Project Manager - who is he

Undoubtedly, the success of any project depends on the professionalism of its head, so to approach the issue of the appointment of the project manager should be a special responsibility.

If the office of a "project manager" is introduced into the structure of the organization, we can definitely say that the company pays great attention to its development.

On the employee usually has the following responsibilities: identification of project goals and objectives, a description of the requirements to the final product, creating it in the approved time and within a certain budget, manage their respective processes in compliance with the corporate project management standard, and so on..

Responsibilities of project managers do not change in the same company, if it is formalized. May differ only by the projects themselves, their scale and composition of the teams working on them. If your company has a corporate standard project management system, then it should contain a list of all the functions of the manager. If this standard is not present, the duties may vary depending on the direction of a particular specialist.

Project management and line management

Often executives are not quite clearly understand the difference between operational and project management, which may adversely affect the decision on the appointment of a project manager. The differences in this case relate to the following areas: character, period and conditions, the availability of necessary resources, the properties of the result.

So, the main features of project management are:

 The project is always the goal set out in such a way that all stakeholders clearly interpreted it and are aware of the result of the project before it starts.

 The project is always planned for a limited period (as short and very long) and does not involve the resumption of work after their completion (otherwise, or there is a long operating cycle, or the project was not properly planned).

 The resulting project after the result has a unique (not previously existed) properties, or its establishment takes place in conditions different from those in which the work is carried out the usual divisions of the company.

 Resources needed for the project (in Vol. H. Time) are limited, and their degree of availability can significantly affect not only the course of the project, but also to a large extent on its result.

If not fulfilled even one of these conditions, then the project can not be called work.

Position "project manager" becomes fashionable not only for individual professionals, but also for companies. Elevated to the rank of mandatory execution time constraints, the project came to be called any work on the achievement of a specific goal with the approved schedule. Accordingly, the performers (even managers) of these tasks is called project managers. So, you can meet "the project manager for questioning", "project manager of the classifieds."

For example, a bakery begins to produce new consumer products - biscuits. foreman, in which it is baked, appoint a project manager, but in fact he continues to engage in their normal operating activities. In fact, there is a renaming of positions to show the importance of this area of ​​work.

However, as practice shows, Operations Manager without project management experience and special training is often not suitable for this activity. It focuses not on the end result and to maintain progress; It required of him administrative experience, and not the management team.

Often, the foreman or department adheres to an authoritarian style of leadership: giving orders, it does not imply that the subordinates will discuss it, and reject their suggestions for improvement. Such an approach is unacceptable for the project activity, which is difficult to clearly describe all the processes and the achievement of results and staff are required to an essential element of creativity. In order to create conditions for its development managers need to form a team of like-minded, in fact, it should encourage the submission of proposals aimed at the best possible execution of the task.

Staff in the project team is chosen, as a rule, the number of professionals in specific areas of importance for the successful implementation of the project. Endure in the team they will not "nurse", how to prevent and despotic attitude on the part of the head. In this case, the team is going to work together for a limited time, and the time to resolution of conflicts in her not so much. In order to create a cohesive team of like-minded people, the project manager should follow the style of "democratic leader", contributing to the fact that each participant displayed their knowledge and skills, and to remain, however, the movement of the whole group in the direction of the project objectives.

Features of Project Management

In any profession there are the typical set of problems studied enough specialists in personnel management. If we talk about the difficulties in the work is the project manager, they could be characterized by the following. About 80% of the time the employee is occupied communication:

 communication with team members,

 correspondence with contractors,

 coordination of the various issues with the heads of departments,

 reporting to their superiors,

 participation in meetings, conferences, internal corporate conferences,

 endless phone calls and much more.

The main difficulty in this case - to achieve a combination of appropriate personal and professional qualities. Successful implementation of this part of the work - a guarantee that the remaining 20% ​​of the time will not be wasted.

The competence of the project manager

Project Manager - a universal position. The basis of its success - it is the experience and knowledge in areas such as personnel management, contract management, procurement, finance, risk, quality, and more. At the same time, even as a leader, he could not lead his team to good results without the use of modern methods of communication.

It can not be expected that without experience you can realize a major project at once. But small projects, goals and objectives which do not go beyond the boundaries of a single specialization (eg, tuning software, scientific research in a particular direction, build a house, and so on. P.), You can gradually gaining experience in management. Thus come first professional knowledge in the relevant field.

One of the extremes in the representation of the project manager's position lies in the plane of the formation.

Consider, for example, the area of ​​construction. On the one hand, a number of civil engineering universities train such specialists, and thus graduates have expertise in project management. But this is only one type of projects, while they may differ.

Although the leaders of the duties are almost the same in these institutions provide knowledge only building direction. Talk about the universality of this education is not necessary. On the other hand, multiple project management courses often distort the very idea of ​​this activity, as is often carried out by professional trainers (experts in psychology and human resource management), and not by the project managers. Only courses in the training centers authorized by international associations in the field of project management, can provide the necessary knowledge in this field.

The ideal project manager - is primarily a charismatic leader. People of this type is not too much. Therefore, we must constantly develop other qualities. Communication skills, ability to make decisions and carry the burden of responsibility for them, diplomacy when negotiating sensitive issues and finding a compromise, the ability to quickly (in a short time) to work with a large volume of information, to pose the problem and organize the execution control, as well as patience, honed skills of planning personal time - this is not a complete list of the professional qualities of the project manager.

and should highlight the characteristics such as openness to learning and the development of new directions, their expertise, and the ability to clear and articulate. The latter is particularly important as a guarantee of correctness in setting goals and communicating with all parties in the project.