10 Habits of the Ideal Project Manager

 

Working as a Project Manager is a lot like being a conductor— a manager doesn’t have to be able to “play all the instruments” to effectively manage a project . The main task of a PM is to properly organize a team of specialists and competently direct the process to achieve a result that would satisfy all interested parties. The only question is what skills will help the project with this. This topic will be discussed in the article.

 

Ability to work with stakeholders

You may be good at technology and business processes, but if you have communication problems, the Project Manager position will be challenging. Therefore, the main skill of an ideal manager is the ability to build relationships with stakeholders.

Stakeholders are all people or organizations that have an interest in the project or can influence it:

• A team of IT specialists and your superiors;
• The client, its employees or management;
• Contractors on the customer's side;
• Independent experts.

 

A good Project Manager knows how to build interaction with everyone, and an ideal one harmoniously unites everyone into one system. Knowledge of foreign languages, study and application of various ways of communicating and influencing people, as well as the use of special tools, for example, matrices of interest and responsibility, help with this. 

 

The stakeholder matrix helps determine the level of influence of stakeholders on the project, as well as the degree of possible involvement of a particular person or organization in the overall work process. Using this tool, it is easier for PMs to plan and build interactions with participants. 

 

The responsibility matrix helps to see the roles of each project participant, and also allows you to effectively distribute and control tasks. Can be used in any process.

 

Task and process management

Any project is a complex of work tasks and processes, and Project Manager must put everything into one system: from resource allocation to monitoring task completion and evaluating results. 

A manager needs to know in theory and use in practice:

• Project management methodologies, among the mandatory ones are Agile, Waterfall and a hybrid approach;
• Techniques and methods, such as Scrum and Kanban;
• Basics of document management;
• Tools to simplify the PM’s work: task managers, document storage, email services and chats, tools for personal notes, creative boards, design programs.

To the above you must add planning skill: without it is difficult to imagine an ideal project manager.

 

Time management and the ability to concentrate on the main thing

Proper planning and time management increases the efficiency of the PM and the team as a whole. It should be taken into account that in the realities of IT projects, tasks and goals often change under the influence of various factors, which means the manager must be able to quickly make decisions and make adjustments to the original plan.

 

To optimize the planning process, you can develop a system of scheduled meetings and division of tasks into groups, taking into account the specifics of a particular project and the personal characteristics of the PM. For example, if you and a client have a big time difference, then you will probably have to shift your usual work schedule and schedule calls for lunch or even in the evening.

 

Eisenhower matrices are very helpful in planning meetings for distributing tasks by importance and urgency. This makes it easier for the manager to highlight priority matters and focus attention on them. 

 

The skill of concentrating on what’s important helps you effectively manage your time and effectively complete priority tasks, as well as determine:

• Main factors for the project;
• The level of influence of tasks on the project: which ones are important and what can be removed from the plan;
• The practical benefits of certain tools and approaches;
• Problems that the team regularly faces.

To maintain concentration during working hours, you can use time trackers and special methods such as Pomidoro as assistants.

 

Team management or Teamwork 

Without a well-coordinated team of specialists, each of whom performs their task in accordance with the overall strategy, the success of any project is in doubt. Therefore, it is important for a PM to select the right people, distribute roles between them, taking into account their professional skills, characters, and communication characteristics.

For effective Teamwork, a manager must competently motivate, direct and control the work of specialists. This will help him a lot:

• Knowledge of the principles of team building: the life cycle of a team, what roles there are, how to select specialists and integrate them into the company’s existing business system;
• Developed empathy and leadership qualities;
• Public speaking and theatrical skills;
• Knowledge of the psychology of building relationships between people;
• Competent use of tools for building teamwork such as team building and one-on-one meetings.

The role of the PM on any project is one of the key ones, and the effectiveness of the team’s work and the result of the entire project depend on his actions

 

Ability to resolve conflicts

It's exceedingly uncommon for every aspect of a project to unfold as planned, leaving everyone satisfied. Usually it’s the other way around: the technical specialist misunderstood the task or the manager set it up incorrectly, the client comes with changes and makes adjustments, the stakeholders do not want to make contact. Against this background, a conflict situation can easily arise, which Project Manager must be able to resolve in a timely manner, and ideally, prevent.

Escalations often occur for three reasons:

• Poor communication with people;
• Not established work processes;
• Personal differences.

If you work through these factors, the number of conflicts will significantly decrease. In cases of escalation, it is important for the PM to analyze the situation, find the cause and only then act. At such moments, a lot depends on how strong the manager’s decision-making skills and emotional intelligence are.

 

Ability to make decisions and take responsibility

A Project Manager is a manager and leader who not only distributes tasks and controls their implementation. He is also responsible for the result and the project as a whole. Whatever management format the PM chooses - cascade, flexible or hybrid - in case of failure, the main culprit will be the manager, since he was unable to properly plan, organize and control the work of the team.

 

You can delegate some of your responsibilities and even use the practice of collegial decisions, but on key issues the last word should remain with you. This is especially true for critical moments such as the departure of a team member in the middle of a project, when the question is: to persuade the person to continue cooperation or to part ways.

Ideal PM when making decisions:

• Focuses on his own experience and expert opinion;
• Takes into account the business interests of the company and the client;
• Takes into account professional and personal relationships within the team. 

Some managers also advise listening to your intuition - it can suggest extraordinary solutions to even the most difficult situations. But this rule only works if the manager has extensive project management experience.

 

Ability to integrate into business

Any project cannot exist separately from the business system of the client or IT company. An ideal PM should understand how and what his activities affect not only within specific tasks, but also beyond them:

• Concern not only about the interests of the customer, but also about the profit for the company, since it is used to form the salary fund and cover other financial needs of the company.
• Consider the cost of working time for the team and contractors.
• Understand what costs will be incurred during the implementation of the project.
• Know how the budget is spent at each stage and what reserves are available.

You also need to remember that every project has a specific and measurable financial goal. To achieve it, the manager needs to take into account the final margin already at the planning stage. Therefore, the ideal Project Manager should be able to work with finances, manage processes, team and project content - include in the work plan only those tasks that are important for achieving the business goals of the IT company.

 

Ability to manage risks and change

Since the PM is responsible for the entire project, he must take into account various influencing factors and calculate risks. There are different response strategies to search for, analyze and prevent possible problems, but there are four main ones:

Each strategy can be used separately or in combination with the others. In this case, the choice is based on a special matrix, which is based on a risk assessment according to two criteria: the likelihood of a problem occurring in a specific period of time and the level of potential damage from the risk’s realization. Next, the data is ranked on a scale from 1 to 10, after which a response strategy is selected. 

 

Systems thinking and ability to analyze information

To effectively manage a project, a PM needs to process a large amount of information during the work process, and then correctly transfer it to all participants to prevent conflicts and misunderstandings - that is, use systems thinking.

To do this, Project Manager must be able to:

• Determine cause-and-effect relationships;
• Calculate the consequences of decisions and actions;
• Carry out analysis even in the case of a minimal amount of data;
• Understand the direction of the project and its dynamics.

Intellectual games, the experience of observing other specialists, and searching for effective interaction models are great for training systems thinking.

 

Technical expertise and self-learning ability

One of the most important hard skills of a manager is the ability to understand an IT product and fundamentally understand all aspects of its development in order to correctly evaluate and plan a future project and track its dynamics. A technical background makes it easier to communicate with architects, developers, testers, designers and other team members.

 

For example, by understanding the basics of programming, it is easier for a PM to set a task for a developer and monitor its implementation, and knowing the development methodology, it is easier to explain to the client the main stages of work on the project.

At the heart of all the soft and hard skills of a project manager, as well as opportunities for his professional growth, is the ability and desire for self-learning. In general, this is a mandatory skill for everyone who works in the high-tech niche - to constantly seek and absorb new knowledge not only in your field, but also in related ones. 

 

Conclusions

All the skills of an ideal project manager are interconnected. To become a high-level PM, it is not enough to only have strong soft skills; you also need to improve your technical and business skills. It is also important to develop the desire and desire to learn something new, and not be afraid to put it into practice. However, this applies to all IT specialties, not just management ones.