Hooi Nee SauIT Project Manager| ,Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Recently, I have discussion with some other PMs. We found that if a project run smoothly(within budget,meet target), the PM role are unable to shine like other roles such as architect, consultant & etc where they make more solid contribution to a project delivery. Senior management unlikely to see the PM contribution and the important of PM role.
We do agree that PM shining in their role & provides contribution to project, if a project has a lot of hiccups & issue escalated to senior management.
I think this is unfair to the PM who put a lot of efforts earlier to do all kind of risk mitigation before it become a project issue.
1. Have you experience the same above?
2. What is your solution and suggestion?
3. In a smooth project, what do you think the PM contribution is?
4. How to make a PM role shining and contributed in company? Saving Changes...
Bala S DuvvuriProject Manager| ShellBangalore, Karnataka, India
It's a 8th wonder if you say project is going smooth and it can be because of 2 reasons ,either your client is so good and he accepts whatever your organization is providing or the other way.
it is my personal opinion that there is no project that runs smooth without the efforts of project manager and his/her team members(stake holders)
As a PM you should be able to explain to the other stakeholders the reason for the smooth projects in terms of best practices you have followed,risks you have identified/mitigated/avoided/transferred etc.kind of coaching/mentoring you are providing to your team members and some negative approach that if you don't follow these things what would have happened. Saving Changes...
Markus KopkoAI Enabler for Project & Program Mgmt | Founder PMotion.ai / The PM
AI Coach| PMotion.aiHamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Hello,
i kind a like to echo Bala.
If you need to do something else to shine in your PM role, cause your projects run "to" smooth, than your organization/management is not mature enough and/or they havn't understand what good project management is all about.
I guess you will have to work on this ...
Just my 2 cents Saving Changes...
saurabh mahajanPMP, ITIL, PRINCE2| vodafonePune, Maharashtra, India
I AM ANGRY WHEN PEOPLE SAY PROJECT MANAGER DOES NOTHING
1. Have you experience the same above?
- No, but when the issue happens no one goes to architect, consultant & etc. All come to project manager. That means if the project is running smoothly somewhere or the other project manager should also get the credit.
2. What is your solution and suggestion?
- Show the contribution project manager does by demonstrating plan those where prepared well in advance to manage mess that will be created by other not-so thankful people.
3. In a smooth project, what do you think the PM contribution is?
- primary role to keep it running smoothly. Secondary to look for improvement.
4. How to make a PM role shining and contributed in company?
- It will need educating other people who do not understand importance of PM. Besides this, show results of PM's action. Saving Changes...
I am not a PM but I have worked in quite a few projects and I don’t think there are many projects that run completely smooth; at least I have never worked in one. However, in the ideal scenario of a project that does run perfectly smooth the project manager simply can’t bring a lot of value as he/she will be “condemned” to perform just some trivial administrative tasks and nothing more.
I believe that in a situation where the relationship between the stakeholders is complicated the project manager can really make the difference between a successful and a failed project but in less complicated projects he/she can be just a little more than a clerk. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Go to the basic. What does means "administration"? It does means that some people put money and other resource in hand of a person (the project manager) to deliver a solution to a business problem. That´s means it is better you do that well because instead of shine you will detonate. With that said the right word is not shine. The right word is visibility. You have to give visibility to your work. Obviously the first thing is you have to review if you really are working as project manager. Perhaps you have the job title but you are not performing the project manager role. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
First of all, the roles of the PM is to Direct, Manage, Integrate, Monitor & Control, Improve, Communicate. For example, he does not plan, he Directs the Planning. He integrates during execution, and so on.
A project that runs smooth it means that it has an excellemt PM regardless how easy is the project, how easy the client are. If the PM is not a good PM, even if the latter are there, the project might be a failure and a company who doesn't realize the role of the PM is an immature company. There is nothing called a smooth project as Bala said, but it might be smooth because the PM worked on making it so. Saving Changes...
I don't know anything about the type of projects that you manage/work on but in the projects that I work there is usually a lot of direct interaction between the team members (consultants) and the business users (customers). Perhaps the most important thing that the project manager has to do is to build the communication channels between these two groups as well as between all the stakeholders at large.
Managing the stakeholders can be either an easy or a complicated task depending on the relationships that exist or are being built between them. If the stakeholders build good relationships between them then there is less need for the project manager's intervention. Of course even in this situation there must be someone to fill the role of the project manager but usually he/she is left with doing more trivial tasks that are more closely related to the work of an administrative assistant, bookkeeper or a clerk. I think @Hooi Nee Sau was referring to this kind of scenarios.
Whether or not the project managers accept this, there are projects that require far fewer project management skills than others and in some situations many smaller companies choose not to have a project manager at all unless they have to deliver a very complex project.
I believe that project managers can really shine when they work in difficult projects with difficult stakeholders and a lot of issues to be resolved. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Hi Adrian,
I am into construction and development. Ive worked on mega projects where at some point we had 30,000 People involved in the project while Ive done some other jobs where we had only 8,000.
The role of the PM is communication like you've mentioned, and also integration, direction and manage.
If your projects are all about communication only then you need a project coordinator. Even though communication is a core part of the project, it is not the only part. Building good relationships between stakeholders is not the end of the tunnel, he has to keep monitoring, controlling and making sure this good relationship is maintained. The positive side of having a good relationship is that it might give the PM free time to concentrate on other tasks like risk re-assessment, process improvement, quality control, and so on.
I believe every project requires most PM skills but the difference would be the amount of effort required which depends on the nature , size and complexity of the project. Saving Changes...
Hooi Nee SauIT Project Manager| ,Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Thank you for all feedback.
I do agree projects regardless small size project or tasks will have issue occurs. I shall further clarify that project run smooth I mean here is issue happened in project but it is still manageable and controllable by the project working level. It has not escalated to project steering committee or senior management for attention and advise. Prior to that reason, non-working level stakeholder might see it is an easy project. Thus, the efforts done will not credit to the PM.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Hi Hooi,
This case is a normal case that would happen all the time and the non-working level stakeholders appreciates usually the PM who has eveything under control in his own project and they usually consider it a strength in managing the project. Sometimes if they are negative stakeholders, they might consider it a simple project and that PM did nothing but with communication and circulation of information, this part should be covered. I doubt that key stakeholders from the organization would think the project is easy because they are the ones who initiated it and assigned the PM.
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