2 Necessary Skills for the Evolving Project Manager

Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.

  Business Analysis   Career Development   Sustainability  

Not too long ago, if you questioned IT project managers early in their careers and asked them what things they need to know in order to succeed, there were some very familiar answers:

• Scheduling
• Budget management
• Risk mitigation
• Stakeholder communication
• Conflict resolution

And the less well-known ability to survive a four-hour status meeting without falling into a coma

One of the items that probably didn’t appear on any list was understanding sustainability initiatives and explaining their business value to executives.

The current generation of IT project managers is expected to have knowledge of their organization’s environmental concerns and sustainability initiatives, energy efficiency, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) objectives, and long-term business impacts. Of course, this needs to be kept in mind while attempting to meet the deadlines of project schedules and hunting for the most recent version of the project plan.

It’s another incredible point of evolution for the project manager’s role. One that demonstrates how sustainability and business acumen have become integrated into the job.

Project Manager 2.0 (or is it 3.0, 4.0…?)

Project success used to have some pretty clearcut measurements. Did it finish when it was supposed to? Did it stay within the budget? Did it deliver the agreed-upon scope…

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