Hello there, this is Jason Dodd from PM Perspective, the resource that transforms average workers
into corporate superstars! In today's video we're covering a foundational
topic. What is a Project Manager and what do they
do? But before I get into any of that, let's talk
about you. As you clicked on this video link, you probably
were asking yourself, what have I gotten myself into? You see most of the people who are out
there searching for information on project management are doing so because they've been
assigned a project to manage and after the excitement of being recognized for their skill
and hard work has worn off, their faced with the reality -- succeed and your career will
be elevated to lofty heights, fail however ... well that's a prospect that scares us
too much to consider. If you're in this situation then I'm glad
you clicked on this video. Over the next couple of minutes we'll not
only give you some much-needed clarity on what is expected of a PM, but we'll also uncover
the secret to becoming one of the elite few PM's whose talents are valued and sought after
... and, if you stick around, at the end of the video, after you've learned about what's
most important, we'll show you how you can download all of the templates you'll need
to manage a project, and you can download them for free.
OK let's get started! So what does a Project Manager do?
It's at this point where most people would start talking about things like kick off meetings,
project schedules, budgets and charters. But meetings, schedules, budgets and charters
are merely process and tools and this is where most PM's get stuck and begin to flounder.
Remember that secret I told you about? The secret is this: Outcome focused PM's are
more successful than process or tool focused PM's.
PM's who devote all of their time to discovering that magic process or perfect template that
they can apply to all projects are doomed to waste a lot of time chasing an ideal that
doesn't exist. Any time I hear someone who speaks in terms of the "right way" and "wrong
way" to manage a project, I know I've met one of these marginally successful PM's who
fixates on process. To understand the difference between process-focused
versus outcome-focused, let's use an analogy. I want you to think of project manager as
you might an automobile mechanic. An experienced mechanic will know many different procedures,
procedures for bleeding the braking system, performing wheel alignments or flushing cooling
systems and they'll have a wall full of tools that they can use. But they aren't going to
be that successful if they follow the exact same steps and use the same tools for every
car that they get their hands on. It isn't until the car arrives in the garage that they
know what needs to be done for THAT particular car.
Projects are the same. Each project you manage will require a different approach depending
on the scope, the particular objectives and the people involved. A process or tool used
successfully in one project will probably fall flat and fail to yield the same results
in another project. A great PM is one who, when faced with a new project, focuses on
the outcomes that they need to produce and they carefully craft a process and select
the tools that will produce those outcomes. So if outcomes are the most important thing
for PM's to focus on, then what are they? Grab your pen and paper because I will list
them here before we get into them: An outcome focused PM must...
• Guarantee objectives • Recruit and motivate people
• Build strategies and plans • Control project execution
• Detect and resolve issues • Ensure Quality
• Mitigate Risk Obviously, we could talk about each of these
for hours on end and still only scratch the surface. But -- for this video -- I'm going
to complete a quick overview of each outcome to give you an idea as to what each of these
things are. First, let's talk about what it means to guarantee
objectives. What I mean by this is that the PM must guarantee
that the objectives of the project are achievable. Usually, when a PM is assigned to a project,
some executive will establish the parameters for the project. They'll say something like,
"we want you to build a bridge over Mystic River (scope), it needs to be done by the
end of June (time), and your budget is $2M (cost)."
Those three variables, scope, time and cost are inextricably related. We call them the
"iron triangle" of Project Management. The relationship can be expressed using a
simple algebraic equation such as "a + b = c". You can plug values into the equation at random
but only certain combinations will evaluate correctly.
When executives decide upon the scope, time and budget, in many cases, these three factors
weren't derived from careful analysis and planning. They were literally picked out of
the sky. It's possible that the stated scope, time and cost don't evaluate properly. A good
PM will confirm that all three work together before starting project execution.
If the expected scope, time and cost don't add up it's the PM's responsibility to discuss
options with company leaders before any execution starts.
Don't get caught in the trap that so many PM's fall victim to, where they believe it
isn't their responsibility to validate that their boss, client or customer have realistic
expectations. If you're first reaction is to simply do what you've been told, you may
have failed before you even began, and no one will thank you for it.
Moving on to Recruiting and motivating people. Another thing a Project Manager does is make
sure that the right people are involved in the project. A PM needs to recruit talented
people to implement the change delivered by a project and they also need to influence
the people who will be affected by the change that the project team implements.
Getting everyone committed to achieving a common goal isn't easy because people are
naturally averse to change. This is where a PM must rely heavily on their influencing
skills. We don't have time to dive deeply into the topic of influence but I'll give
you a quick tip: To get everyone committed to achieving project
objectives you must find a way to tie a little string from the objective to the hearts of
each team member. To do that, you need to understand what is important to your team
members and stakeholders. A useful exercise for discovering how to motivate others is
to do some soul searching yourself. Why do you care so passionately about this Project?
You might be saying to yourself, I wouldn't say that I'm PASSIONATE about the project.
If you aren't quite feeling the passion yet, I have a little trick for you. Ask yourself
"why" until you've uncovered the base reasons for the project.
Here's an example of what I mean: If your project is to build a system to meet
some regulatory requirement. You might think, there's nothing emotionally
stimulating about that at all. Who cares about compliance? It's just a necessary evil, no
one will be thrilled when we've finished this project.
But ask WHY your company is undertaking the project in the first place?
So that they don't fail an audit and get fined for not meeting regulatory requirements. Feeling
emotional about that? No? Then ask WHY is it important that the company
not get fined for meeting regulatory requirements? Because if they are fined for not meeting
regulatory requirements, the company's clients would find out that the company didn't meet
regulations. Feeling something about that ... perhaps a little. Well let's ask WHY again.
Why would it be such a bad thing that the public found out that the company didn't meet
regulations? Well, because the regulations are in place
to protect our clients, and our clients would feel as though we weren't as concerned about
protecting them as we are about taking their money. How do you feel about that?
Well, if you're like most people, working for a company with integrity is important
to you. Now you've found at least one thing that ties your project's objectives to the
heart strings of your project stakeholders. If you can't get emotionally invested, neither
can your stakeholders. Go through this exercise a few more times, keep asking "why" until
you feel the answer tug at your heart just a bit and you'll come up with a hand full
of reasons why people should be motivated to do their best work.
When you kick off the project, you'll be able to explain to everyone why they should care
so much about the project, and they may even feel some of that passion that's required
for people to do great things. Right, let's move on.
The next outcome that a PM should be concerned with is the one people think of most when
they talk about project managers. Project Planning.
Once a PM identifies all of the people who participate and who are impacted by the project
the PM works with everyone to define strategies for success and drafts step-by-step plans
for achieving This is easier said than done. Once you've
achieved the herculean task of getting everyone committed to, and even passionate about the
project objectives, getting a dozen or sometimes even hundreds of people to agree on how to
achieve those objectives is never an easy task. And, as the PM, you have to find a way
to get everyone marching to the beat of the same drum, and you have to do it while having
no real authority over anyone involved in the project.
One you and your team have plans in place, the next thing you have to do is control project
execution. The PM uses observation, analysis and a number
of tools to determine whether or not the team is on-track and will deliver the expected
results on the agreed upon date. Throughout the project a PM will check in
with team members to see if they're reaching agreed to milestones at the right times, they
will monitor costs to see if money is being spent at the expected pace, and they watch
and listen carefully to all stakeholders to detect if things are not going according to
plan. Which brings us to the next outcome, detecting
and resolving issues. When things don't go according to plan, you
have, what we call in PM lingo, an "issue." A good PM can identify an issue out on the
horizon, often long before anyone sees it coming. Proactive PM's latch onto these issues
and work with the team to address any issues that might impact the team's ability to deliver
on objectives. Early detection and quick resolution of issues is key to project success. Many
different skills are required to efficiently detect and triage issues, but the most effective
way to detect issues is to manage by walking around and listen intently.
At times the only evidence you have that something is going wrong is the look of uncertainty
on a team member's face as they report their progress to you. Miss this subtle queue and,
rather than proactively dealing with issues, they'll sneak up on you and attack when you
least expect them to. So it's important for PM's to be VERY involved
with their team members, they must get to know them and interact with them as often
as possible. This means getting out from behind the monitor and keyboard, getting out there
and talking to people as much as you can. We call this managing by walking around and
it's your #1 tool for detecting issues. Once an issue is detected, the skill that
you will rely on most in dealing with issues is the art of negotiation.
When everything is on track and the team is cranking out deliverables, it's time for the
PM to put on their quality hat, and ensure quality.
An outcome that PM's are responsible for but often overlook is the assurance that project
deliverables are of the right quality and meet requirements.
PM's should think of themselves as an expediter in a busy five star restaurant.
If you aren't familiar with what an expediter does, they are in charge of organizing the
various parts of the meal by table as they are made so that the entire order goes out
to the table as soon as everything is ready. Apart from keeping things organized the expediter
garnishes the plates and ensures that the dish looks exactly the way it should. The
expediter will send dishes they believe to be sub-standard back to the kitchen to ensure
that the customer always receives what they ordered and a product that meets their quality
expectations. PM's play the role of expediter when it comes
to organizing and monitoring the quality of the work the project team produces. If a deliverable
is found to be sub-standard, it's the PM's duty to send it back to the team to ensure
that the right level of quality is met. Which brings us to our final outcome, mitigating
risk. Mitigating risk is arguably one of the most
important things a PM can do. Even if your plan has some gaps, if you are
doing a good job in managing risk, there's a good chance your project team will deliver
expected results. It's helpful to not think of risk as an isolated
activity. You consider risks as you select people and build your project team. Risks
dictate various aspects of your project plan. Issues are usually the result of risks that
haven't been addressed. Risks can dictate how you control project execution and how
closely you monitor project quality. When you manage risk, you figure out what
could go wrong and take steps to reduce or eliminate the possibility that the risk will
prevent your team from reaching objectives. So this is all we have time for in this video.
We'll dive deeper into the steps you can take and the tools you can use to achieve the important
outcomes. Again, to recap, an outcome focused PM works
towards achieving the following: • Guarantee objectives
• Recruit and motivate people • Build strategies and plans
• Control project execution • Detect and resolve issues
• Ensure Quality • Mitigate Risk
A PM has so many things to keep track of, it's easy to get distracted and focus on the
wrong things. To keep things simple and to stay focused, I recommend you write these
seven outcomes down and hang them on your wall. Make sure, whatever processes and tools
you're using, you're achieving these outcomes and you can't go wrong.
Remember, put process and tools in their place, study and collect them but never become a
slave to them. If you stay outcome focused:
• You'll become more adaptable and flexible • You'll grow faster and learn more from
your experience • You'll become one of the elite few PM's
that get results and are sought after So, to close off this video, now that you
understand that tools are useful but not the be-all-end-all, I think it's safe to show
you how you can download some useful templates that will help you as you manage your projects.
If you're a PM Perspective Member, simply go to:
www.pmperspective.com/resources/templates ...and enjoy!
If you aren't a PM Perspective Member, to get access to templates, go to:
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