K] @
http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
Fascinating discussion, and so far I find Bill Currier's comments coincide most closely with my opinion. However the 2 points that I think are absolutely THE most important have not been mentioned by anyone.
A project manager must have:
1) A profound understanding of the nature / purpose / and relative importance of the project. This means technical background knowledge! and,
2) The support of Management. Ideally the liberty to make any changes necessary in process flow chart to improve results.
Being an inspiring or authoritarian team leader and keeping track of costs and manhours will not build a better mousetrap.
How about....
'An ability to deliver to the original spec ?'
The original thread asked for ONE essential quality....there's scope creep everywhere in these replies
:-)
As has been noted, there are many skills that are essential for a project manager to have to be successful. If we are to pick just one though, communication is truly the primary skill required. As project managers, we need to be able to receive information and understand. We need to be able to identify the gaps in the information received and insure that our understanding is the message that the sender was trying to convey to us. We also need to be effective in disseminating information to the project team and sponsors. Without effective communication, it is very challenging to have a successful project.
There are many skills that a PM must have in his/her pocket.
1) Adaptability
2) Expectation management
3) Communication
4) Logical approach
Communications
I'd suggest a different skill than I've seen in the comments -- the ability to listen and combine the perspectives heard into a cohesive whole. This may fall under communication skills, but from the comments, communications skills seem more focused on outward communication. I think the most important skill of a PM is to listen to and understand various points of view (sponsor, technical team, clients, etc) and to use that understanding to drive the project forward.
Good communication skills centered around listening. A PM needs to have the ability to listen to all parties. Yes, PMs need to have the ability to drive the project to completion, but the ability to hear and synthesize developing data is a must. Listening is part of a set of communication skills, which can be highly developed with practice.
Hi,
This phrase just hovers in my head recently:
"its not about control, It's about "driving" with a purpose".
sense of humour!
I think if you have to narrow it down to ONE core skill, it comes down to influence.
Influence encompasses political awareness, relationship development and management, strategic influence, expectation management...many of these things COULD be considered "communication skills," but communications encompasses a broad range of skills. In the spirit of honing down to one core competency, since your original post calls for one quality, I'd go with influence.
To now address the overall set of KEY competencies, when I hire, develop and assess PMs, I really look at 4 distinct areas:
1. Leadership - ownership, assertiveness, management ability, ability to motivate
2. Influence - political awareness, relationships, strategic perspective/influence, ability to develop credibility at all levels of an organization, ability to "manage upwards"
3. Problem Solving - risk management, conflict management, innovation, creativity
4. Execution - focus on delivery, results-oriented, quality-focused
All four of the above are what I'd consider the set of core competencies that drive success in a PM.
Again, if pressed to identify ONE that I value above all others, I choose influence - primarily due to the fact that I consider influence the most difficult to develop and refine. Influence encompasses a set of traits which, if properly leveraged, can separate a good PM from a GREAT PM, and an individual who has the potential to add tremendous value to an organization.
Let me be the harsh and rude guy here, according to me the bare Min quality required for a PM is to know how to get the work done by his team! :-)
Agility
I believe that the ONE skill a PM needs is the ability to set and manage expectations of all parties. If expectations are not aligned (and kept that way) they are in for a ruff road.
A Project Manager needs to understand in great detail the project they are managing..That is the only way to lead a team., just assigning tasks without understanding the breadth of the assignment is a surefire way to fail.
@Anish: I have an interesting question for you. I believe that I have reasonably good communication skills. Before I get accused of blowing my own trumpet let me get to the point. The difficulty I face at many occasions when managing projects is that since I am not a SME (subject matter expert) so during discussions with business users I feel that I’m short on words. Which effectively means that I have to shut-up and listen to what SMEs are discussing and hope that whatever they have come up with are the right goods. I know you are going to say that a PM doesn’t need to get into technical details and is supposed to rely on technical experts. Fair point but at least where I work the situation is a bit challenging. I believe it may be true for many PMs out there. The problem I’m facing is that the business users are not willing to take time out of their operational activities which means its difficult to get them to participate in project activities. Furthermore, even when they do come they put in little effort to scope the project properly. They will give you a set of requirements which are vague in order to ensure that their ass stays covered.
So the question I want to ask is how can good communication skills make up for lack of subject knowledge. Because from where I am standing I see a problem. Either I become SME of every project that I work on or continue doing projects that keep dragging because the requirements are never ever clear!
@Mubashar: Thanks for your comment. Surely you bring about valid points and raise compelling concerns. To answer your question, Mathew would like to break it down into more manageable pieces of concerns (trait of a true PM ;) ):
1. PMs LACK OF SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTISE:
What is a ‘Subject’? Let’s say a PM is working on a Card related technology project driven by business in a banking environment. Expertise in Card Business is one subject area, Expertise in Card Operations is another. Expertise in Card Application is one subject area and Expertise in Card Authorization is another. Expertise in Infrastructure required for Card Project is one subject area and Expertise in Database is another. Where should a PM stop wanting to be the expert? Let’s consider for a fraction of second that some PM is extraordinarily outstanding and he/she is an expert in all these subject areas; what will that PM do when he/she gets assigned to some Risk related technology project driven by business? Back to square one!!! Is it realistic to expect a PM to be a SME in every field? If we expect it, then aren’t we expecting a PM to be a ‘Know-It-All’ SUPER HERO? Mathew’s PM4K blog post titled: A PROJECT MANAGER IS A SUPER-HERO!!! @ http://anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com/2009/05/project-manager-is-super-hero.html would definitely get you thinking more about this.
You would agree that as a PM we should be MILE WIDE AND INCH DEEP which is absolutely contrary to what SMEs are expected to be i.e. MILE DEEP AND INCH WIDE. It’s time we realize that the Profession of Project Management is a Subject Area of Specialization also and as PMs we are the SMEs of the subject area called Project Management. If we accept this fact and try to excel in our subject area, we’ll manage the SMEs of the other areas with ease.
2. LACK OF PARTICIPATION FROM SPONSORING TEAMS:
Mathew’s PM4K blog post titled: PROJECT MANAGEMENT IS NOT A FREEDOM STRUGGLE @ http://anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com/2009/05/project-management-is-not-freedom.html would definitely answer this aspect of your question. Project managers must always keep in mind that, the decision regarding the future of a project always lies in the hands of the project sponsor. Remember, it was the project sponsor who requested for the project and not you as a project manager!!! So if the Project Sponsor is not serious about giving you resources to implement his own project, then it seems that you’re running a fatherless project. In Mathew’s opinion (assuming you’ve done all that is possible in your control), you better plan to drop the project because there may have been an error in initiating the project; don’t make another error by compulsorily implementing the project.
You may also find it useful to read some of the comments we received on another PM4K discussion titled: TOP #1 CAUSE OF PROJECT FAILURE @ http://anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com/2009/04/top-1-cause-of-project-failure-pm4k.html . Many PMs believe that most of the projects fail due to Scope Creep/Unrealistic Expectations or due to Lack of Sponsor's Involvement/Ownership (both as mentioned by you).
Looking forward to hearing more from you in the future.
.....
[Mathew@PM4K] @
PROJECT MANAGEMENT for KIDS [PM4K] @
http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
@Anish wow! Lemme first thank you for taking the time and replying in great detail. However, what you have answered above doesn't fully help resolve my predicament. I am sure you would wanna know Y?
Lemme start with the issue of SME expertise. As a PMP I fully agree with you that as a PM I should focus on the subject matter of Project Management as thats the area I specialize in which btw I do. However, the question that I asked was that, for business related matters, how would I know if business related aspects have been properly addressed. What I am arguing that as a layman I would think "all izz well" when it may not be. In fact a lot of times after some initial struggle I've learnt that the project isn't headed in the right direction. However, since I am not an expert in that specific subject area, whatever it may be, I can't interfere much or put my foot down and say no this is how it should be. This created frustration for me and the project is harmed as well.
Lemme give you an example. For one of my projects we need to order servers. As a starting point I have gotten minimum server specifications from the solution provider, list of supported platforms and OS versions. This activity was completed in a couple of days. This information was then passed on to the infrastructure team in our organization. Our infrastructure team needed to review the specifications, add their 2 cents worth and place the hardware order. It has been now a month that they are deliberating what servers would best suit our environment!!! Even I have come to realize that something that should take 2-3 days has been dragged forever. What do I do now?
Secondly, I don't have the authority to choose which projects I would work on and I certainly I don't have the authority to not implement a project. If I told my boss that I am planning to not implement the project for whatever reasons then he will tell me off. He will say Sponsor is paying for the project our job is to ensure project is completed. Yes if I somehow convince the Sponsor that project isn't headed in the right direction then he may be able to close the project. Or wait even he would need to get approval from management committee. Something which he won't do because the committee is most likely question him why he decided to go ahead with the project in the 1st place and why is he changing his mind now.
These are just some of the headaches which make me rethink what am I really doing. Am i really managing projects or am I being managed by projects and its stakeholders!
@Mubashar: You bring about a very valid point about "Am I really managing projects or am I being managed by projects and its stakeholders!". A lot of PMs are victims to this predicament even though they don’t realize it.
Considering that Mathew has been in situations like the ones mentioned below & has worked in environments like yours, a few pointers that Mathew can think of that may help you are:
1. In your project plan, Mathew's sure you've mentioned it (Order Servers) as a task and assigned it to the respective person. If not, its never too late.
2. Track the plan/task closely and formally remind him of the delay. Remember, 'what has NOT been written, has NOT been said', so don’t shy away from sending him an email reminder. A call is certainly better, but an email ALSO would never hurt.
3. Writing is not everything. Next you may want to, speak with him to understand the reason for the delay. It's highly unlikely that he's delaying the task because he dislikes you. You seem to be a 'Likable' person
4. Understand the issue he is facing and try to help him overcome the obstacle that is leading to him delaying your work.
5. If you can't help him overcome his obstacle; speak to his boss. Negotiate with him to assign alternate resources for either your task or the task that the assigned resource is facing issue with. Remember, 'what has NOT been written, has NOT been said'. Besides all your talks, send an official email also (preferably in the same email chain).
6. Still no success, Escalate to HoITD
7. In parallel Escalate to Project Sponsor (if they are the same person, then super cooooooool for you).
To conclude, Mathew would like to share that once when he was stuck in the exact situation like the one in your example i.e. Order Server; Mathew had send the Task Owner 30 emails in the same email chain reminding him of the delay in the task. One every morning 1st thing and one last thing. By the end of 15 days, the person simply walked up to Mathew with a smile and confessed, “Now I’m scr**ed if I don’t finish it within the next few days because I know you’re gonna take this email chain and walk right into the HoITD’s office”. The task got completed in the next 2 days and since then, Mathew’s task by that resource has never been delayed. If you do choose to deploy this trick, do let Mathew know how it worked out for you
Looking forward to hearing more from you in the future.
.....
[Mathew@PM4K] @
PROJECT MANAGEMENT for KIDS [PM4K] @
http://www.anishmathaimathew.blogspot.com
Thanks bro. Lemme try some of your tips and tricks and see how it works out :)
A minimal project manager would have at the very least some process awareness. Processes take inputs and produce outputs, hopefully including the goal.
I think PM is to take ownership of ones deeds and thoughts and apply them using the available resources, technology, and opportunities.
At a bare minimum a project manager needs to be a leader. A project manager may not be technically knowledgeable about every project he leads but he needs to be able to gain the respect of his co-workers and be able to positively influence the project by using his or her strengths.
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