Ryan BakerProject Manager| Childrens HealthDallas, Tx, United States
Any recommendations for how performance reviews should be conducted for project managers? (Especially when the types of projects are diverse among project manager peers. It is difficult to compare performance when some projects may be doomed to fail for reasons outside of the control of the project manager.) How do you grade performance? How do you establish goals? Saving Changes...
Engdaw AdmasuConstruction Project Manager| Water Works Corporation (WWC)Kombolcha Town, Ethiopia
Dear Ryan Baker,
Your question is also my headache really!!! Anyhow, in our enterprise we use Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a system for measuring performance of project managers or any office workers. This scorecard in our case is very subjective than an objective measure of performance. I judge the results based on the planning skill of the project manager, his coordination and collaboration with team members, as well as the supply of materials or release of funds for his project activity (If our enterprise PMO was supplying limited resources, if funds were not available on time, if there is unrest due to ethic or political problems, I inclined to give results subjectively). To tell you frankly, I am a construction project supervisor, and there are more than three project managers subordinate to me. So, I always feel ashamed when I give enough performance result for a project manager whose project is doomed to fail for one reason or another.
Sincerely, Saving Changes...
It is a tough one! But there is some great advice here. From my past experience:
- NPS: did it improve over time? Any client testimonials from NPS or from business review meetings? Were these attributable to the project manager somehow?
- Did the project(s) achieve their objectives?
- in a previous org, PMs were evaluated on whether their projects met or exceed the minimum profit margins. I would have been evaluated on whether I met/exceeded the quality KPIs that either I agreed with the customer, or that were in their service level agreements.
We had a client feedback database and I would always include the number of client compliments for my accounts for my self-evaluation. If there were complaints, could I prove that my corrective actions were effective (i.e. trending downwards, or eliminated the root cause of the complaint).
- soft skills (360 feedback, internal surveys, project health reviews, your own observations)
- I would want to see evidence that the PM tried to improve their project processes. There is scope for them to demonstrate leadership, process improvement, risk mngt etc. outside of daily project operations.
Even if the project is known to be a horrible one that can't make money, for example, you could still look at how the PM added value to it. Saving Changes...
Hi Aaron and thank you for the response. Your comment about "an objective assessment of PM skills" caught my eye. In my mind, this would also be a subjective assessment. Can you elaborate on how you evaluate PM skills objectively? (Does this relate to the minimum expectations checklist?)
Ryan, my apologies, I didn't see that you had replied with a question. This was in relation to the checklist - more of a yes/no or pass/fail, if you will, whether the items on the list were completed.
For a little more context, partially evolved from project audits on capital projects - activities and deliverables that were expected for capital projects that could negatively impact the company if they weren't completed. It was easier to make it the minimum standard for all projects. I'd provide specific examples, but it's been several years since I've used that checklist. Saving Changes...
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