StreetView Consulting Blog

“I love deadlines; I especially like the SWOOSHING sound they make as they fly past.” (Douglas Adams)

Fair disclosure – I currently manage a group of project managers as part of my responsibilities and I have been a project manager for many years, so naturally I think the rarest skill of all is good project management and good project managers. I also think good leaders are just as rare. So why are project managers so rare? Perhaps it is the skills that are required are hard to find in one person.
Project managers need to be a driver; an organizer; a facilitator; a psychiatrist (how else can you distinguish between fact and fiction on estimates?); a great communicator; a great leader; well organized; a bridge between the business and technology (or in some cases the bridge between the business needs and wants); relentless; and personable. A great project manager understands the art of project management and the science of project management.

“You may con a person into committing to an unreasonable deadline, but you cannot bully them into meeting it.” (Edwards, Butler, Hill, and Russell)

The art of great project management is the execution of the soft-skill portion of the job. Great project managers are relentless, but actually great project managers are relentlessly nice. How do you instill fear so that people do not want to miss deadlines, but at the same time make people want to meet deadlines? Great project managers are a driver, but let people get the job done and give people the feeling they have done it themselves. A great project manager knows when to push and when to back off. That is art. You can teach it, but it takes time since it is the subtleties of the art that make a great project manager.

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” (Sun Tzu)

The science of project management is easier to comprehend and those blessed with a scientific mind can grasp the use of Microsoft Project and other common project management tools easily. Managing the compilation of the tasks is difficult and the best project managers act as bridge between those who need something (or want) and those who can provide. Getting the design right and getting the tasks captured to create that design is the heart of the science of project management. Great communication is important, but great listening is even more important.

“The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time the last 10% takes the other 90%.” (Stephen Seay on his blog: http://projectsteps.blogspot.com/2006/03/collection-of-project-management.html)

Project managers also need the ability to question estimates and know when estimates are incorrect or else the schedule will not reflect reality. And of course the job of the project manager’s manager is to make sure that the right tasks are there and not too many tasks. This requires understanding the product you are scheduling and is where science and art combine. People do not like to be questioned, but you do have room to push intelligently and wisely.

So if you have a good project manager, give them a raise. There are not many out there.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” (Stephen Seay on his blog: http://projectsteps.blogspot.com/2006/03/collection-of-project-management.html)

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Project Management. 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.