III

People: Key to Project Success

Chapter: 9
Project Manager

Rules for Project Manager

Skills to Succeed
Responsibilities
Characteristics of successful Project
Manager

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 Project Manager: Skills to succeed

ÞProblem solving
ÞCommunication
ÞTeam Building
ÞLeadership-Planning, organizing and
controlling work effort.

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 12 Rules for Project Manager
1. Understand the problem, opportunities, and
expectations of a project manager.
2. Recognize that project teams will have
conflicts, but this is a natural part of group
development.
3. Understand who the stakeholders are and
their agendas.
4. Realize that organizations are very political
and use politics to your advantage.

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5. Realize that project management is “leader
intensive” but that you must be flexible.
6. Understand that project success is defined
by four components: budget, schedule,
performance criteria, and customer
satisfaction.
7. Realize that you must build a team by being
a motivator, coach, cheerleader,
peacemaker, and conflict resolver.

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8. Notice that your team will develop attitudes
based on the emotions you exhibit – both
positive and negative.
9. Always ask “what-if” questions and avoid
becoming comfortable with the status of the
project.
10. Don’t get bogged down in small issues and
lose sight of the purpose of the project.
11. Manage your time efficiently.
12. Above all, plan, plan, plan.
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 Customers’ Satisfaction

Quality work
On Time

Project Manager-
Responsibilities

Within Budget
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Project Manager- A Doer, not a Bystander

Þ Mapping out how a project will be undertaken.

Þ Anticipating obstacles & roadblocks
Þ Making course adjustments
Þ Determining how to allocate human, technological
& monetary resources.
Þ Supervising the staff work
Þ Providing training
- Be a motivator, a cheerleader, disciplinarian & good
listener.
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7 ways to succeed as a Project Manager

1. Be able to give and receive criticism

2. Be effective at conducting meetings
3. Maintain a sense of humor
4. Manage your time work
5. Be open to new procedures
6. Prove your decision-making skills
7. Use project management tools
effectively
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 7 ways to fail as a Project Manager

1. Fail to address issues immediately

2. Fail to focus on quality
3. Neglect management
4. Fail to delegate
5. Reschedule too often
6. Rely too heavily on unfamiliar tools
7. Fail to monitor progress

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 Project Manager-
Primary Responsibility
Define the project objective
Planning & reach agreement with
customer
Seek appropriate
Organizing researches to perform the
work

Track actual progress &

Controlling compare with planned
progress 10
 Project Manager- Cannot
“ Let’s wait and see how things work out” –
Things never work out on their own.

 Be proactive, intervene and resolve

problem before worse.

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 Ability to develop
Leadership ability
people

Project Manager-
Time Communication
management skills

Skills
skills

Interpersonal
Problem-solving Skills
skills
Ability to handle
stress 12
 Leadership Abilities

 Inspiring people to work as a team

 Providing guidance Participative &
 Coaching to project team Consultive
leadership style

 Providing direction, not directions

 Empowering the team
 Establishing clear guidelines

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 Ability to Develop People

 Commitment to training & development of

people.

 Providing opportunities for learning.

 Making provision for less experienced

people to learn from others.

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 Communication Skills
 Fostering timely and open communication

 Honest & unambiguous

 Establishing – ongoing communication to keep customer

informed
Communication
 Written and oral
 Internal ( within the project) and external
 Formal (reports) and informal
 Vertical (up and down the organization) and horizontal
(peers)

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 Interpersonal Skills

 Developing relationship with each person.

 Learn about the personal interest of each
individual.
 Use open ended questions and do a lot of
listening.
 Prefer informal conversion.
 Establish clear expectations of members of the
team.
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 Ability to Handle Stress

 Remain unruffled.

 Remain composed and be sure panic and

frustration do not beset project team.

 Have a good sense of humor.

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 Problem Solving Skills

 Encouraging team members to identify

problems
 Be self directed to solve problems
 Seek support from the members
 Use additional information
 Use analytical skills to evaluate information
& develop solution
Manage Time Appropriately
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 Developing Skills for Project Manager

 Gain experience
 Seek feedback from others
 Conduct self-evaluation, learn from
mistakes
 Interview skilled project managers
 Participate in training programs
 Read
 Volunteer

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 Successful Project Manager

Personal General
Characteristics Business Skills

Behavioral Skills Technical Skills

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 Personal Characteristics

 Flexible and adaptable

 Preference for initiative and leadership
 Confidence, persuasiveness, verbal fluency
 Effective communicator
 Able to balance technical solutions with time,
cost and human factors
 Well-organized and disciplined

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 Personal Characteristics

 A generalist rather than a specialist

 Able to devote most of time to planning and
controlling
 Able to identify problems and to make
decisions
 Able to devote the time and effort and to
maintain a proper balance in use of time.

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 Behavioral Skill

 Active Listener
 Active Communicator
 Able to capitalize on informal
communication
 Build Trust
 Promote team spirit
 Reward cooperation

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 General Business Skills

 Understand the organization and the

business.
 Understand general management,
marketing, personal, purchasing, law…..
 Ability to translate business requirements
into project
 Strong, active, continuous interest in
developing subordinates.
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 Technical Skills

Must be capable of both integration

and technical analysis

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 Delegation

Act of allowing individuals to successfully

carry out assigned tasks.
Involves given team members the
responsibility to :
 Accomplish job objectives
 Authority to make decisions
 Take actions to achieve results
 Accountability for accomplishing results

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Degree of Delegation
(Extra Sheet)

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 Further Reading

 Textbook: Erik W. Larson; Clifford F Gray,

(2011), Project Management: The
Managerial Process, 5th Edition, McGraw-
Hill Companies, Inc., New York, USA.
 Chapter 10: Leadership: Being an
Effective Project Manager, page 338-373.

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