Managerial Responsibilities of a Project Manager - Essay Example

A Project Manager Should Not Have Other Managerial Responsibilities I. Introduction II. Discussion III. Conclusion IV. Reference Introduction Project managers are the key person of any project. The successful execution of any project primarily depends on the skills, experience and ability of the project manager to direct man and resources to achieve the objectives and goals of the project. This person is given responsibility and authority for the project. Project manager is accountable for the success and failure of the project. The project managers may have various roles. Some project manager is appointed for the concept only for the initial approval whereas other can have the role from the starting to the finalisation of the project. Discussion According to Wheeler (2006) “A Project Manager should not have other managerial responsibilities". There are various pros and cons of this particular aspect. It is important to understand the process groups for the project management before discussing the role, responsibilities and implications of additional responsibilities of the project managers in the project. Project management consists of five process groups of project initiation, project planning, project execution, project monitoring, project controlling and closing. These process groups have various sub processes further. The three most important means to achieve the project management goals are scope, goal and time. The project objectives and goals are developed in the initiation phase and all efforts and resources are directed to achieve these goals. The monitoring plans are developed by the project teams. The benchmarks for the progress are set. The size and out come of a project may vary in an organization depending upon organizational needs and vision. However, the project team acts as a small organisation within the large organisation unit. This small organisation has its own goals and objectives to be achieved under the leadership of the project manage. There is specific budget and resources allocated to this particular team. The project manager keeps an eye on the various aspects of the project through the progress report under the monitoring. Project manager takes corrective measures to make sure that the project is matching its pre-defined progress plan. Project manager has the authority to incorporate any changes in the initial project plan with the consent of management in order to meet the overall objectives and goals of the project. The monitoring plays an important role in taking change decisions by the project manager. The manager sees if the current progress is matching the progress pan or any alternative action is required. The performance reports can be the statistical reports or descriptive reports depending upon the projects. The challenge of the project managers increases if multiple geographic locations with different geographic culture and the diverse backgrounds of team members are involved. The issues of the soft approach like culture, behaviour attitude become important aspect for the project manager to handle the team. It happens in the cases of software projects or the fully or partially outsourced projects. The project manager requires some level of cooperation and involvement from each of the team member and it becomes challenging with increasing diversity of the projects. The organisation can be same or different in the global projects (Sangwan, et al. 2007). The project managers have to be prepared for different challenges and obstacles. The challenges can be due to routine problems or any anticipated problems whereas some challenges can be entirely new and unique. Project managers have to ensure timely and clear communication among the various team members, other people or department concerned or related with the same. In the case of global project management the intensiveness of the challenges can increase for the project managers (Binder 2007). The experience and exposure of the project managers plays important role here. Project managers use their knowledge, experience and skill to overcome the challenges and problems and achieve the project objectives. According to Ashayeri and Keij (1998, pp 817) the responsibility of the project manager is to continuously check for the ways where the work can be done differently so that less resources and efforts are required. There can be repetitive and un-required activities which can be excluded from the entire plan. With the increase of the project size, team size and geographic locations, the challenges of project managers increases. The use of technology is very important aspect of project management. The redesigning of the processes through different applications would lead to other set of challenges. The technological knowledge and application of the knowledge in the project helps in improving the efficiency and overall output of the project. Efficiency, effectiveness and quality of the project do improved with the appropriate decisions taken by the project manager to utilise various technical and nontechnical resources (Ashayeri and Keij, 1998, 817). Some projects like business re-engineering aims at changing the entire processes of the organisation. The project of such scale has high involvement of the management and top management and concerned with the strategic aspect of the organisation. The results of the reengineering processes may lead to an entirely different business scenario. In such cases, the project manager acts as the change agent, bringing change in the organisation. There are various issues like planning, risk analysis and management plan, human resource development for the resulting work environment. The role of project managers becomes very important for every situation of the business reengineering process. It is clear that role of the project manager in project management is so important that it affects the outcomes and have strategic implications on the organisation. It is expected that the project manager should have complete involvement in the project. Project manager should own the project along with his team. In such cases, if the project manager is handling additional responsibilities of the organisation, the interest and priorities will get distributed or affected. In such case, project manager may lack the involvement in the overall objectives and efforts. The time available to the project manager would also be distributed in his responsibilities, depending on his individual interests rather than organisational perspectives. The quality policies, health safety and security of the people concerned, nature of various types of controls, different aspects of commercial, organisational, personnel and other natures are different areas of concerns for the project manager. These are highly responsible aspects of the project and the business. Project manager may require different types of strategies, tools and techniques and various skill sets. However the focused and single responsibility of project will ensure his complete involvement and ownership of the project. In the case of the project management, project manager requires various resources like finance, procurement and access risks, technical issues and quality requirements. In the cases where project managers have additional responsibilities, the direction of resources may also get diverted to the additional responsibilities, therefore there is a risk. “The project as a temporary organization is viewed here as a production function, as an agency for assigning resources to the management of change within the functional organization, and as an agency for managing uncertainty. The role of the project manager is also considered. The project manager is chief executive of the temporary organization, and thus their roles in objective setting and motivating team members are emphasized over their role in planning and executing work. Second, as manager of the agency, they are the agent of the owner (principal) and so a second hierarchy of management and control must be put in place to monitor their performance.” The cost of the project includes the agency cost. This also requires professional recognition of the project managers. The time is the greatest concern for the project manager. This irreversible resource can not be replaced. The visions of the project manager gets agreed with the sponsors and investors, resources required, the uniqueness of the project, the deliverables and the time frame is agreed and formal paper is prepared with the same. The project life cycle management is the most important aspects of the jobs of the project manager. The responsibility of the project manager becomes crucial with the increasing responsibilities. The generic sequence of the life cycle of the project like opportunity, design, development, implementation, monitoring, handing over the project and post evolution of the project. Project manager is responsible for the communication aspects of the project with various stakeholders. The communication is done for various stakeholders from clients, management, investors, and employees to the general public. The closing of project is also an important aspect for the project team including project manager. Various factors are studied and analysed for understanding the areas where the resources are under or over utilised. The barriers of termination of the project are different and the project manager has important role in the same. The lack of interests of the team member and people associated with the project, lack of coordination among the team members and other barriers. The project manager avoids these barriers with different strategies. Project manager prepares strategies for the barriers. The most important factor to deal with the same is the utilisation of proper communication channel. Project manager also involves team members in the decision making process to minimise the risk of barriers. There are various other ways like resource allocation to the other projects that should only be done after careful decision. This should be done only when the process of the project is completed. The process of project management is important. There are different knowledge areas. The integration management is needed for the integrated change control and monitoring of the project work and control the project. The decision making, the scope management, performance management, quality control, HR management, risk management and others are important part of project management handled by project manager. These responsibilities require high level of involvement. The project objectives and goals achievement will be at risk if project manager is assigned with more responsibilities. Conclusion The responsibilities of the project manager are various. From the starting of the project to the closing of project, project manager is involved in every decision and every strategy. The complication of the project manager will be increased if he is given with additional responsibilities. It will also increase the risk of the flow of resources to the other areas. The resources include all kind of resources from the time and effort of project manager to the project. Therefore project manager should have sole responsibility of the project itself till the project is completed. Once the project is completed the resources including the project manager can be directed for other activities or project. Reference Ashayeri and Keij (1998), Global business process re-engineering: a system dynamics-based approach International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 18 No. 9/10, 1998, pp. 817-831, MCB University Press, 0144-3577 BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTE, A Guide to Project Management, BS: 6079, HMSO, 1996 MORRIS P W G, The Management of Projects, Thomas Telford, 1998 Binder, J. 2007. Global project management: Communication, collaboration and management across borders. Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Cleland, D. I., and R. Gareis. 2006. Global project management handbook: planning, organizing, and controlling international projects. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Cleland, D. I., and L. R. Ireland. 2004. Project manager's portable handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill. Preston, J. 2006. Experienced project managers courses. ESI International. http://www.esi-intl.de/unternehmensloesungen/documents/Experienced_PM_Brochure.pdf (accessed December 22, 2008). Rosenau, M. D., and G. D. Githens. 2005. Successful project management: a step-by-step approach with practical examples. 4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sangwan, R., M. Bass, N. Mullick, D. J. Paulish, and J. Kazmeier. 2007. Global software development handbook. Boca Raton, Fla.: Auerbach Publications. 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