The Accidental Project Manager’s Survival Guide

Posted on July 7, 2011 by

You turned up for work one day and your boss took you to one side and broke the ‘good’ news. Congratulations, you are now in charge of a medium to large sized project. It’s not a planned career path but somehow you have become an ‘accidental PM’.

How did this happen to you? Well, you’ve worked hard and smart, and proven you know your stuff in your chosen field of expertise, so you’re not altogether surprised at this sudden ‘promotion’, but you still have to ask yourself, ‘What does a project manager do?’.

That’s the questions that every ‘accidental project manager’ asks themselves when the enormity of their new role begins to crystallize in their minds. While you didn’t choose this twist in your career, it’s one you’ll need to get a handle on quickly, so here are a list of basic skills you will already possess or will have to develop fast.

Good Communicator

PM’s must be good communicators. You will be dealing with key stakeholders, managing clients needs, negotiating with contractors and leading a team. You will have to do a lot more than simply hand out brochures and send the occassional memo to keep relevant parties up to date about the project!

Team Building Skills

Your team may be cobbled together from different departments from within your organization and also include contractors. Many of these good folk will not be acquainted, or worse, know but not like each other. It’s your job as PM to turn this group into a lean, mean, productive dream team.

There are a number of steps to follow that will help you achieve the best team possible from your HR. Begin with:

  1. A common purpose
  2. Clearly define each persons role
  3. Ensure that team members recognize you as the team leader
  4. Make sure you implement effective processes
  5. Seek out opportunities to develop solid relationships
  6. Be an excellent communicator.

Leadership Skills

You have to share your vision, get others to adopt it and use all available resources and your skills to make that vision a reality. Another necessary leadership skill you’ll need to possess in abundance is the ability to stay calm under fire, and believe me, there will be fire! The video below is a compilation of great leadership quotes that I found inspiring and made me think a little different about how I approach tasks.

Problem Solving Skills

I hope you like problems, because as a project manager your job is to manage risks, have contingency plans for every possible scenario that could threaten your projects success, and deal with problems proactively and promptly.

Management Skills

You’re probably used to doing most things yourself, in your own way and to high standards. As PM you have to learn how to delegate tasks to your team and give them the space they need to complete those tasks. Your role as PM is not to do the work, but to manage others as THEY do the work. Check out the video below for advice about becoming a manager.

Knowledge Of Your Industry

While projects have similar processes, it’s best if a person from a construction background handles construction projects, while a person from a media background manages advertising projects. Having knowledge of your industry will mean you will be alert to red-tape and risks, changes in related technologies and project environmental factors that could influence the final outcome of your project goals.

I hope this short survival guide gives you a better insight into the core skills you need to have or develop in order to become a successful PM.

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Further Reading:

Check out Josh Nankivel’s excellent website and post www.pmstudent.com/8-habits-highly-effective-project-managers/

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What Is A Project?

Posted on July 5, 2011 by

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines a project as, ‘a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite beginning and end. The end is reached when the project’s objectives have been achieved or when the project is terminated because its objectives will not or cannot be met, or when the need for the project no longer exists.’

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Risk Register Input And Output Explained

Posted on July 3, 2011 by

Risk Register

Risk Register is an output from The Identify Risk process, and it’s output becomes an input for the other risk management process that follow. They include:

  • Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
  • Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
  • Plan Risk Responses
  • Monitor and Control Risk

So when we talk about the Risk Register being and input we mean that the information gathered and output from the previous process is then integrated into the next phase of the Project Risk Management as an input.

In this way the Risk Register information becomes more detailed with outcomes of each process.

“The Risk Register ultimately contains the outcomes of the other Risk Management processes as they are conducted” – The PMBOK Guide.

The register will contain information about different types of risk, their level and possible impact on the project, and which of the risks should be tackled first and how, as well as methods to monitor and control them.

Free Download Free Risk Register Spreadsheet

You can download and use the following free project management resource for your projects. The file is available for Microsoft Windows 97/2000/XP and for OpenOffice 1.0

  1. Windows Version: Risk Register Spreadsheet
  2. OpenOffice: Risk Register Spreadsheet (zipped)

Great Video About Risk Management

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What Does A Project Manager Do?

Posted on June 16, 2011 by

The project managers main role is to complete project goals and objectives successfully, using resources, skills and knowledge available to them.

Responsibilities Of The PM:

The project manger is responsible for ensuring the requirements and expectations of the key stakeholders are met. Who they report directly to will depend on the set-up and size of the organization they are working for. Their level of influence and decision making powers also vary from one project to the next, and in-line with the organizations structure and hierarchy. For example, in a small IT company, the project manager may report directly to the managing direct or CEO. In a medium to large company they may report to a functional manger, a portfolio manger or a program manger.

Be A Good Communicator:

The PM will need to communicate regularly to their superiors in the chain and will probably work closely with their manger throughout the project to ensure all phases and goals are completed and delivered within the project constraints. The PM must also ensure the work done is in-line with the organizations over all goals and strategies.

Management and Skills:

The PM will need to be familiar with whatever tools are required to track, analyse and report. They will also need strong leadership skills and will be able to motivate their team to complete assignments and maintain required standards. They will also calculate costs and handle budgets and time management. They will assess risks to the project and create contingency plans to deal with them. They will identify and oversee the purchase of materials and equipment necessary for the project, as well as identifying the required human resources and skills. They will log all change requests and track changes in documents of lessons learned. They will control and monitor the processes of each phase and make adjustments to plans, budgets, resource allocation and time lines.

Rewarding Career:

As you can see, a good project mangers skill-set is broad and deep, they are a special breed of people who remain calm under fire and relish challenges. If that sounds like you, then you have chosen an exciting and rewarding career path. For more information about becoming a great PM, view other pages on www.managethings.com.

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Interview With A Project Manager In The Construction Industry:

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Project Integration Management

Posted on June 13, 2011 by

During the integration stage, the project is formally authorized buy key stakeholders and work begins officially. At this early stage the PM’s main role is to identify, coordinate and combine the activities with the five project management process groups. The integration management stage is one of the nine knowledge areas and is vital to successful completion of the project and includes managing the expectation of stakeholders and meeting requirements.

During the integration stage, the PM will make choices about resource allocation between competing objectives of the project, and mange the interdependencies between the nine knowledge areas. It is important to remember that the five project processes tend to overlap for the duration of a phase or projects. The following is an overview of the integration management processes:

  • Developing Project Charter
  • Develop the PM Plan
  • Direct/manage execution
  • Monitor and control work
  • Perform integrated change control
  • Close a project or phase

Video About Project Integration Management

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Project Management Professional

Posted on June 10, 2011 by

Project Management Professional PMP Certification

The PMP certificate is a recognized qualification for project mangers. As a project management professional you can expect to exciting and interesting challenges and career opportunities in work, and the foundation for that career is passing PMP certification exam.

PMP training and preparation can be quite intense, and there are many study aids in the market to help you with your study routine. Obviously it’s worth putting the effort when preparing because it’ll cost you money and precious time to repeat exams.

Be Focused. Be Calm. Be A Leader.

Having acquired your PMP certificate, you at least have a piece of paper to back up your claim to being a PM, but the real test will come when you are on the front-line managing a medium to large sized project.

At this point you need to be able to keep an eye on the project’s ‘big picture’, while micro managing people, contractors, deadlines, budgets, stakeholders expectations, meetings, reports, and there will be a whole host of other tasks you’ll have to juggle to keep the show on the road.

That can be very stressful, but don’t let the cracks show. A great project management professional will remain calm in the face of adversity, and with a smile they will go about their business as if they hadn’t a care in the world. You are now in a leadership role and as such your confidence and attitude towards the project, in good times and bad, will greatly influence how your team perform throughout the project life-cycle. If the people on your team think you are buckling under pressure, the impact on the project can be disastrous.

Growing Your Skills And Experience Brings Rewards

The professional PM is always learning new skills and new ways to manage resources and people. That’s partly the reason this is such an exciting career path. As you gain experience and your network of contacts grow, you will find your skills will be in high demand. If you have more successes than failures, you’ll enjoy recognition from your colleagues and employers as a person who can deliver the goods, and the financial rewards can be significant.

Some Of The Tasks You Will Perform As A PM Professional

When beginning a project it is critical you understand the exact goal of the project. It’s worth teasing this out with managers or stakeholders until you are 100% happy that you have a clear understanding of the projects objectives.

The Project Management job is complex and requires skills and knowledge of tools and techniques. You will spend a lot of time tweaking spreadsheets and graphs, writing reports and tracking every decision and change made. This is where attention to detail is vital. Remember to see the project through completely. A project is truly finished when you have finished recording and compiling your data and lessons learned. You also need to officially (and legally) end contracts and ensure all paperwork is up-to-date, and filed away for future reference.

Project Management Gets Easier

So you have now completed a project in your industry, and have recorded all the lessons learned and filed all information about contracts and contacts, budgets and schedules. This information can be used as an input for the next project, making your task of project manger that much easier. As you complete more projects you will build up a bank of invaluable information, contacts and experience that can all be called on for future projects, making your job that much easier.

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How To Become A Project Manager

Posted on June 10, 2011 by

Some people set out to purposely start a career in project management. For those readers please see the post Project Management Professional which discusses the PMP Certificate. Others find themselves cast into the project mangers roll by their boss without planning a change in their career at all.

The Accidental Project Manager

You may be excellent at your job as a builder or engineer for example, and then one day your boss decides to put you in control of a new construction project. All of a sudden you can go from being the best at your specialist job (engineer or whatever), to being the worst at your job (project manager). Believe it or not, this is often the way people find themselves in the roll of a project manger, and it can be a difficult transition to make.

To successfully make this adjustment in your work position you’ll need to quickly develop project management skills or suffer the high risk of project failure. The biggest hurdle for many accidental project managers is letting go.

Because staff who suddenly find themselves in the roll of PM are usually specialist in a certain discipline and excellent at their job, it can be hard for them delegate that work to someone else. Indeed, if you are a person who values attention to details, it can be hard for you to delegate anyway work to anyone else. After all, who will be able to do the job to your standards?

You’ve got to move past this, project mangers need to plan and manage their resources to get the job done, not do all the work themselves! Focus developing general management and leadership skills, and you will discover ways to get more out of your team and raise all standards across the project.

A Few Key Project Managers Skills Include:

  1. Leadership.
    Communicate your vision and make it the teams vision. Bring people along with you and keep moving forward. Motivate your team and the key stakeholders. Consider risks and constraints and use your skills and knowledge to get results. Be goal driven at all times, no flapping about!
  2. Build Teams.
    Human resources may be pulled from several departments and also include contractors. Teams don’t just happen, they are built, and as a project manger you will have to pull all these people, with all their diversity and mix of personality types together into an efficient and productive team. As the PM you must motivate them and acknowledge their hard work and successes as well as guide them if they go of track. You need to be tactful, empathetic and sometimes authoritative (in a measured way) while setting the standards and exceptions of the teams performance requirements.
  3. Solve Problems.
    You’ll need to be a problem solver. You’ll have to be able to sand back and analyses the issues at hand, identify their source and consider all courses of action and their possible outcomes. You will then take action. When dealing with people who have or are causing problems, do not allow your own feelings for that person influence your actions. Be fair with everyone.

There is a lot more to discuss about how to become a project manger and what attributes are expected of PM’s, but it’s best not to overwhelm anyone who is new to this discipline. Be assured that there are recommended solutions for many issues and challenges you will face in your career as a PM, and the important thing is to begin the first step in your journey by training as a project manager. This will demystify the subject and prepare you for a fulfilling career that will be rewarding both financially and personally.

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Project Management Process Groups

Posted on June 9, 2011 by

There are Five Project Management Process Groups that are linked to each other and have overlapping activities that happen throughout the life-cycle of the phase or project. The output of one process group becomes the input to another process and this cycle loops until a deliverable is produced.

[Download a free PDF reference, click 5 project management process groups]

The Five Project Management Process Groups Are:

  1. Initiating
  2. Planning
  3. Executing
  4. Controlling and Monitoring
  5. Closing

These processes usually overlap, for example the Initiation Process may still be in progress when the Planning Process commences. The Executing Process (that is the work that has to be done to complete the phase or project) can start before the planning process is fully complete. The projects Closing Process can begin before other processes are complete, and so the processes keep running until the goal is reached..

Inputs and Outputs

Inputs and outputs are used to drive the project along. For example an output from the planning process becomes and input for the executing process. The output for the executing process becomes and input for the Controlling and Monitoring process when in turn creates and output that becomes an input for the planning process.

All that sound a little confusing? Simply stated, one process provides information for another until the project or phase is complete. Within these five process groups you will have work with nine knowledge areas. They cover all the key items that a project requires for it to be deemed a success. Failure to pay attention to any one of these areas may result in the failure of the project.

The Nine Knowledge Areas Of Project Management Are:

  1. Integration Management
  2. Scope Management
  3. Time Management
  4. Cost Management
  5. Quality Management
  6. Human Resource Management
  7. Communications Management
  8. Risk Management
  9. Procurement Management

These nine knowledge areas are extremely important to the successful completion of any project and will be explained in more detail in a later article. [Download a free PDF reference, click 5 project management process groups]

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Time Management Sheets

Posted on June 8, 2011 by

Please see the main article about time management. The time management sheet on this page is a free to use resource for individuals who are determind to manage their time more efficiently. I sincerely hope it helps you achieve your goals and management skills.

How To Access This Time Management Worksheet Resource:

  1. Click on the image below, this will load a fullsize version of the image in your browser window.
  2. You can save the image to your PC (right-click, select ‘save image as’) and print it out. This is the best option.
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  4. This image is copyright of www.ManageThings.com. It can be used for non-commercial purposes free of charge. If you wish to use the image in your website you must get permission, go to the contact page and use the email form.

Time Management Sheet

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Time Management

Posted on June 7, 2011 by

Effective and successful people have good time management skills. Master your time management and you will reap the rewards.

Time managementDo you ever feel that you have achieved little by the end of the day, the week, the month, the year? There is only so much time in a day, but if used effectively you will benefit in every aspect of your life. Learning the importance of good time management skills, you will become more efficient in your daily activities. You will also be more aware of what can and can not be achieved in a certain amount of time. This will lead to you having realistic expectations of what you can get done, and help reduce the stress and frustration of always feeling you should have done more. As a result you will be feel calmer and more in control.

As soon as you start planning and achieving your daily goals, you begin to feel more fulfilled and happy about future challenges. The satisfaction you feel will energize you for other tasks or downtime that you can enjoy without feeling guilty.

The most valuable benefits of learning how to manage your time better is that you will complete you goals faster, meaning you actually end up with more time on your hands.

Here’s a brief check list of time management tips to help you get started on your new highly productive and efficient lifestyle:

Time Management Tips

  1. Fully analyse and plan out the tasks you wish to complete before you start it. “Fail to plan, plan to fail.”
  2. Be realistic about what you can achieve in the time available to you. Limit the amount of tasks you take on.
  3. Complete a project before starting a new one. This is a key to successful living.
  4. Don’t be half-hearted, if you start something see it through to the end.
  5. Keep clear and easy to manage records.
  6. Learn to use other peoples skills, delegate and let others help where they can.
  7. Dedicate time to working on your project with distractions. If your kid is in kinder-garden between 9:30 and 12:30, use that time for your task. Switch off the phone, don’t answer the doorbell, find a quite place and knuckle down to working your way to another successful task completion.
  8. When being instructed, listen carefully for the task requirements, and double check you understand what is expected of you. No matter how good your work is, if it’s not pointed in towards the correct goal then it’s a waste of time. The new you hates to waste time, so get your facts straight before you start.
  9. Before you start a task, make sure you have all the resources you need at hand.
  10. Always make notes on your time management sheets at night for the following day so you know exactly what it is you should be doing when you get up and for the rest of the day. Confusion leads to laziness, stress and ineffectiveness.
  11. Prepare everything you need for the following day before you sleep. That means getting clothes ready, packing travel bags or whatever will need your attention first thing. If you start off well managed in the morning you’ll have a better chance of staying that way for the day.

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Time management is an important core skill for all types of management, therefore it is essential to master it. Do not be put off if you fail to mange your time efficiently every day, but keep trying to stick to these simple guidelines until they become a habit, then second nature to you. I have selected an interesting video about time management by Dr. Darryl Cross (www.drdarryl.com) which I believe you will find beneficial.

Time Management Quadrant

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