I believe the greatest skill a project manager should have is communication. Developing a product takes a team; it is not something can be done alone. The project manager must be able to relay messages to their group members, listen to complaints and hear what their employees are feeling, and take all opinions into consideration. The project manager must speak to their employees with respect when there is a disagreement. Another great skill a project manager must have is problem solving. Not every project is going to go smoothly; but they must be able to identify a problem, generate a solution, and then execute that solution. Problem solving isn't the easier skill to acquire and it is always beneficial when the project manager displays that strength.
Hello everyone,
I agree with most of the discussion above . One of the most important a basic requirement of a project manager is communication skill. He/she should be a team leader. Most of there time is spend on communication. Convincing the upper management and lower management how the work should flow?. How a need project will be done. Another important skill is negotiation. A project manger should have a very good planning skill. Should know in advance how the project is move?. Can it be done in the given time?
The main skill according to me is management, to work viable, the project manager should have the capacity to manage individuals. From appointing work to considering people responsible, it's project manager's duty to set objectives, encourage efforts, and evaluate performance. Project managers have a unique range of abilities. They have the responsibility of arranging, getting, and executing a project, ensuring everything is on track and that everybody included is attempting to their maximum capacity. If there are any problems, postponements, or issues, the project manager is the point person to work with the customer or organization to survey how to settle it. They frequently are not engaged with the bare essential work, but rather, ensure advance is being made and keeps everybody on task.
Of course emotional intelligence combined with technical knowledge are important qualities in a project manager, as well as all of the qualities people mentioned above.
To me, one of the greatest skills in a project manager are the ability to get to know and gauge all team members and how to best work with them and assign them projects to maximize their usefulness to the project. Even within the same department or division, there are so many different personalities. These personalities change the way they are most effectively communicated with, assigned projects, asked to report results, asked to communicate with others, monitored, etc.
This not only makes everyone more happy on the team but also improves overall effectiveness. I think the ability to get along with all personality types nd adjust your leadership style and delegation style to each individual on the team while keeping a cohesive overall management is extremely challenging but I admire when it can be done.
I have done this on a university level in clubs and organizations but I can imagine that the different team members from different departments and maybe even different parts of the world can add to this complexity. Some of the teams I will be working on at my future company will be globally and online. I am very interested to see how this dynamic works in a setting like that.
Since I don’t want to echo too much of what everyone said I’ll add what I think is not said. While leadership is a key role it is vague, and charisma is not really needed while it can help with team moral. Being an effective PM doesn’t mean that everyone likes you. Since PMs must PDCA, foresight and being able to seamlessly shift their focus from a micro scale of day to day to a macro scale of the project progression is a dividing factor between a good and great PM. If you suspect an error that may occur, expending some effort and contacting the required people beforehand will make addressing the issue, if it ever happens easier. Creating an environment of transparent communication and understanding the people under you is important since sifting between what is said and not said, and whether the word choice of the employee accurately describes what is occurring can lead to the failure or success of a project.
While I am not advocating complete oversight where they look over everyone’s shoulders, in order to effectively support your team, the PM needs to understand where each member stands and what they need to finish their work both things explicitly said and those the employee may not even know themselves.
Many of the qualities mentioned in the above comments are minimal requirements to be able to get a single project out successfully and are large umbrella buzz-word traits that a PM needs but there are specific components of each of these traits that differentiate PMs. One component is the PM’s ability to understand the scope of the project and the factors that affect the completion/success of the project as well as identifying the people needed to be consulted and brought together from the beginning of the project. While many changes occur during the process of the project completion as we will see in the simulations, any PM who if asked if they could do a project over again understanding what they know now, many of the changes will occur with the scope definition and better understanding of the problem for planning purposes. (excluding errors and failed assumptions)
Understanding the rate determining steps(RDS) and critical steps in the project to ensure that the end goal is met, excluding time constraints placed, and understanding the parallel processes that need to be done to ensure seamless transition from one RDS to the next.
Ex. If a permit needs to be filed but it only lasts for 1 month, understanding the dynamics of the what is going on to ensure that getting the permit does not become a RDS is also a crucial component that falls under time management.
as some have mentioned previously, I believe the project manager should be a great problem solver. on any team, each member should be capable of completing tasks on their own. it is when there are conflicts of opinion or challenges that the team members have difficulty solving that the manager shines. while communication is important, the project manager is there to resolve any issues that the team members have that is beyond their set of responsibilities so that the each member can function at their optimal capacity. whether that requires the PM seek assistance from upper management or work directly with the team to resolve any challenges.
I agree that communication is most likely one of the most important skills needed to be a successful project manager but there are many others needed to succeed. I think that one I haven’t seen yet is organization. If the project manager doesn’t have their personal space organized then that will affect how the team functions. Things can get lost that the team needs and projects will end up off track and delayed. If the project manager is not organized themselves then they will not be able to keep the team organized. With everything that goes on throughout a project including documents, test protocols, test results, and the unknown number of edits to each document, the team needs to remain organized.
The project manager for medical device company leads the team of engineer ,owns the relationship with clients and applying engineering knowledge to ensure successful outcomes . Assembling a medication reconciliation team is an important task for project manager for medical device company . The Design Team should be comprised of multidisciplinary members with a strong knowledge of current workflow, recognition of the problem, and buy-in for improvement like nurses, physicians The project manager should have the skills needed to effectively listen to the client, clinical advisors, and end users, use that information, and develop a safe, effective, and meaningful solution. He has to learn new things fast, and use that information to make good decisions along the way. Communication is also an important skill that project manager need without it even the skilled worker are unable to perform
I believe that Project manager should have leadership qualities as they must manage teams having vison, motivating the team members, inspiring them, resolving conflicts. Leadership in project manager means providing vison and roadmap for success and encouraging the team to lead to the success. Another skill that a project manager should have is the ability to communicate well with the team and coordinate well. Project manager should not only able to communicate but also should be able to translate the ideas and results into more business. Effective and frequent communication ensures that all the team members are on the same page and there is not discomfort in the future conversations. Communication also helps what is exactly needed from the team member to pursue the project.
A project manager needs to be able to make decisions. Communication is an important skill as well, yet without the ability to make a decision a project will fail. Having all of the information in the world won't matter if you are too indecisive to act upon it.
I believe the keys to being a successful project manager is strong communication and problem solving skills. The ability to empathize with different team members while standing firm on what is required of them is also crucial. He/she should be open to new suggestions and criticisms meant to improve and expediate the progress of the project. Though it is difficult, the manager should strive to be fair and show little (if any) favoritism to the team members.
A project manager requires many skills in order to succeed. There is no one sole skill that will allow the project manager to be successful. As emphasized in the PMBOK, effective project managers require a balance of technical, interpersonal, and conceptual skills that help them analyze situations and interact appropriately. In addition the project manager requires a balance of interpersonal skills (e.g. leadership, team building, communication, motivation, decision making, etc.) in order to do their job successfully. The project manager can be a great communicator, but if he/she lacks other interpersonal skills such as decision making, leadership, etc., it will be hard to succeed. For this reason I think becoming a project manager is tough, it takes time and experience to master all skills.
A project manager is required to be a sort of "jack of all trades" in the form that they must excel in so many areas in order to effectively get the job done. A successful project manager must be knowledgeable in the technical aspects of the project in order to analyze and execute decisions. A project manager must have excellent interpersonal skills in order to convey information, motivate, and in large, communicate with their team/peers. This touches back to another discussion on this forum of how important interpersonal skills are in a project manager. Interpersonal skills touch on every aspect of a project manager because there is always communication with other people throughout a project. Therefore, I think that while there are so many things a project manager must excel at in order to be successful at the job, interpersonal skills come in at number one because there is no way a project can be successful with a project manager who can't communicate.
I believe that the first and important skills are planning and scheduling the project according to the requirements of the projects. furthermore project manager gathers and analyzes information to prepare status reports, Ensures that assignment and scheduling of work follow Company policy and Regulatory Requirements.
Evaluates current procedures and recommends changes to improve the efficiency of planning and scheduling of projects.
The project manager must have strong critical thinking and decision-making skills to coordinate project activities, including simple tasks to larger plans. The project manager manages schedules, arrange assignments and communicate progress to all team members and stakeholders. Responsibilities such as, Delivering fundamental project management tools and composes project plans including scheduling, soliciting input from multiple functions and outside partners are also ensured. Holds regular team meetings and escalates issues where appropriate. Consistently and persistently follows-up with team members to ensure project deliveries are met. Notes Dependencies among functional areas.
Project manager should provide information regarding tasks, plans, schedule, and strategies to stakeholders that avoids miss conceptions between people regarding any work. I think that this project management is the most important to use the resources and efficiency in the best possible way.
A general online look at job openings for project managers (PM) lists a variety of skills ranging from interpersonal leadership skills to math-based analytical skills such as time and budgeting, or any skill that will yield a progressive workflow. Leadership skills require a PM to assign tasks and resolve conflicts among a project's participating members, which can include assigning a difficult task to new personnel in an attempt to get them trained for future tasks, or assign a simple task to a well-trained professional in hopes of quickly moving onto the next assignment. Although an untrained individual may initially cause grief to a manager, it is their long-term acquisition of skills that a PM should take into consideration in order to have more availability in skill set among a staff for future tasks. This may also lead to improved time management skills of a PM as well since developing a highly-trained staff will allow tasks to be completed more effectively and efficiently.
As mentioned in lecture, project management in corporations are the foundation to making the organization a successful one assuming that the hired PMs are competent in general skills such as monitoring and allocating resources, maintaining communication between departments, and managing risk. The purpose of project management however, is to capitalize and profit off an idea that has not been done before by arranging a "series of tasks that when completed, creates a new object or capability". In this case, how does an organization decide on hiring a PM for a project that has never been done before? For example, what kind of background experience would the hiring organization look for in a PM for a product/process that treats various forms of cancer without the use of chemotherapy? In what ways might a corporation handle a project on the verge of failing and what preventative action can be taken to make an unsuccessful company a successful one?
Abeid, Cesar, "6 Essential Skills for Project Managers" (2015) liquidplanner website
