Project Manager's Roles and Core Competencies - Literature review Example

Project Manager Roles and Core Competencies University Affiliation Name Project Manager Roles and Core Competencies Recent decades have seen interest in project management grow to tremendous levels buoyed by various factors including technological advances, globalization, and increased market pressures, lifestyle and preferences changes, besides shortcomings in traditional management practices among other factors (Hartley, 2009). This has resulted to an increasing recognition of the roles of project managers to oversee various projects and most organizations have consequently become interested with securing project managers that have the requisite competencies, skills and attributes for successful deployment of projects. The essay aims at outlining the roles and competencies that such managers must posses besides identifying the importance of project managers understanding of the organizations strategies, mission and vision in successful deployment of a project. The project manager is responsible for the successful outcome of a project. Consequently, the project manager is vested with myriad responsibilities that cut across all the projects aspects. Among the main roles of a project manager include developing and updating the project management plan (Lewis, 2005). The plan update is carried out to ensure that the project plan remains accurate, current and applicable. Another role for a project manager is to ensure that the project is on track. This is achieved through ensuring that the budget, scope, schedule and deliverables are within the plan. Providing accurate project reports and on time is also a core responsibility of a project manager. This ensures that any issues that may arise in the course of the project are easily identified within the required time-frame and subsequently addressed appropriately. Managing inherent risks contained in the course of successful project management is another critical role that a project manager must play. Various risks are contained in the course of the project management and risk management is critical if the project is to be successful. The project manager therefore plays a critical role in risk management through use of detailed planning, and use of cost and schedule estimates that aid in ensuring that those tasks that are difficult to estimate due to uncertainties associated with them have reasons for the uncertainty identified and strategies for managing the uncertainties deployed. The project manager other role is management of the needs and expectations of stakeholders. Projects often involve different parties that are interested in the outcome of the project including host organization and project team members. Managing the stakeholder’s expectations ensures that the project is devoid of unnecessary conflicts thereby contributing to the overall success of the project (Harris & Dennis, 2005). In order for the project manager to play the above roles successfully, there are several competencies that a project manager must posses. Competency is widely defined as “specific, observable behavior or characteristics that lead to excellent performance” (Dinsmore & Jeannete, 2010). In regard to project management, competent managers are the ones that are likely to be most successful in project management as they posses the requisite personal characteristics, knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors that contribute to the project manager’s success (Dinsmore and Jeannete, 2010). Lewis (2005) divides the competencies into personal, business, interpersonal and management competencies borrowing from a list that was developed by the Corporate Education center of Boston University. Among the main competencies that project managers must posses include leadership, communicating, mastery and self assessment, decision making, project planning, risk management, problem solving, and team building competencies. Other competencies whose importance varies depending on the type of project include perspective, negotiating, customer relations among others. Leadership is one of the most critical factors in management and the same applies to project management. Dinsmore and Jeannette (2010) posit that leadership is characterized by a sense of mission, ownership and long-term perspective, assertiveness and managerial orientation. Additionally, leadership focuses on developing people, inspiring and creatively challenging existing systems. Leadership competency therefore involves the ability of a project manager to inspire and motivate the stakeholders in a project to ensure that it successfully moves towards completion despite the daunting schedules, discouraging development and emotional demands that may accompany the project. Good leadership core behaviors that may also be crucial in project management include personal competencies such as a positive attitude and ability to remain calm under pressure and interpersonal competencies such as ability to command respect from project team members, besides ability to have people volunteer in project activities among other attributes. Another core competency closely related to good leadership and management competency is good communication. These includes competent use of communication tools, listening skills and both oral and written communication. Good communication skills are crucial for a project manager considering the risks inherent in communication differences. Understanding communication differences for instance is crucial for project managers to not only avoid such differences becoming a barrier to the successful outcome of projects but also in delegating responsibilities and giving instructions to the projects team. Good communication is also an important component in resolving conflicts in calms and professional manner since skilled managers understand when to listen and when to speak. Communication competency is further important as the project manager is often involved in negotiations with different stakeholders that include clients, contractors, functional managers, executives and team members on the changes, assignments, resources, conflict resolution, scope, personal issues among other issues (Dinsmore & Jeannete, 2010). Mastery and self assessment is also considered as an important competency in project management. This involves the ability of the managers to consider their actions in different situations besides critically evaluating their own performance in different situations. The ability for project managers to introspectively evaluate their own performance and success is critical in enhancing the ability of the project managers to adjust and adapt different approaches when faced with mistakes, enhancing the ability of project managers to adjust to the differences among team personalities while further aiding in remolding of the approaches to attain maximum team output. The ability to influence team members and other stakeholders is a crucial competency in attaining project goals. Influencing ability entails the capability of the project managers to influence other persons decisions and opinion through use of persuasion, reason, strategic and political awareness, and relationship development skills that form the basis for getting things done in an organizational context (Dinsmore and Jeannette, 2010). Problem solving skills is another core competency necessary among project managers. Problem solving skills involves high aptitude in proactive information gathering, which involves strategic inquiry that is especially crucial in risk assessment, and uncovering deviation from plans since the project manager seeks information that may be relevant for the successful outcome of the project. Problem solving skills further involve the ability of the project managers to focus on the problems that may plague a project and therefore enhancing project manager’s ability to perceive the problems in the context of the larger organization (Sharlet and James 2005). Project planning and team building skills are also important factors. Project planning ensures that the projects take into consideration the organizations vision, mission and strategies. Planning ensures that the project is carried out within the stipulated time and risks that are likely to develop are identified. Planning further ensures that the project supports the organizations strategies and goals as these form some of the basis in the project panning activity. Project planning also aids in ensuring that the project constraints such as time, cost, resources, and specifications are adequately recognized and addressed. Team building on the other hand enhances the projects achievement of the goals in a timely manner while reducing conflicts. Project managers must also be able to understand the organizations vision, mission and strategy in order to deploy successful projects. Among the reasons include the projects managers’ need to align the project goals to the organizations core vision, mission and strategies. Recent trends where organizations are increasingly using project management to develop and implement their strategies have increased the necessity for project managers to understand the organizations strategies and missions. Additionally, the fact that projects are expensive undertaking that involve commitment of organizations resources increases the need for efficient utilization of the resources and therefore making it more necessary for projects to be oriented to the contribution that they make to attainment of the organizations strategies or additional value to the organization (Lewis, 2005). Sharlet and James (2005) posit that the ability of the project manager to keep site of the mission and vision of the organization form the first cluster of competencies that a project manager must posses. From the foregoing, it is evident that a project manager plays a critical role in the successful outcome of a project. It is therefore not surprising that Newell (2005) points out that one of the common jokes in the project management community that best captures the responsibilities of a project manager is that “when one asks who is responsible for anything in the project, the answer will always be the project manager.”(p.379). the numerous roles that a project manager plays has meant that particular set of skills, knowledge, aptitude, behavior and other characteristics are required for the successful outcome of the project. However, besides the attributes, project managers must have an understanding of the extent to which the projects must satisfy the strategies and vision of the organization especially considering the limited resources that every organization must utilize in the most optimal manner. References Dinsmore & Jeannete. (2010). The AMA Handbook of project management. Amacom Books. Harrison & Dennis. (2004). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Gower Publishing. Hartley, S. (2009). Project management principles, process & practice. Sydney. Pearson Education Australia. Lewis, P. (2005). The project manager’s desk reference: project planning, scheduling. McGraw- Hill Professional. Newell, M. (2005). Preparing for the project management Professional (PMP). Project Management Institute. Sharlett, G & James, P. (2005). The competencies of effective project managers: A conceptual analysis. International Journal of Management, 22 (1) 48 Read More

 

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