A project manager must be able to work well with people, especially since team members are temporary and do not report directly to the project manager. The blend of skills required of the successful project manager includes: communicating (listening and persuading), organizing (planning, goal-setting, and analyzing), team building (empathy, motivation, developing cohesion), leading (example setting, energetic, vision, delegation, optimism), coping (flexibility, creativity, patience, persistence), technological (experience, project knowledge). In this list, inter-personal and team skills rank well ahead of technical skills for successful project management, although some understanding of the technical aspects is essential.

Critical success factors for projects, which are those factors that must be attended to by the project manager if a project is to succeed, have been found to include: project mission (clarity of goals and direction), top management support (willingness to provide resources and authority), project planning and scheduling (specification of detailed action steps in the project), client consultation (communication and active listening to internal and external clients), personnel (selection and training), technical tasks (availability of technology and expertise to do the technical work), client acceptance (selling the final project to its intended users), monitoring and feedback (timely control information at each project stage), communication (network and information to all key players in the project), troubleshooting (handling unexpected crises and deviations from plan).

With growing demand for qualified project managers, the field of project management has become a recognized management discipline. In North America, the Project Management Institute (PMI) is widely recognized as a professional body that provides information, training, and certification -- the Project Management Professional (PMP) designation -- for project managers. PMI has about 3,000 members in Canada, including 900 in southern Ontario, and close to 30,000 members worldwide.

More Full Text Turn on search term navigation Note In recent years, the concept of projects in business, government, and educational institutions has taken on much more importance than ever before. This is due partly to the fact that change and renewal have become key to organizational survival in today's highly competitive climate, and such changes are best implemented as projects. Another reason is that the availability of modern information technology infrastructure, as well as the current trend to decentralize decision making, are supportive of replacing or supplementing middle management with project management. For these and other reasons, there is a current surge of interest in using a professional project management approach.

This is not to say that project management is new. Some of the earliest major projects were the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, although people management techniques (slavery) used in those projects have now been replaced for the most part by more socially acceptable motivational techniques (some employees of extremely demanding supervisors might disagree with this statement). Consulting engineering organizations and construction companies have, of course, used project organization for many years to carry out their work. But project management is increasingly being applied in other types of business. A recent survey of professional project managers in southern Ontario indicates that they are employed (in declining order of number) in: computer information technology projects internal to a company or under contract to other companies, engineering and/or construction (design, procure, construct), product development, software development, and business process re-engineering.

A project can be defined as a one-time complex effort, made up of interrelated tasks. It has a well-defined set of desired end results. These may be specified in terms of cost, schedule, and performance requirements. Selecting the actual projects to be undertaken is also a complex problem, often handled by a committee of decision makers. The intent is to select those projects that can be undertaken with the resources available, and that will provide a good return on investment.

Some diverse projects that most of us have heard about include: the Canadian trans-continental railroad, the Welland Canal, the Hibernia drilling platform, the Canadarm, and development of the DOS operating system for personal computers. All were planned and carried out according to certain completion criteria, and all have had and continue to have a beneficial impact on the lives of many Canadians. But there are many other smaller projects with which many of us become involved, such as moving a company to a new building, moving a family household to a new home or organizing a wedding.

The important point is that there are common characteristics that pervade all projects, independent of their size. And there is a widely recognized body of management knowledge that can be used to help improve the chances that projects will be completed successfully on time and within budget, according to original specifications, and with the people involved still speaking to each other.

The normal business of an organization may not be project- oriented, even though groups of employees may work together temporarily to carry out projects from time to time. But there are many companies that are organized for project work either in some of their departments or throughout the company. Certainly, engineering consulting and construction firms engage almost entirely in project work. However, as another example, most firms today have a substantial commitment to information technology infrastructure, and this is typically acquired or constructed and installed by means of projects, even though the firm's regular business may not be overtly organized in this way.

When projects are implemented regularly, a matrix management organization is the most effective. Here, a project manager is given full responsibility for carrying out a project. The project manager is supported by technical people with the expertise needed, who are seconded from functional areas in the firm or through contract employment. A project manager must be able to work well with people, especially since team members are temporary and do not report directly to the project manager.

The blend of skills required of the successful project manager includes: communicating (listening and persuading), organizing (planning, goal-setting, and analyzing), team building (empathy, motivation, developing cohesion), leading (example setting, energetic, vision, delegation, optimism), coping (flexibility, creativity, patience, persistence), technological (experience, project knowledge). In this list, inter-personal and team skills rank well ahead of technical skills for successful project management, although some understanding of the technical aspects is essential.

Critical success factors for projects, which are those factors that must be attended to by the project manager if a project is to succeed, have been found to include: project mission (clarity of goals and direction), top management support (willingness to provide resources and authority), project planning and scheduling (specification of detailed action steps in the project), client consultation (communication and active listening to internal and external clients), personnel (selection and training), technical tasks (availability of technology and expertise to do the technical work), client acceptance (selling the final project to its intended users), monitoring and feedback (timely control information at each project stage), communication (network and information to all key players in the project), troubleshooting (handling unexpected crises and deviations from plan).

Unfortunately, projects can fail. Recently there have been examples, reported widely in the press, of government information technology projects that failed after the expenditure of millions of dollars. Part of the waste from some of these projects was due to the difficulty management had in determining when a project was clearly failing, and then taking the necessary action to terminate it. Other factors, including egos, often play important roles in determining when the plug should be pulled. Also, decision makers may fall into the sunk cost trap, where there is an escalating commitment to spend more on a failing project, in order to avoid wasting the resources already spent on it.

With growing demand for qualified project managers, the field of project management has become a recognized management discipline. In North America, the Project Management Institute (PMI) is widely recognized as a professional body that provides information, training, and certification -- the Project Management Professional (PMP) designation -- for project managers. PMI has about 3,000 members in Canada, including 900 in southern Ontario, and close to 30,000 members worldwide.

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