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PM Skills - Not Just for PM’s Anymore

February 18, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings

PM Skills - Not Just for PM’s Anymore
By Jason Becker

Project Management expertise is traditionally thought of as encompassing scheduling and organizational skills in addition to some subject matter expertise.

Although, in considering the notion in greater detail, we have tasked our Project Managers with ultimate delivery of important products and services and we would be foolish to trust ultimate delivery of key products and services to a gatekeeper that is simply responsible for managing the project schedule.

Ability to Deliver

If you are going to trust ultimate delivery of key products and services or strategic initiatives to an individual, you would probably expect that person to possess a breadth and depth of knowledge that gives you confidence in their ability to deliver. In searching for someone to drive delivery you might look for the following set of skills, experience, and qualities, in addition to a proven track record:

  • ability to communicate effectively
  • organizational skills
  • presentation skills
  • ability to negotiate
  • ability to positively influence others
  • technical proficiencies
  • people or team management experience
  • scope control abilities
  • tenacity
  • good decision making track record
  • academic accomplishment/li>

These are just some of the skills you might look for and it is already a pretty long list of highly valuable skills and experience. In fact, this is the same set of skills and experience you might be searching for if you were looking for a Senior-level Executive or a key decision-maker. By looking at this list, it almost sounds as if you are searching for a Leader. It is true, the PM set of skills and experience are very similar to the assets you might look for in a good Leader. To further the thought, you might even begin to think about the Leaders in your profession and then begin to ask if they possess the necessary skills and experience to get the jobs done.

Practical Abilities

More and more often, corporations are asking this very question. Do our leaders have the necessary skills to meet the goals and expectations set forth by the company? An MBA or PHD or other academic achievements do not necessarily guarantee success or attest to the practical ability of individuals to achieve corporate goals.
So, how do we increase our level of confidence in the ability of our people to execute and reach goals? Increasingly, the answer to this question is “Project Management Skills Training”.

It seems counter-intuitive at first but when placed in the context of analyzing risk, managing issues, managing large and highly dispersed teams, and the like, it makes a great deal of sense. In addition, if we equip our leadership staff with disciplined execution skills then the phenomenon of top-down culture change begins and becomes infectious within an organization.
When asked who should attend a PM training course, I recommend having a good mix of technical people, project managers, product managers, support staff, business analysts and leadership staff so that Project Management principles begin to get a foothold in every area of the product lifecycle.

In Closing

From those people that gather requirements, to those that support the products in production, to those that are setting the strategic direction of a company, Project Management principles are truly skills for Leadership, not just for Project Management staff.

Jason Becker, PMP, CPM, has 14 years of experience in designing, developing, and deploying Enterprise-Level software products for the Banking, Manufacturing, Real Estate, and Information Technology industries. He is an expert in Project Management surrounding Software Products Development with an emphasis on disciplined delivery techniques and visionary software development methodologies. He is an experienced leader with skills in IT PMO setup and management and strategic IT projects alignment. Jason’s website can be found at http://axisitconsulting.com/ and he can be contacted at jason.becker@axisitconsulting.com.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 and is filed under Project Management Musings. 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.

1 person has left a comment

Jason,
I like your thinking. I have trained hundreds of people in project management skills, and suspect that less than half have had the formal title ‘project manager’. For all of these people the skills you describe have been vital to their success in a huge range of different work and life roles.

I tend to talk to these people about one more critical project managers’ skills - entrepreneurial skills. So often the project manager is the advocate for the project having to sell the approach, the resource selections, the budget, the solutions to complex problems, and often ultimately the final deliverable itself. Project managers, be entrepreneurial!
…Geoff

Geoff wrote on February 19, 2008 - 5:58 am | Visit Link

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