I’ve got a bit of a theme going here… focusing on the new project manager and trying to offer some advice that I’ve learned along the way that might be helpful to the first time PM or relatively new PM.

Learn and follow best practices

Know how to run a project correctly before you try.  You’re not an experienced project manager so you can’t manage from the hip in tough times.  Your best fallback will always be to stick to the basics. Manage issues, manage risks, use PM software like Seavus’ Project Viewer to management the schedule, regularly distribute status reports and project schedules, and manage project financials and resource plans closely.  Do the ongoing things to the best of your ability and show the team consistent and proper project management best practices.  They’ll learn to respect the consistency and rigidness.  After a few successful projects, then you can start to incorporate your own style because the good behaviors will already be ingrained in your processes.

Meet all deadlines and obligations

It’s not like you have a reputation coming in.  Except for being under experienced.  And your very experienced members of your project team will already know that and will be watching your every move.  I was training to be a database administrator during my early years as a developer – going away to relational database classes in Chicago and learning under the tutelage of our very experienced, sarcastic, crass, and overbearing DBA.  I even got to share an office with him for a while.  We got along later – and we’re even friends on Facebook now, but he was relentless in his efforts to demean me then.  He knew I was inexperienced and looked for every opportunity to hand the evidence to me on a silver platter.

Meet project deadlines

I’m not saying your project team members will be this way, but they will be looking for weaknesses and they will be judging your every move.  You say we’re going to have meetings every Wednesday, then we better have meetings every Wednesday.  If they feel you’re being inconsistent or weak, they’ll pass that along to others – including their direct supervisor and that will get back to you through your management…and it won’t be positive.

Keep them in line

This may seem like a duh…but it’s really a very hard thing to do when you have no reputation to go on and no established respect coming in.  You may have even been one of ‘them’ before taking on a project of your own – and if they’re your recent developer peers, that could be making things even worse for you.  It’s critical that you immediately set expectations, set their understandings for your responsibilities and authority as the project manager, and make it clear that behavior that doesn’t follow the best interests of the project won’t be allowed.  Give them clean and clear task assignments and hold them accountable – even if they are your friends and recent peers in your previous position.  You don’t have to rule with an iron fist – you’ll lose everyone fast and fail miserably if you try to do that.  Rather, set expectations, be consistent, and keep the team members focused on the tasks.  Stay professional – respect isn’t a given…it’s earned.