Project Manager

Largely comes from google-project-management.

• A Day in the Life of a Project Manager | Indeed
  • “Stay on top of things”
  • Regular office hours

Values

• Values of project manager
  • Prioritization
  • Delegation
  • Communication
• Focusing on a customer - Ask customer their vision or final outcome
• Building a great team
• Fostering relationships and communication
• Managing the project - Let everyone know the impact of their tasks at hand
• Breaking down barriers

Roles and Responsibilities

• Planning and organizing
  • Make use of productivity tools and create processes
  • Create plans, timelines, schedules, and other forms of documentation to track project completion
• Cost controlling and other factors
  • Monitor and manage the budget
  • Track issues and risks
  • Manage quality
  • Remove unforeseen barriers
• Keeping track of project tasks
• Interpersonally skills
  • Teaching and mentoring
  • Building relationships
  • Controlling change
  • Empowering your team
  • Communicating status and concerns
• Project Manager is not always the direct manager
• Working with cross-functional team (T-shaped talents)
  • Clarify goals
  • Get team members with the right skills
  • Measure progress
  • Recognize efforts

Organize

Stay organized! Once you are organized, your team’s thinking and actions will stay organized!

Core Skills

Core Skillset of a Project Manager

• Enabling decision making
• Communicating and escalating
• Flexibility
• Strong organizational skills

• Assess external constraints
• Calculate float in the schedule
• Influencing without authority
  • Communication
  • Negotiation
  • Conflict mediation
  • Understanding motivations

Traits of a Successful Project Manager

• Enthusiasm for the project
• The ability to manage change effectively
• A tolerant attitude toward ambiguity
• Great team-building skills
• Strong negotiation skills
• A customer-first mindset
• Focused on business outcomes
• Industry / technical knowledge

Pros and Cons

• Pros
  • It provides a strong sense of accomplishment
  • Lots of responsibility
  • No two days are alike
  • Significant freedom of choice
  • Opportunity to affect change
  • Stepping stone to promotion
• Cons
  • Lots of responsibility (maybe with little authority)
  • Requires significant tolerance for people’s shortcomings and politics
  • Requires significant tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty
  • May feel “disconnected” from your technical discipline