The Role of a Project Manager

...

Konstantopoulos has seen the role of the project manager evolve over the last twelve years stating that the most significant transformation has been the subtle integration of a diagnostic framework. Today, the project manager needs to diagnose internal and external environments around a project and conclude through facts the necessity of a project before it can be started. The project managers are engaged in discovery of the need and justification of the project, understand and explaining the solutions the project will deliver to meet the business needs and making sure the required task are executed to deliver the solutions promised by the completion of the project. Konstantopoulos refers to this evolved role as a “consultative project manager.” In the past with “checklist” project manager, after organizational due diligence had been performed and the project is justified, the tasks to perform the project would be organized in a checklist and presented to the project manager for completion. The “consultative project manager” now performs the task of diagnosing the situation and recommending a solution that would be provided but the completion of the project.

This evolution has been beneficial to all parties involved with the business, even clients who may not know the scope of the project or even that the project is underway. The clients benefit from the evolution of the project manager role because they can now receive both diagnostic and action from one resource instead of having a consultant and a project manager. This merge of the two positions has ultimately lowered the cost of the project at hand, which saves the client money or increases the businesses bottom line. This is why the the role of the project manager has been thrusted into a world that requires a more advanced skillset and higher levels of education.

Before the dot com era of doing business, businesses were focused on schedule based tasks to be the first to implement market strategies to be that much better than their competition. The emphasis on these two areas of projects led to many checklist project manager positions. Post dot com era, when information from around the world is available at anyone’s fingertips, organizations emphasized cost over schedule. While organization were looking to reduce expenses, they realized that project work was expensively divided into the roles of a consultant and project manager, where the consultant was usually assigned to the diagnostic framework and the execution framework was assigned to the project manager. Thus, the evolution of the consultative project manager has been beneficial to organizations by reducing expenses.

The consultative project manager’s role must possess the abilities and skillset to diagnose situations and provide solutions to justify the undertaking of the project by presenting support by using specific project related data. With the need of this higher skillset, the consultative project manager is perceived as a creator of business value and driver of the results needed to realize organizational strategy. Additionally, the consultative project manager must be able to convey the organization strategy into executable actions that can deliver the results the project needs to satisfy the vision of the organization.

This transformation in the project manager’s role has increased the organization value of the project manager. This new level of organizational value has also created a perception of the consultative project manager to be a thinker and collaborate with organization leaders to assess and improve situations to deliver a value to the organization. Whereas, checklist project manager is perceived as a task based coordinator and executor.

Additionally, the increased organizational value of the consultative project manager has, in some organizations, been given an executive seat when the organization’s vision, goals and strategies are being determined, whereas a checklist project manager would very rarely be able to provide input towards organization strategy. With the transformation of the project manager’s roles, the position for the consultative project manager is in high demand in today’s job market because organizations want a single resource that can develop organizational strategies as well as execute the task to meet the organization’s expected results.

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A PROJECT MANAGER

Every project if different and requires a customized planned and organized approach to appropriately work the tasks needed to complete the project. As each project is different, so is the personality type needed from the project manager. The personality needed from a project manager for a project depends on the type and scale of the project as well as the experience of the experience level of the team. Because projects are made of people and teams, a project manager must possess somewhat of a extroverted personality type. Project managers that possess a more introverted personality type may find that the project may not be going as scheduled because the project manager is not sufficiently engaged with people or teams responsible for the work.

Another factor that can differ between project managers is their preference of how they want to perceive data about the project. Some project managers prefer observational data, whereas other project managers prefer intuitive information. Kendrick states that verifying and testing measurable facts is the best way to best manage projects. A third factor that defines the type of project manager relates to how the project manager makes decisions regarding the project. Based on how the project manager perceives the data from the project, either observational or intuitive, the project manager has to make decisions based on objective analysis or their personal feelings and values. A fourth factor is how the project manager conducts themselves with the team. This is different than being an extrovert or introvert, in that some project manager may plan and organize what must be done and does what they can to strictly adhere to the plan with limited variations, and sometimes can be seen as a micromanager depending on how strict they are to keep on track with their plans. On the other end of the spectrum, a project manager can be spontaneous and flexible. This style of project manager tends to lead to an unorganized project that may never be completed.

A good project manager that utilizes the ideal personality traits to organize their team and also must be detail oriented to keep the activities of all the team members organized and on track. Additionally, a great project manager is one who is outcome focused as these are the most important aspects of the project that are most important to company