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Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Project Manager?

July 5, 2010 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Guides

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Project Manager?
By Ronan Rodrigues

I’ve listened to a lot of people saying they would like to have an MBA in Project Management, or at least having a job in the field. Most of them were finishing university or were newly graduates, and didn’t have a clear picture of what Project Management is. In this article I’ll not try to explain what it is, but rather going deeper into the required skills PM’s should have to do the job well. There isn’t a formula for success, therefore I’ll only write about what you can do (and be) to avoid starting with the wrong foot. Let’s go over Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes.

Knowledge

Project Management covers a variety of areas, there are scientific projects, military, aeronautical, architectural, marketing, etc. So what could be the perfect background for a PM? As cliché as it may sound, it depends. Usually engineers take on the role of PMs, at least for 90% of the cases I know. Depending on the scope of the project, the PM could be a school teacher or a nuclear physicist.

Does the PM need to have a degree related to scope of the project? Surprisingly, not really. Companies often choose PMs with correlated degrees because they think having a technical background on the field leads to a smoother project, and by doing so they are trying to lower the risks associated with technical problems. Is that really necessary? Is it that important? Let’s see.

The PM’s job usually has nothing to do with the technical aspects of the project, but it wouldn’t hurt to have an expert leading the team. Most of the times it’s good to have someone who can supervise and give powerful insights about the technicalities. For breakthrough projects maybe it’s better to have someone who doesn’t know anything about the subject, so the team can profit from the so-called “out of the box” thinking.

What a PM must know to properly manage the project has almost nothing to do with its scope. In fact, it is more important to comprehend the project life-cycle, its impact on the overall organization, stakeholders requirements, planning activities, financial concepts, procedures and standards for project management.

The academic background influences very little on the knowledge required to be a PM. Nonetheless it is rare to find business majors as PMs. Let’s try to understand why…

It is easier to train an engineer in business, however, training a business person in engineering can be challenging. Engineers have their minds molded in terms of mechanical facts, solid logic and mathematical precision. Business people are often trained in abstract concepts, human resources, and more general topics. I’m not saying one is better than the other, just that their mindsets are different. An abstract concept can often be learned independently from other concepts, while in engineering, learning how to make a robotic arm move you must learn a thousand things before that: electronics, physics, hydraulics, mechanics, and so on. That is why it is easier for engineers, because they had all this knowledge built up since first year of college.

The few business people I know that are project managers… are very good, because they master project management as a core concept, and leave the technicalities to the experts. Not every engineer can be a PM, because knowledge isn’t everything.

Skills

Skills are nothing more than applied knowledge through experience. You can read all the books you want, attend all classes and workshops about PM, do very well in tests, but if this knowledge isn’t applied, it is useless. Practice makes perfect, or at least something close to it. We’re all human, and humans make mistakes, and that’s how we learn.

It is no wonder all PM associations demand constant training and project experience to keep memberships active. It is not only a marketing campaign to get profit. PMs must be continuously challenged and exposed to projects to put knowledge into practice and therefore becoming better at it. A huge percent of projects fail every year, far more than 50% if I’m not wrong, and that is caused by poor management.

It is quite obvious to say that languages and computing skills are important. English is vital, especially because most of the bibliography in almost every topic is written in this language. Knowing your way through spreadsheets and office software is essential to any job nowadays.

PMs must have a variety of skills, most of them social, or soft. Negotiation, resolving stakeholders’ conflicts, communication, team work, and so forth. I believe these are by far the most important skills, and they can be learned by anyone (willing). Of course some people have a natural fluency in these areas, and it is a challenge for those who don’t. Which takes me to…

Attitudes

“Challenge!”… I love that word. And everyone interested in working with Project Management should too. It is not enough to know and apply the knowledge, you must live it! I’m not saying you should work 16 hours a day, only that you must believe in what you’re doing. Positivity is powerful, it inspires others and makes your life better, and also your work.

I learned a great lesson with “A Bug’s Life”…. yes, the CGI movie from Pixar. When the big mean grasshopper comes to collect the food and teach the princess the first rule of leadership: “It’s always your fault”. Accountability is crucial for a project manager, after all, you are the only one overseeing it all. A PM is a leader, held accountable for the project’s success or failure. I would even say mostly for its failure…

Humility. Admit guilt when the project goes down, taking responsibility for it. When it is a success, the team and you have done a good job. When it fails, it’s because you didn’t manage it right.

Active listening. Very important to any kind of leader. Listening and understanding questions, respecting the team, offering guidance and support is imperative to become a good PM.

Ultimately, the PM’s role is to help the team throughout the project, delivering it in time, respecting milestones and deadlines, solving problems with all stakeholders (team, sponsors, clients, suppliers, leadership team, etc), control the scope, maintaining the project under budget to lower costs, maximize profit, and providing the right quality. All that requires pro-activity, which is a non-stopping urge to do the right thing.

Do you think you have what it takes to be a PM? It is tiresome, requires great responsibility, but most important of all… you must have the right motives! Is that what you want to do? If yes, why? If you can answer these simple questions, it’s the first step. Being successful only depends on you, and your willingness to learn.

Ronan Rodrigues is a mechatronics engineer, with an MBA in Strategic & Economic Business Management. He is currently attending a Master’s in International Business Engineering in Italy. You can read more from Ronan on his blog.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 5th, 2010 and is filed under Project Management Guides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 people have left comments

I understand that the PM should rely on the technical competencies of its team.
But what if the team does not have competencies required by the field of activity?
What if as a PM you have to lead an IT project and your team is composed for instance of butchers and agronomists? (this is not a joke! It really happend!)

Dominique Alcott wrote on July 6, 2010 - 3:33 am | Visit Link

Very interesting Ronan. I agree with you almost fully but would add to your initial point about engineers and other technical people being project managers.

People with a technical background can be excellent project managers, or they can be horrible. The same goes for people without a technical background.

The key (I think) is to realize that when you transition from a technical role into a management role, it’s a whole new ball game. I went through this change when I transitioned from being a technical lead to being a PM. I had already gone through it once when switching from a senior technician into general management, but it still took me awhile to realize that my role really was different and I needed to have a different focus.

That said, I feel a foundation in whatever industry/field you are managing projects in is extremely beneficial.

-Josh
http://pmStudent.com

Josh Nankivel wrote on July 6, 2010 - 9:05 pm | Visit Link

Dominique,
I got to say it’s the first time I see this kind of “diversity of expertise” in a project team. I believe that the team should have at least one specialist depending on the size of the project, and the PM in this case should have the know-how in the field and the capabilities to lead a team to foster innovation. Of course it is easier said than done. For that reason I would encourage you to say what happened in this project, the problems they faced and the results of it. This should be a very interesting case study.

Josh,
I absolutely agree with you. It depends on many factors, not only knowledge, and that was the main point I was trying to convey.
However, there is one thing that would be interesting to think about: If you want to work in the same industry for the rest of your life, having the technical background would be really beneficial. But if you want to change and manage other types of projects, with different products, scopes, teams, risks and all, the technical background is almost irrelevant. The variety it brings to your portfolio can add a lot to your experience and make you an even better PM. As I said, everything converges to your motives, your goals show the path you must take. Since we all have different motives, we all have different paths.
Thanks for your comments!

Ronan Rodrigues wrote on July 7, 2010 - 12:36 pm | Visit Link

I think this article is strong and useful, but I would like to quibble with you about one point.

If a project fails because of something the project manager did or failed to do, then it is the project manager’s “fault”.

If steps are taken to mitigate project risks, but a risk that the project sponsors decide has been mitigated sufficiently to “accept” further consequences occurs - the project can fail and it may be no one’s “fault”. This would also be true if a project failed because of something that could not be reasonably anticipated (e.g. your “Conduct an Airplane Flying Show in London” project fails because a Volcano grounds all air traffic.).

Payson Hall wrote on July 9, 2010 - 1:42 pm | Visit Link

Payson, good point. I agree. There are things that are out of the PM’s control.
My point was more about the attitude of the PM instead of saying it is his fault. Accountability is mandatory for Project Managers. Even if the project fails because of a force of Nature the PM’s name will still be there as the responsible for everything. Of course “searching for someone to blame” is not what I’m trying to convey, it is a figure of speech (to this extent you pointed out).

Ronan Rodrigues wrote on July 12, 2010 - 2:16 pm | Visit Link

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