Project Manager, Meaning of Project Manager, Role of Project Manager, Importance of Project Manager

A Project Manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined finish; regardless of industry. Project managers are first point of contact for any issues or discrepancies arising from within the heads of various departments in an organization before the problem escalates to higher authorities, as project representative.

Project management is the responsibility of a project manager. This individual seldom participates directly in the activities that produce the result, but rather strives to maintain the progress, mutual interaction and tasks of various parties in such a way that reduces the risk of overall failure, maximizes benefits, and minimizes costs.

A Project Manager is the person responsible for accomplishing the project objectives. Key project management responsibilities include

• Defining and communicating project objectives that are clear, useful and attainable
• Procuring the project requirements like workforce, required information, various agreements and material or technology needed to accomplish project objectives
• Managing the constraints of the project management triangle, which are cost, time, scope and quality

Role of Project Manager

Planning the activities

A project manager needs to set an impact strategy that includes a full list of activities that are important for the project. The key responsibility of a project manager includes planning. The project manager needs to define the scope of the project and develop a project schedule accordingly. In general, when a project manager is planning the activities it is important to target the activities effectively to do less but well. The procedures should be efficient enough to deliver the projects within specified time and budget. Also, a backup plan should be created if the situation demands.

Delegating the teams

In many situations like a big project, or various tasks involved in a project, it becomes critical to delegate responsibilities to teams wisely. It is a leadership style that every project manager has to abide with and be good at it and eventually it becomes the responsibility of a project manager that needs to be learned over time. A manager should not misuse this responsibility in putting blames or degrading the team members. The tasks need to prioritize the tasks so prioritized to the team members so that they become more effective in their abilities. The managers should also understand the strength and weakness of their teams and accordingly delegate the tasks to them. So, be a good leader who creates an environment that fosters trust through meaningful delegation.

Managing deliverables

The Project Manager is also responsible for ensuring that the deliverables are delivered on time and within budget as per the business requirements.

Establish Regular Meetings

Scheduling regular meetings are difficult for all project managers and it doesn’t work well for every project. But a good for successful projects you probably need one team meeting per week. Or some project managers prefer to have daily standup meetings for a unique project methodology. The objective of the meeting should be met by communicating the rules of the project clearly to the entire team. The project managers should be ready from the beginning to prepare for meeting the objectives. They can set meeting calendar and try to stick to it until there is an emergency to cancel the plan out.

Managing reports and necessary documentation

Finally, when the project is completed on time and on a budget, the project manager has to then provide an appropriate documentation to present the final reports to clients and identify the areas where there is a need for future development. This is also a major responsibility of a project manager for project development.

Organizing a Project team to perform work

Another major role of project managers has focused their team’s efforts on elaborate spreadsheets, long checklists, and whiteboards. They need to develop a plan that will support the team to reach their goal easily without hindering the performance. It is their duty to organize their team to show their full potential. A project manager will have have to sometimes put on the duties of human resources like negotiating current employees’ job responsibilities, managing their times and achieving their commitment to the project, bids may be required and contracts will need to be reviewed and keeping everyone in check to make sure that the team’s moves along in accordance with the plan.

Controlling time management

To make a good impression on stakeholders and clients, the project managers need to look for whether the project has succeeded or failed. A project manager needs to be able to negotiate achievable deadlines and discuss the same with the team.  They need to develop a project that has the following features:

• Objective
• Process
• Estimating duration
• Schedule development
• Schedule control

Monitor progress

Most of the project manager’s time revolves around monitoring the status of projects. After the project has been started, a project manager has to see how much is done and if it is being done as expected. The progress of the project is made during the middle stages of the project through multiple systems like status reports, meetings and informal updates. This responsibility will become easier if a proper management system is selected by the project managers.

Communicate a vision with the team

A project manager should have a vision of where to go and the skills to understand the big picture related to any project. The vision should be conveyed to the entire team so that they understand the importance of their role to achieve the end results. The team should understand the load of work and do the possible efforts to convert goal into a mission. The appropriate tone should be set by the manager for smoother sailing down the road.

Importance of Project Manager

Alignment

A project manager is important as s/he ensures that the deliverable is what the concerned client wants, it is in the right shape and the real value is delivered to the client. S/he makes sure that the project architectural design is rigid and fits the broader picture of the client and its strategic framework. The project manager ensures that the objectives of the final deliverable are well aligned with the strategic goals of the client. The project is aligned and re-aligned in its entire course. Therefore, Alignment is counted as the importance of project managers.

Clear Purpose

A clear purpose is an important factor of a project manager that ensures there is proper planning in order to execute the project efficiently and the final goals are achieved. In the absence of a project manager, one can find the team working without any direction. They do not know what they are doing, do not have a purpose, work on vague project goals, no proper co-ordination and they are not sure what are they supposed to do. Project managers make the projects under them time-bound and make the functioning feasible by breaking the project into smaller chunks where every team member is given each chunk. A good project manager needs to have the vision to adopt such an approach.

Quality

When a team works on any project for any client then the first thing expected out of them is quality. If the project quality has been compromised, the team, and particularly, the project manager is answerable to the client, stakeholders, and the management as s/he is the one responsible and accountable for the project. It will not just lead to dissatisfaction of the client but also losing out on business and the business is not limited and restricted to the concerned client but also other clients. This is because of word of mouth which plays an important role in establishing a firm and its professionalism.

Expertise on the Subject

A project manager is an expert in his area and knows every aspect of project management very well. S/he can handle crisis situation very well too. A project manager observes the project process meticulously and keeps it moving smoothly and swiftly. Any risk or hindrance is known to him/her in advance and s/he devises a plan to tackle it head-on as there is the time in hand to resolve it.

Meticulousness

Just like it is very important to keep your house in order, it is also very important to keep the project process in order. When things at home are in order any discrepancy can be easily noticed. Similarly, when the project process is in order any lacuna in the project can be immediately spotted.

Leadership

Leadership is one of the Importance of Project managers. As a project manager brings in leadership to the project and then the entire process. If the project manager is absent then the project is like a ship without its captain-moving without any direction, control, and motive. A project manager and leadership both bring the best out of a team. Leader provides leadership, motivation, direction, and inspires the entire team to do their best work. With leadership also comes accountability and responsibility. A project manager ensures there is no confusion, no hassles in the course of the project and it is completed smoothly.

Achievable Objectives

Effective project managers negotiate achievable deadlines with the client, team, and management. Generally, the urgency of a certain delivery leads to compromising the necessary process and the quality of the final project goal. Most of the tasks take longer than anticipated. A good project manager is able to analyze and balance the required timeline with all the available resources and come up with a realistic schedule. A good project manager plans a flawless process, with realistic deadlines, that enables everyone in the team to work within limitations, and not unjustifiable expectations.

Managing Risk Involved

A project manager helps to avoid risk against various hassles that come in the way of project completion. S/he takes all the possible project risks head on and does not avoid them because managing risk is the importance of project managers. The client, stakeholders, and management are also informed about the risk and crisis involved. An efficient and pro-active project manager analyzes the project well and notes down all the anticipated risks and issues beforehand. This allows time to resolve them before they become hindrances in the way of successful project completion.

Continuous Supervision

A project manager continuously tracks a project on a daily basis and maintains status que. S/he constantly reports to the client and ensures a favorable outcome. If the outcome is not as desired, then s/he learns from it and improvises upon it.