Tales from a Project Manager – Project Manager Role
Are you thinking about becoming a project manager?
Are you asking, "What does a project manager do"?
In this article, "What does a Project Manager do?" is explored and answered.
So, what does a Project Manager do?
A project manager is responsible for planning, organizing,
and orchestrating the completion of projects for a company or organization and
making sure projects are completed within budget, on time, and deliver the defined scope.
While the exact duties of a project manager may differ depending on the industry, company, and the types of projects assigned, all project mangers share responsibilities across the “project life cycle”.
The project life cycle consists of the following five (5) processes (or phases):
- Initiating
- Planning
- Executing
- Monitoring and Controlling
- Closing
While many think of these as steps a project sequences
through, in reality they are processes that the project continually iterates through till the end of the project. The project manager returns to
these processes throughout the life of the project. For example, if hardware is needed before software can be installed, the hardware installation may be executing, while the software installation of the project is still being initiated. Or if new scope items are added to the project, the project manager needs to take the new scope items through the
initiating process while the original scope items of the project are
in the executing and monitoring and control process. Another example is while executing a
project, the project team may discover issues or external dependencies requiring the project to go through the planning process again.
Lets take a closer look at each process and the roles and responsibilities of the project manager.
Initiating
It is vitally important during the initiating process (or
phase) that the scope, purpose, and main objectives of the project are clearly
defined and socialized. Also, it is extremely
important to identify key internal and external stakeholders, perform stake
holder analysis, discuss shared expectations, and gain the required authorization
to kick off the project with the project team.
Much of the project initiation activities aren’t done by the
project manager alone. And quite often a
project manager is not assigned to a project until much of this work is already
done or is well under way.
Stake holder analysis is where the project manager assesses
stakeholder needs, determines stakeholders that are supportive and those that are
likely not supportive, and determines strategies to manage stakeholder needs.
Key questions for the project manager and leaders to answer during the initiating phase are:
- What information from past projects should be considered to help the project team and ensure project success
- Is the project budget approved? If not, how will the project be funded?
- What does done look like for the project?
- What is the specific problem trying to be solved?
- What is the importance of the project? Is it to save the company money? Is the project revenue generating? To deliver a new service or capability, etc?
- What are the explicit success criteria for the project? How do you know if the project is a success or not?
- What are the requirements and constraints of the project?
- What assumptions are being made?
- What are the unknowns of the project?
- What is in scope for the project and what is out of scope for the project?
- Who are the stakeholders of the project? Who is impacted? Or Who impacts the project?
- Who are the supportive stakeholders for the project? Who are resistant stakeholders for the project?
- What are the desired outcomes of the project? Again save money? Generate revenue? Reduce # of man hours? Increase customer call volume traffic? Reduce mean time to failure? Etc.
- Are there time constraints? Are there unrealistic expectations?
- What are the risks?
- Are statements of work with 3rd party vendors needed for the project?
- What is the experience level of teams impacted by the project?
Once a project manager is assigned the project manager needs
to fully engage to make sure they have a clear understanding of the project, the
stake holders, and determine strategies to work the project within the
organization. The project initiation
phase culminates in the project manager working to get the project chartered
and formally approved.
Planning
Once a project is formally chartered and approved, the project
manger works with key stakeholders to create an integrated project plan to
achieve the project goals.
The project plan should include all aspects of the project including
documents that need to be authored, testing, equipment purchases, installs, external
project dependencies, and any project constraints. The project plan allows the project manager
to oversee cost, timeline, scope, risk, quality, and communications for the
project.
During the planning phase, the project manager needs to
outline key deliverables and milestones, and work with the team to identify the
tasks that need to be completed to achieve each deliverable and milestone.
Project “planning” doesn’t actually end until the project
does. The project plan needs to be treated
as a living document that evolves as the project evolves.
Prior to moving to the “Executing” process it is important
to baseline the project plan.
The desired outcome of the planning phase is to have an end
to end project plan with assigned resources for each project task and to make
sure the plan is socialized and that the project team and key stake holders are
aware and have bought into the key milestones and that the milestones and
deliverables are achievable.
Executing
The executing process or phase is all about executing to the
project tasks and plan that was laid out during the planning process (or phase). The assigned team members complete the work
that is identified in the project plan to accomplish the goals of the
project. During executing the project
manager main responsibility is to assign the work and to ensure tasks are
completed as scheduled.
It is important for the project manager during the executing
process to be observant and protect the team from distractions, communicate effectively,
work and facilitate issue resolution, lead the team through changes in the project,
and keep stakeholders informed.
During the executing process or phase it is also critical all
operational support items are prepared and are worked. And all necessary training (formal or informal) is scheduled
and delivered to the teams responsible for maintaining the solution going forward or to end user teams.
Monitoring and Controlling
A project manger needs to monitor and control the project throughout
the life cycle of the project from planning to closure.
The monitoring and control process (or phase) lasts the entirety
of the project from the very beginning of the project throughout planning,
execution, and closing.
For monitoring and controlling the main responsibilities of the project manager are:
- Track actual project plan performance against the planned/scheduled performance – compare variance to plan
- Track and work with the team to ensure key milestones for the project are reached
- Track and monitor the progress of key deliverables and the overall progress of the project
- Manage the project’s budget
- Communicate project status and variances to plan to key stakeholders
- Track and manage project risks and issues
It is important to realize that projects rarely go exactly
according to plan, so a project manager needs to be astute, flexible, and adapt
as situations and events occur.
Closing
During the closing process (or phase) a project manager
should verify that all key deliverables, objectives, and activities for achieving
the final project results are complete. Also,
during project closure verify that all operational support teams for the solution
have all necessary reference documents for maintaining the solution going
forward.
Some of the key responsibilities of the project manager during closing are:
- Work with key stakeholders and clients to get formal sign-off of project deliverables and sign-off the project is completed and can be closed
- Verify operational owners have been trained
- Perform a lessons learned or after action review with the project team and any key work partners
- For third party vendors or partners, review work delivered, review vendor performance with team and address any significant vendor issues. Administratively close vendor contracts and make sure invoices are paid.
- Release all resources (budget or staff) no longer needed for the project and thank them.
- Prepare project closure report documenting lessons learned and any punch list items that need to be resolved
- Archive project files for reference on future initiatives
It is important that once the project is closed all deliverables or solutions requiring ongoing operational support need to transition to the appropriate operational support organization.
Final Thoughts
The project manager is the main orchestrater ensuring that a
project is well defined, well organized, well staffed, and is well planned.
It is also vital for a project manger to perform stakeholder
analysis to determine the appropriate strategies and plans to keep stakeholders
informed, aware, and engaged on a project and to appropriately minimize or
respond to resistant or outright unsupportive stake holders.
There are many different aspects that project mangers need
to address from day to day.
It is important to lead, listen, accommodate, and assist the project
team and project stakeholders to deliver a successful project and ultimately a
successful solution for the business.
Stay vigilant, hopeful, responsible, and address any team
behavior issues so they don’t distract the rest of the
team.
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