Let me start off with a story. Three men: a project manager, a software engineer,
and a Marketing manager are helping out on a project. About midweek they decide to walk
to downtown during their lunch hour. Halfway up the downtown, they stumbled upon a lamp.
As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says "Normally I would grant you three wishes,
but since there are three of you, I will grant you each one wish."
The marketing manager went first. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living in
a huge house in Hawaii with no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him
on off to Hawaii. The software engineer went next. "I would
like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the Mediterranean with
no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to the Mediterranean.
Last, but not least, it was the project manager's turn. "And what would your wish be?" asked
the genie. "I want them both back for my meeting after lunch" replied the project manager.
As a project manager, you will be able to relate to this story
Let’s start off with some background on Project Management terminology, history and
responsibilities After listing to the lecture you should
be able to - Distinguish Project Mgmt from Operations
& Product Management - Know the history of Project Management
- Understand Role and Responsibilities the project manager, and know
- What does it take to be successful as a project manager.
* Let's go over project management terminology. * What is a project?
* A project temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or goal.
* Temporary means that it has a defined beginning and end in time.
* Unique means a project is different from repetitive operations.
* Projects typically have a defined, narrow scope focusing on developing and implementing
new processes or systems * Operations or Business As Usual (BAU) focuses
on executing an existing, repetitive processes, e.g. producing client reports.
However, many projects are handed over to Operations or Support teams at the end of
the project. E.g. As a project manager, you could design
and supervise a project to develop a CRM system or Customer Service process
Once the product or process is going live the project manager would hand it over to
Operations and Support teams. PM and Operations/Support roles sometimes
get comingled where IT Project Managers are being asked to perform technical support roles.
This often happens when a project manager fails properly close out the project in terms
of hand-over the project to support teams.
Project management is the process of planning and controlling resources to achieve specific
goals. E.g. develop and implement a new web application
Improve quality and turn-around time of customer service inquiries
As mentioned, Project management is different from Operations Management
Projects typically have a defined, narrow scope and are typically short-term while Operations
tending to be ongoing endeavours Operations focuses on managing existing
processes, e.g. producing client or internal reports or documents.
Project management is also different from Product Management
You can think of Product managers are being project managers with heavy emphasis on the
marketing side. Project management focuses on “when”.
E.g. when does the milestone get completed? Product management focuses: “why”. Why
will this feature help to improve user customer satisfaction or user acquisition?
In some organizations the roles of Project Mgmt and Product Mgmt are sometimes performed
by the one person, frequently in startup environments.
Let's take a brief look at evolution of
project management. Until 19th century architects or typically
engineers managed projects. In the 50s that organizations started to
use structured methods for projects. The forefathers of project management are
Henry Gantt and Henri Fayol. Gantt is famous for his use of the Gantt
chart as a project management tool Fayol for his creation of the five management
functions that form the foundation of the project management body of knowledge.
The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern project management era.
In the 1950s, two mathematical scheduling models were developed.
The "Critical Path Method" (CPM) The "Program Evaluation and Review Technique"
or PERT These mathematical techniques quickly spread
into many organizations.
In 1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) was founded by practitioners
of project management.
The AACE continued its pioneering work and in 2006 released the first integrated process
model for portfolio, program and project management.
In 1967, the International Project Management Association (IPMA) was founded in Europe.
IPMA has federal structure and now includes member associations on every continent.
In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded.
PMI publishes the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)
PMI also offers serveral certifications such as PMP Certification.
So, Project management evolved as a combination of business administration and engineering.
Therefore, to be successful as a project manager you need to business- and tech savvy.
So that does a Project Manager? Let's talk about the role and responsibilities
of a project manager. In a nutshell, a project manager is responsible
planning, executing and closing a project. He is responsible for accomplishing the
agreed project goals with the agreed time, budget and scope.
Key activities of project manager include * defining clear and attainable project objectives,
documenting a project charter that include the issues to resolved, project goals, scope,
team, timeline, KPIs
Project managers have to manage the triple constraint for projects, which is cost, time,
and scope. They also the primary point of contact for project issues and risks.
People frequently ask “What does it take to be successful as a project manager?”
#1: You must be a great communicator It is said that more than 50% of a project
manager’s time is spent in some aspect of communication. This includes
meetings, status reporting, e­mails, phone calls, coordinating, talking to people, and
completing documentation. Some studies have shown that verbal and
written communication takes up 80% of the job.
If you are not an effective communicator (and you don’t care to be), don’t go down
this path.
#2: You must be a team player and work well with people
If you prefer to stay in your office and focus on your own work, you probably don’t
have the collaborative ability to be a good project manager.
Project managers need to spend a lot of time with clients, stakeholders, and team
members.
#3: You have to balance being detail-oriented and never lose sight of strategic goals of
the business and the big picture that may include corporate politics.
You have to be detailed oriented when reviewing scheduled , requirements or issues and think
big picture in terms of strategic business objectives, customer requirements and office
politics.
#4: You like to manage people You don’t have much of a project if you’re
the only resource. If you want to be a good project manager,
you need to be able to manage people. You will not have 100% responsibility for
people, but you will need to show leadership, hold them accountable, manage conflict, etc..
#5: You like to follow processes No one wants to be a slave of processes.
But you need good processes to be effective as your projects.
#6: You like to document things Many aspects of project management require
some documentation, including status reporting, communication plans, scope changes, and Project
Charters.
#7: You like to plan When a client gives you a project, what
is your first inclination? If your first thought is to get a team together
to start executing the work, you probably don’t have a project management mindset.
#8: You don't like to be an order taker If you think your job is to take orders
from the customer and execute them, you may not be a good project manager.
Project managers need to provide value on a project, including pushing back when the
client is asking for things that are not right. If the client raises a request that is out
of scope, you also need to invoke the scope change management process.
#9: You are organized People who have poor personal organization
skills and techniques usually do not make good project managers.
If you’re going to manage multiple people over a period of time, you need to be well
organized to make sure that everyone is doing what he or she needs to do as efficiently
as possible.
#10: You feel that project management is value-adding and not administrative “overhead”
No one can feel good about their job if they think the work they perform is not value­
added. Good project managers understand the value of their work, and they understand their
work will result in a project coming in on time and on budget with a good experience
for the client and the project team. If you think the work associated with project management
is overhead and non value ­added, you’re probably not the right person to be a project
manager yourself.
Conclusion Let’s review what we covered.
A project temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or goal.
Project management is different from Operations Management and from Product Management
Project management evolved in the 1950s as a combination of business administration
and engineering Project managers have to manage the triple
constraint for projects, which is cost, time, and scope. They also the primary point of
contact for project issues and risks. To be successful as a project manager you
need to business- and tech savvy. To be successful project manager you also
have to be a great communicator, a team player and balance attention to technical details
as well big picture thinking which includes knowledge of business strategy and organizational
politics.