The Project and The Project Manager

 The Project and The Project Manager

(Project Manager - the one person who has the management knowledge in a wider area but may not be too deep about the project)

 

Ultimately the project Manager is responsible for all team actions and their proper execution from project initiation to project closing

 

What does project mean ?

 

The business directory meaning of the project is described as below:

Project - an individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve an aim in a defined period. A project is a task that requires a lot of time and effort.

A project / venture is a progression of activities or steps that can be taken to accomplish an end. A project is viewed as complete after fulfilment of required operations in the venture life cycle.

 

Project Attributes:

The project has a beginning and the end

It is temporary.

It delivers products, services, and results.

The project deliverables may be tangible or intangible.

The project is unique. No two projects are similar. 

A project is a temporary endeavour with a beginning and end. It is unique and delivers goods services and results.

The venture or project is a business need and is executed for the important necessity and in various environment (political, social, ecological, environment etcetera).

Projects have their origin centuries back and remains of these projects still can be seen.

Let us not forget the wonders of world - the old and the new, which were the projects and were managed.

Today projects  are defined considering the knowledge and experiences of the past supported by the required education.

Knowledge, skills, and Tools & Techniques of the project manager and his team  becomes the main power to manage the project and as such the project team must be judiciously placed .

To understand the outside needs in a better way, the project manager can align them in the project development processes and the result shall be to the satisfaction of not only the customer, but all the stakeholders.

The project team headed by the project manager, use required inputs and tolls & techniques for getting the right process output as elaborated in model below.

 

Your workplace is yours. There should be collective efforts to manage it.

Every workplace has program, portfolio, and project management. Your organization is workplace and so is your home to take up program, portfolio, and project to consolidate and develop a platform for achieving the goals and the missions.

The collective efforts are to be done from different levels in the organization. Total Quality People (TQP) play an important role in the organization.

But remember too many cooks spoil the broth. The one person who is designated to manage the workplace is the project manager.

 

Project Manager

He uses his knowledge, skills, tools and techniques and experience and the support of the people to carryout operations judiciously with his IQ and Emotional Intelligence.

 If you are not a project manager or are project manager, in both cases there is need to understand both aspects.

 

Let us explore the project manager in brief.

 

The Project Manager

The very important person for linking project, its management, management of the business objectives and the customer or sponsor need, is the Project Manager. (For more understanding, please follow PMI - PMBOK Guide— www.pmi.org.

The project Manager (PM), as the name suggest is assigned for managing the project, which (project) is temporary endeavour, taken by the organization for meeting the challenges of market, (business needs), the customer needs, and the needs of technological changes, legal aspects, environment concerns etcetera. The role of PM depends upon the type of project and the organization.

 

Sharing of experiences / knowledge and good practices

He must maintain a cordial atmosphere in dealing with the profession and have a desire, direction, dedication and discipline for the profession so that he may ultimately get the reward for his skills, knowledge, tool a and techniques require for successful completion of professional job.

 

“A true professional not only follows but loves the processes, policies and principles set by his profession.” 

― AMIT KLANTRI

  

Sometimes senior person or specialist of the organization are appointed to takes over the responsibility. Such person may not be fruitful unless he cashes the opportunity given with his will power and using both the IQ and the Emotional Intelligence. But it is not desirable to do so.

A professional should be appointed with wider work area knowledge of all the subjects, may be in little depth. Project Manager, if selected because of his knowledge, tools and techniques, skills and their application, and to the satisfaction of organization, may ultimately be responsible for success or failure of the project.

Project manager must use both art (the use of Emotional Intelligence) and science of management (the use of work-oriented IQ) to manage his work.

“Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet.” –  Henry Mintzberg

Tasks of Project Manger

The task of project manager is to plan the project for various needs (Knowledge Areas) and sequentially following the project management Process Group information as given below in the matrix.

 

 

 

In nutshell, the project manager with his team must align  the project requirements with Knowledge Areas, Process Groups and Processes to complete the project.