A person, full of responsibility and the same level of authority required completing a project. If a person does not have high levels of both responsibility and authority then it will not be a ‘Project Manager’. The title ‘Project Manager’ has come to be used generically to describe anyone given responsibility to complete a project. Also, it describes the activities that meet specific objectives and be used to introduce or improve new or existing products and services.
As a Project Manager, if he could prove excellent leadership and interpersonal skills, he will be able to improve his skill to co-ordinate and handle his project. You can read the detail in the Project Box’s article (Five key skills required by Project Managers, 2012). “The relationship between the management of projects and the management of people sheds light on some of the skills used by effective project managers.” You can read the detail in the Project Box’s article (Five key skills required by Project Managers, 2012). With those skills the Project Manager will be able to hold his title of being a ‘Project Manager’ and also he will be able to encounter any risk that will come up during the project. Most of the project management issues that influence a project arise from risk, which in turn arises from uncertainty.
Based on the summary of Matta and Ashkena (2003) any traditional project planning carries three serious risks that affect the project. Firstly, is the “White Space” which is the planners leave gaps in the project plan by failing to anticipate all the projects required activities and work streams (Matta and Ashkena, 2003). Then, is the “Execution” which is when the project team members fail to carry out designated activities properly (Mat...
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... Risk Management Options. Available from: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/risk-management-options.html. [Accessed 2nd Feb 2014].
Adrienne DiPaolo. (2013). Delivering Bad News on a Project. Available from: http://www.resultspositive.com/blog/delivering-bad-news-on-a-project/. [Accessed 10th Jan 2014].
Girdler, M. (2013). Project Management – How to Deliver Bad News. Available from: http://www.cornerstonedynamics.com/project-management-how-to-deliver-bad-news/. [Accessed 8th Jan 2014].
Darter, K. (2014). Tracking a Risk. Available from: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/tracking-a-risk.html. [Accessed 13th Jan 2014].
Hillson, D (2009). Managing Risk in Projects. Fundamentals of Project Management. Farnham: Gower. p20-25.
Harvard Business Review Press (2012). HBR Guide to Project Management. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. P123-124
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
The skills a project manager should have are defined by Richman as people skills, project management skills and technical skills. In the case of such a large project such as the building of the TGD the project manager also needs to have integration skills and great knowledge of the organisation.
Graham, R. J. & Randall, L., Creating an Environment for Successful Projects: The Quests to Manage Project Management, second ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 65-113, 2003.
Projects are widely used by many organizations and government institutions in the course of conducting their business. One of the reasons for this is because they have been proven to be effective in initiating change and translating strategic programs into daily activities. However, it has been established that most projects fail to deliver on time, budget, and customer specifications. In most cases, this failure is caused by over-optimism by the project management team. This over-optimism commonly referred to as optimism bias can simply be defined as overestimating the projects benefits and conversely underestimating its cost and duration time. Research have portrayed that this is often caused by failure to properly identify, understand, and manage effectively the risk associated with the project therefore putting its success at jeopardy(Mott McDonald, 2002). Fortunately, this biasness can be detected and minimized during the project gateway process.
Jugdev, K. (2012). Learning from Lessons Learned: Project Management Research Program. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration , 4(1), 13-22.
If you ask ten people what's the hardest part of their job, about 9 of them will say something along the lines of "giving bad news." From firing people to having serious performance conversations, letting employees know when the company's not doing well to explaining a screw-up to the press - these are the times that make most leaders want to go home and pull the covers up over their heads. Receiving bad news is never one of life’s delights, but how is it for those whose job it is to deliver the bad news? How do they—judges, doctors, first responders, even wedding planners—survive the tough speeches day after day? Past experiences tell us that the best way to deliver bad news to anyone is to be objective and stay positive.
Ramroth, Jr., William G., 2006, Project Management for Design Professionals, . Chicago, Illinois : AEC Education.
A project manager should be aware of the key challenges and threats an organization would face as well as he/she should have the skills to tackle the crises effectively and efficiently. In addition to that, a project manager should also be able to convey the thoughts and ideas in a convenient manner who is responsible to make a framework for an effective communication to ensure clear communication between the team members even though the style of communication would be different based on the situation.
Leadership is one important trait that characterizes a project manager. As a leader, he must possess the proper knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) needed to lead a project team toward project success. This is where his leadership competency is being measured. In this regard, organizations base their selection process on the project manager’s competencies not only on leadership but also on his behavior and other characteristics. In the United States, recruiters value more on experience and education (p.38).
In the globalized economy, Successful project managers are in much demand across many industries. Organizations strongly need experienced project managers to lead their staff to accomplish their business goals and deliver successful projects. In an increasingly complex environment, project managers need to turn into many roles and have all kinds of responsibilities at each level of management within an organization. Good project managers are not born. They need to be trained. They develop their skills through study, practise and experience. They become better project managers after they finish a successful project each time. They learn new techniques and apply them on their projects. They learn their lessons from failed projects and then improve to be better project managers in the future.
Key of the project management responsibilities include creating clear and attainable project objectives, building the project requirements and managing the constraints of the project management triangle which are cost, time, scope and quality.
Hut, P. M., & Thomson, S. (2013, June 5). What Are the Common Problems Faced in Project Management - Project Management Hut. Retrieved from https://pmhut.com/what-are-the-common-problems-faced-in-project-management
A project is defined as a set of tasks and activities that are planned to achieve a defined goal that needs to be accomplished within a certain period of time (Dykstra, 2011:32). The overall project requires a specific individual with skills who managers the entire project for the specified outcomes to be achieved. Therefore, the person becomes the project manager. The management activities vary according to the complexity as well as the duration of the project. However, all project managers are responsible for ensuring that there is progress on the work and all work is done satisfactorily. The term project management is defined as the art of directing and coordinating human and material resources throughout the life of a project by using
Over the course of my professional life, I have become increasingly involved in project management roles. Doing so has made me aware of the many varied challenges that can face projects and the project managers who are charged with bringing them through to completion. The success or failure of projects, in whatever economic, political or social field, rests not just on the quality of the project’s goals, but also on the abilities of those involved in the project – and above all those who are managing it – to bring it to successful completion. To do this, project managers need to be equipped with a very wide range of skills, many of which are unrelated to the type of project itself. So, for example, a project manager of an engineering project must not only have engineering
When planning a new project, how the project will be managed is one of the most important factors. The importance of a managers will determine the success of the project. The success of the project will be determined by how well it is managed. Project management is referred to as the discipline that entails the processes of carefully planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating the organization resources so as to foster and facilitate the achievement of specific established and desired goals and meet the specific criteria of success required in the organization (Larson, 2014). Over the course of this paper I will be discussing and analyzing the importance of project management.