Principles of Project Management - Essay Example

Good project manager and a strong technical background Student’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Projects are always technical problems requiring the input of technical professionals. As projects become complex, a lot of emphasis is turned to the technical backgrounds of the professionals in-charge of such projects. These skills should be inherent in those managers of the projects. The other skills that managers need to possess in order to bring the projects to completion can be defined, practiced, and continuously improved and are best learned experientially (Flannes 2004). Although it doesn’t make the project break or come to a standstill if the project manager does not have the technical expertise relevant to the project, there are projects which require that the project to have some background on the intended project. For instance, a project dealing with provision of auditing services, designing and implementing a poultry project or designing a website project requires that the person in-charge possess the technical expertise that goes with the project. This essay will actually explore why it is not only important for a project manager to possess the technical know-how about the project, but also why it is necessary. One of the reasons as to why it is important for a project manager to at least possess some technical skills about the project in question is that of the size and complexity of the project. Sometimes, the project needs to be carried out by a single individual of a few people. In that case, it will prove beneficial to the organization that the project must be of technical expert in the project being undertaken. In this case, the manager doubles up as the manager and the line expert. Thus, small projects require small teams making it necessary to have the project manager being an expert in that area. For example, drawing a marketing plan for a new product may be done by a single individual who in that case is an expert or if it is implemented within the same department, it is necessary that the project manager is an expert in the marketing area (Gillard 2009). The project manager needs to possess good leadership skills to lead the team and ensure that the team is cohesive during project implementation. Project managers must be capable of influencing team members. They need to inculcate in them the capability to communicate in a suitable way to the team members. In communication, the project manager needs to give details of what needs to be implemented and demonstrate how the action of implementation is to be navigated. Therefore, as they say, “to get an action from anybody, the most difficult part in making that person engage in the action is getting that person listen to the details of what needs to be implemented before plunging into action” (Gardiner 2005). A technical project manager is well placed to achieve this more easily because team members respect those project managers with the technical know-how about the project compared to those who do not. A technical project manager is able to pass information more effectively across all levels of the project. One of the key functions of a project manager is to bring about communication amongst all project stakeholders. Thus, a technical project manager is more effective at passing on complex technical information. A project manager without the technical background in regard to the project in question will have to delegate some of that communication to that individual with technical expertise within the team. This makes it even more expensive especially when you are dealing with virtual teams where the two individuals happen to be in different places geographically. The costs of making sure that they both communicate and input into the project in terms of travelling or putting in place the technologies to achieve this increases the company’s expenditure. This could otherwise be reduced if the project manager was a technical project manager. The other important reason as to why project managers need technical know-how is due to the aspect of costing of the project. A technical project manager is well versed with the current trends within the market and can thus easily and quickly authenticate the cost estimates drawn up by the technical people in the team. Therefore, his or her input can get this part of the project easily and quickly done hence bringing the completion of the project on time. A project manager with knowledge in the field of the project being implemented has the capability of assessing risks and make trade-offs between cost (Kerzner 2013). The monetary resources required in order to bring the project to completion by financing the project activities need to be estimated (Project Management Institute 2013). The technical manager is best suited to make these estimates tending to exact amounts because of his background knowledge of the specific markets, suppliers and requirements of the same. He or she has enough information about the markets because he or she is a player in this market and thus better positioned to make good judgements as far as costing of the project activities is concerned or even if he or she doesn’t get involved in the project costing, the estimates drawn up by the technical people will need his or her approval and with technical background in the field he or she will be able to point out the discrepancies in the estimates and point to areas that need revision. At the same time, when the technical people drawing up the estimates are aware that the project manager is an expert in the field relating to the project in question, they won’t inflate the estimates and also won’t deviate from the standards of integrity costing. This in turn saves the time that would be used in making corrections and at the same time saves the company some costs. If we can make a reference to military projects for instance, the development of comprehensive range of missiles, the person put in-charge to oversee the realisation of the project goals should be an expert in the military faculty more specifically in the missile development department. This important fact was appreciated long time ago over 2400 years ago by Sun Tzu who made a very important remark regarding putting people with technical background in-charge of projects; “those who master all the skills of war win; those who do not, are defeated” (Toney 2002). Sun Tzu appreciated that even with the endowment of the right character and professional skills the superior project manager must be proficient at the technology of their field; he or she should portray a high degree of expertise in the utilisation of project methodologies and procedures (Toney 2002). Still in the military faculty, the person in-charge of a platoon is also a military officer with training in military tactics and so a platoon sent to Afghanistan for instance for a military operation in this case which qualifies to be called a project will have the strategist and commander being a military officer. Thus, anything out of that will mean disaster in the battlefield and the project goals may not be realised. If we look at Barclays premier league in England, most of the successful club managers were themselves players with a lot of technical background knowledge in the field of football. Subsequently, a project manager’s background can have profound influence on the realisation of project goals. Functional experience in the project’s technical aspect has a positive impact on the project (Toney 2002). Another scenario which makes the technical project manager a necessity is an agricultural enterprises project, for example the production of watermelons. In such a project, the individual needs to be well versed with the technical knowledge stretching from land preparation to post-harvesting practices. The individual needs to know the technology involved in the process, technology trends, the relationship between supporting technologies, specific markets and customers and the players in the industry (Kerzner 2013). A project manager with the technical background is well equipped with all these. Even after the harvest, the project manager is well kept with the market information about the watermelons produced and can easily have a ready market for the same simply because he or she is a player in the same industry. The technical skills possessed by the project manager mean that the manager is well aware what it takes to carry out the project. Thus, he won’t milk it out of the team and the understanding of the whole process and what it takes to realise the results makes the project manager to be at a good position to understand what the team members go through and is able to understand the team members hence manage them more effectively. The technical project manager becomes effective when monitoring and evaluating the progress of the project. The manager is required to keep track of the activities of the project to ensure that they are meeting their objectives and achieving the intended results (Mwangi 2009). Because for a non-technical project manager, the question of how one can effectively judge the work of others during evaluation when you yourself you don’t know how effectively to complete a task. Thus, one is not able to exactly tell whether the team members are doing their jobs properly or not giving room for failure of the project. If the technical team decides to quit at the middle of the project it means the project comes to a standstill if the project manager lacks the technical background. Conclusion In conclusion, technical skills are very important in not only those projects requiring technical orientations, but all projects require that the people in-charge should possess at least some technical knowledge regarding the project. For instance, when organisations are recruiting project managers for their projects, they insist that the individual for that post should possess technical skills regarding the project to be implemented. This because they know the individual with such skills will deliver the project the first time, unlike the non-technical manager who may need a second time to deliver on the project. These companies are out to make profits, that is why they don’t want to gamble when it comes to projects that bring in profits. The notion that a non-technical project manager can deliver as well is simply a public relations notion. Let us remember that project managers who set positive examples often get the best results. The other skills a project manager needs can be learned in the field for example handling of people and understanding presents itself in the field during implementation of the project activities. The cultural aspects of the project environment present themselves during the implementation and the project manager learns on how to navigate them head on. The skills of identification, planning, directing, coordinating and negotiating the project are better learned in the field not in class. References Flannes, S 2004, ‘Effective people skills for the project manager: A requirement for Project success and career advancement’, Planning, Development and Support, vol. 131, no. 29, pp. 1-19. Gardiner, P D 2005, ‘Project Management: A strategic planning approach’, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Gillard, S 2009, ‘Soft skills and technical expertise of effective project managers’, Science and Information Technology, vol. 6, pp. 723-729. Kerzner, H R 2013, ‘Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling, Wiley and Sons, New York. Project Management Institute 2013, ‘A guide to the project management body of knowledge’, 5edn, Project Management Institute Inc., Pennsylvania. Toney, F 2002, ‘The superior project manager: Global competency standards and best practices, Marcel Dekker Inc., New York. Mwangi, S W 2009, ‘Programme planning and administration’, Egerton University Press, Nakuru. Read More