What Makes a Successful Project Manager?

Everyone agrees that delivering projects on-time, on budget, and meeting performance requirements (the "triple constraints") are critical to consistently successful project management.  Additionally, the following leadership/management attributes provide a solid foundation for achieving great PM success.  (I make no claim to originality for most of these - many you can find in a couple minutes of internet surfing).

Increasingly the business world is becoming more project based, largely driven by an organizations need to be competitive and profitable - therefore the skills and attributes necessary to achieve PM success are becoming more valuable.  These skills are far more valuable (and harder to develop) than any business project management software.  If you lack any of them, take time to foster and hone them - for yourself and those around you.

• Foresight;  being able to look down the road and make some reasonable predictions based upon practical assumptions.  I call it the converse of planning.

• Organization;  keeping information, schedules, and team members organized is critical. Being  detail-oriented, but without micro-managing is key.

• The ability to lead. Although there are some people who are natural leaders, basic leadership skills can be learned, practiced, and improved. It's not well covererd in the PMBOK, but there are mentors, leadership training, assessments, and books you can read if an honest evaluation of your leadership skills finds you lacking. Leadership and people skills are, IMHO, more important than methodology and tracking tools.

• Communication skills. It's important to be able to communicate with everyone involved in the project from peers, to team members, and stakeholders. Everyone needs different information couched in different terms, at different detail levels, at different times.  Many seasoned practitioners will say they spend more time in communication than any other single PM activity.

• Pragmatism. A pragmatic approach to problem-solving is a skill that is essential for a discipline as varied and mult-functional as project management.

• Empathy and Situational Leadership. In order to lead people, you need to understand them and what motivates them. Everyone is different and a one-size-fits-all approach to leadership is seldom the most successful approach.

• Delegation.  You can't do it all yourself, and most of the time, if you have the right people, the task can be done better by someone else.  Besides, if your always doing it you rob others of growth and can't invest in the organization's future.  Great project managers understand that successfully leading people is more than half the battle in managing any complex or large project.

• Pro-Active and Following Up.  Even the best folks need some follow up and reminders now and then, and you can never sit back and wait for stuff to happen on its own.

MBWA

"A desk can be a dangerous place from which to manage your Project." 

There is a lot of initiating, planning, executing, closing and monitoring/controlling that can be done in your office or desk, but nothing can quite replace the process of going out among the work centers to see for yourself what is going on.  That process is what we call MBWA, or managing by walking around.  We have to remember several things;
1. Reports represent a state at a point in time, which is rarely real time.  Information regarding cost, schedule and performance can be anywhere from days to weeks or even months old. 
2.  Even when work performance information in a report has just been collected, it may be based on old data.  This problem can be exacerbated even more when all personnel are not co-located.
3.  Some elements of this information may have it's own added time-late characteristics, such as when procurement updates cost accounts based on subcontracts and other P.O.s
4.  Reports usually do not provide a complete picture, and may address only those areas that fit into a preconceived format.
5. By personally visiting the various work sites, the PM can often get a heads up on problems appearing but not yet registered anywhere, and sometimes can even be prevented by some quick information sharing or actions on the part of the PM.
6.  Last but not least, it's easier to get the unvarnished truth during unofficial one-on-one conversations, before various management levels have a chance to insert potential "spin." However, one must always be aware of the information source and keep in mind that it may need added context to properly interpret.


- Stu Newman

A sample list of items for a Project Staffing Plan

The Staffing plan for a project might need, among other items:

 

1. Describe and Define what project is, requirements, etc.

 

- Team Mission, Vision, Goals/Objectives.

 

2. List key personnel positions that need to be staffed:

 

3. List required skills, experiences, special requirements (“Top Secret goverment clearance,” “600 lb Stationary plant engineer,” "Certified Novell Engineer (CNE),” etc.) for EACH position.

 

4. Identify their roles and functions:

         - Project Manager, lead systems engineer, etc. and what they need to be doing, who they report to, etc. Eliminate redundancy (where its not essential).

 

5. Identify the management structure (org chart)

 

6. Define the personnel requirements against the timeframes when they will be needed, and list full vs. % part time (you may lump together “3 mechanical engineers, full time, during T1-T2 period”).

 

7.  Generate cost “ROM,” in dollars or labor. Turn in write up.

 

A good team is more than the company it resides in; it has drive, identity and a common goal- it doesn’t snipe, pull each other down, or engage in destructive behavior.

 

Staffing plan: who do you need, what will they do, how will they interact, how many of each, when do you need who, what skills and experience is needed.