In addition to developing the skills required for project management, continually set career goals for yourself as a project manager. Recognize that management is watching with high expectations and will likely be reviewing your performance based on how well you achieve these goals, which may include:

Acquiring the reputation as a skilled, effective project manager

Be aware that your reputation within the company will affect your career. A positive reputation includes the element of reliability. To become a skilled project manager, practice the ideas and techniques that make the process work. To become an effective project manager, keep your goals and deadlines in mind at all times, support your team, and work well with all resources, internal and external.

Meeting deadlines, without fail

Some people accept the fact that deadlines in their companies are not taken very seriously. Don’t allow yourself to think in this way. View the deadline as an absolute. It you never miss a deadline (except in the most extreme circumstances), management will think of you as a dependable, valuable resource.

Staying within budget

The budget, like the deadline, is often seen as an outmoded practice, as an idea with little validity. This is because so few people use budgets as they are intended – as control tools for measuring the effectiveness of management’s effort. The budget defines risk and potential reward for the organization, and should be carefully monitored and controlled while the project is underway.

Producing and delivering the desired result

Once you have achieved a clear and precise definition of your purpose and goals, you will know exactly what management expects from you. And as long as you keep communicating to ensure that the goals have not changed, you will succeed. Produce and deliver the desired result, and management will think of you as a results-oriented manager.

Resolving conflicts

Conflicts – whether involving mere scheduling problems or personality clashes – may seem trivial in the scheme of things. But in some respects, your ability to resolve conflicts without difficulty may be the most important attribute for successful project management. You certainly want to draw attention to yourself as an effective manager; what you don’t need is the kind of attention you get when top management has to step in to mediate an unresolved problem.

Information for this article was derived, in part, from a section of Michael Thomsett’s book entitled, “The Little Black Book of Project Management.”

Related posts:

1. Communication Weak Links
2. Overcoming Common Project Issues – Part 2
3. Dealing with Other Department Managers

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How useful this is to anyone depends on the organization they work in.  If you have a mature PMO with processes in place, then I would guess that you already have a standard form or spreadsheet to use to request resource for your project.  However, if you’re one of just a few PMs or personnel acting in a PM role in your organization or you’re in the process of building some PM processes for a newer organization or even setting up a new PMO, then any template may be better than nothing.

As with all of these documents, if you want the original Word doc file, just email me if you think this will be useful or helpful.  And please, provide your own example if you wish.  We’re looking to learn and share information so I’m happy to use and post whatever you would like to provide to the readers of PM Tips.

PROJECT RESOURCE REQUEST

[Save file name as: client name RESOURCE REQUEST yyyymmdd]

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Provide a brief description of the project objectives and overall performance of the work to be performed.

WORK DESCRIPTION AND ROLE

Describe the work to be performed on the project by the resource(s) and what role the individual(s) will play on the project team.

DESIRED SKILLS

Describe the technical, business or professional skills needed by the resource(s) to successfully meet the needs of the project.

DELIVERABLES

Describe the deliverables the resource(s) will be responsible to complete as a result of their work on the project.

DATES REQUESTED

Starting: mm/dd/yyyy Ending: mm/dd/yyyy

HOURS OR % FTE

Provide the estimated number of hours or the percent of time the individual(s) will be need to be allocated to work on the project.

WORK LOCATION

Describe all of the locations the resource(s) will be expected to be located – if multiple locations, provide dates as they are know at the time of the request.

REPORTING STRUCTURE

Describe the reporting structure for the project and how the individual(s) will be expected to operate within this structure.

Related posts:

1. The Project Change Order Request – Version 1
2. The Project Procurement Plan
3. The Onsite Visit Progress Report

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In this three-part series, I’ll present Jason Charvat’s take on the attributes of a project manager as documented in his book “Project Management Nation: Tools, Techniques, and Goals for the New and Practicing IT Project Manager.

This basically another take or view on the two articles I’ve previously posted on this topic:

• The Characteristics of a Project Manager (that evolved into several parts)
• The Skill Set of the Project Manager – Another View (derived primarily from Gary Heerkens’ book)

ATTRIBUTES OF A PROJECT MANAGER

For about three years as a project manager, I failed to listen to my team members and came across as arrogant. The one thing I learned from experience is that right action gets right results and wrong action gets wrong results. This kept driving me compulsively to consider what attributes I needed to possess if I ever was going to be an outstanding project manager.

Project management, as a profession, has changed through the years and has produced many good project managers who have risen to higher levels, consulted world-wide, and often started their own organizations due to their broader understanding of business principles. Within the project management profession, a manager quickly becomes well-known in a very short period of time; clients identify those project managers who are good and those who cannot perform well. The following personal attributes demonstrate the profile of a good project manager:

• Self-confident
• Problem solver
• Good listener
• Able to gain the respect of the team
• An effective communicator
• Capable of reacting dynamically and making decisions quickly
• Considered a professional
• A team player
• Knowledgeable about project management

Project management consultants are normally distinguishable from other company managers by the following attributes:

1. Reputation. The project manager is well-known by name in his or her industry and is often called upon to deliver papers, case studies, and new concepts to this audience.
2. Experience. The project manager has sufficient experience and has completed many projects.
3. Leadership. The project manager possesses the necessary leadership skills to lead people.
4. Presentation skills. The project manager has the ability to communicate on all levels in order to inform about project status.
5. Expertise. A project manager is normally employed because he or she is an expert on the subject and can speak with confidence on any project discipline.
6. Professionalism. The project manager, who belongs to reputable project organizations, abides by a code of ethics specifically designed for the project profession, thus ensuring that clients, organizations, and society are able to entrust project managers with their daily duties.

In Part 2, we’ll further discuss other areas of knowledge and abilities that the project manager must possess to successfully lead IT projects.

Related posts:

1. The Attributes of a Successful Project Manager – Part 3
2. Attributes of a Successful Project Manager – Part 2
3. Project Management: Is PMP Certification Worth It?

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For relatively simple short-term projects that are executed strictly within a single department, you, as the project manager, may have direct control over the time commitments and priorities of each team member.

Because the work is relatively contained and you’re in control, you are aware of you’re the deadlines and workload variations for the team members and you can build your schedule around the workload and adjust it as needed. You can also balance departmental and project demands on the basis of your knowledge of each and the scheduling flexibility and control you’re able to exercise.

As the scope of your project grows, your task assumes a greater dimension, and you will begin to work with people from other departments. This is where your communication skills are tested.

A common complaint often heard from other managers is, “You didn’t tell me in time,” regardless of whether problems arise because of deadlines, the use of an employee’s time, or conflicts in commitment. But you can solve most of the problems you will encounter in working with other departments by remembering this key point:

Keep other department managers informed at all times: before and during the project.

By applying a few basic rules for communication between departments, you will be able to defuse the problems that beset all managers at one time or another: territorial motives, power struggles, and—in cases where communication breaks down completely—outright refusal to cooperate. Most of the time, the breakdown of cooperation arises not from a political or personality problem but from a failure in the communication link—especially when you have made the effort to communicate, but only once. People need periodic reminding, so don’t assume that a single message will be remembered.

Summary

I realize this is a fairly straightforward concept, but it can’t be emphasized enough. Communication is key. And when you’re dealing with large projects, and dispersed team, all the managers those team members work for, and all the departments that your large projects depend upon, then it’s your responsibility…as the PM…to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Keep critical project information, milestones, and commitments in front of everyone who “needs to know” often and at every update point.

They will appreciate it, you’ll see it in the way they support your project and your resources, and you’ll greatly increase your project’s likelihood for success…and that’s always a good thing. Never assume people – especially department heads who you must rely on – “just know.” Bury them with communication if you have to.

Related posts:

1. The Challenge of Project Communication
2. Communication Weak Links
3. Overcoming Common Project Issues – Part 1

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Ok, so I decided to make the two-parter into a six-part series. I’ve received emails and comments on the first two parts and decided that I couldn’t end it until we dove further into defining risk identification, quantification, response, and control. In this entry from the book “The Project Management Question and Answer Book”, we’ll look further into Risk Identification.

What is risk identification?

The first step in risk management is identifying the risks that we will see in our project. These are the things that threaten to stop us from delivering what we have promised on the schedule we promised for the budget we promised. If we were completely certain about everything in the project and how it was going to turn out, we would not have to worry about risk management. From this lack of knowledge of how the project is going to unfold come the problems that we will have to deal with. These are the risks we want to identify. Every practical means must be used to discover the risks that are associated with the project. Meetings must be held throughout the project to discover new risks that have appeared and to dismiss risks that can no longer take place.

All of the assumptions that have been made to date on the project are potential risks as well and should be listed among the other risks identified.

The first thing we must do in risk identification is recognize the areas of the project where the risks can occur. This means that we will have to investigate the following areas:

• Scope. We must look at the work of the project. The work breakdown structure (WBS) will be useful here. The project scope must be clearly defined in terms of both the deliverables and the work that must be done to deliver them. Errors and omissions on the part of the project team and the stakeholders must be minimized. As always, the WBS will be very helpful in doing this.

• Time. Estimates for the duration of the project and the duration of the project tasks must be done accurately and reliably. The sequence of work must be identified, and the interrelationships between the tasks must be clearly defined.

• Cost. Estimates for tasks must be done accurately and reliably. All associated costs must be considered and reported accurately. Life cycle costs should be considered as well as maintenance, warranty, inflation, and any other costs.

• Customer Expectations. Estimates of project success must be considered in terms of customer needs and desires. The ability of the project to be scaled up or manufactured in different quantities or for different uses and sizes must also be considered.

• Resources. This involves the quantity, quality, and availability of the resources that will be needed for the project. Skills must be defined in the roles that will be necessary for the project.

• Organization. This is the ability to interface with the stakeholder’s organization in terms of communications and knowledge.

Many people both inside and outside the project will be necessary for risk identification. This includes input not only from the project team and all of the stakeholders but also from project managers who have managed this type of project before and even consultants who have special expertise about certain kinds of risks. It may be necessary to organize the types of risks into categories so that separate teams of people can be brought together more efficiently.

Many of the risks that will affect the project are risks that have happened in one form or another on other projects of this type. Utilizing the information available in the previous project’s lessons-learned documents will be very helpful in identifying risks for this project. An organized review of past projects should be done as part of the risk identification process.

Since much of the risk identification process will involve large numbers of people, formal group dynamics techniques should be used.

Brainstorming Technique. Most people are familiar with this process, and many have had disappointing results. In brainstorming a facilitator briefs the meeting attendees and asks the participants of the meeting to name risks that they think could occur in the project. The facilitator encourages the participants to name any risk they can think of, even ones that seem silly, and makes a list of the risks on a board or flip chart. What happens in brainstorming is that the ideas of one person generate new ideas from another person, and a kind of chain reaction takes place, producing the identification of many ideas about risk.

There are some problems with brainstorming that will affect the success you have with the technique. The main problem is that unless you have an excellent facilitator, there will be minimum participation from the attendees and few risks will be identified. This problem is even worse when there is a large difference in the status of the individuals attending. A person who is the supervisor of some of the participants may intimidate them or dominate the meeting.

Delphi Technique. This technique of group dynamics eliminates the problem of dominance, shyness, or intimidation that sometimes occurs in brainstorming meetings. In the Delphi technique the participants are anonymous to each other. This technique can be conducted with Internet messaging or even by e-mail and has the advantage that people can participate from many different locations.

In this technique the facilitator asks for input from the participants. He takes their ideas and consolidates them into a list that is sent to each participant. The participants then add ideas to those already listed. This circulation of the lists continues until no additional ideas are generated.

The Delphi technique creates a lot of work for the facilitator. All ideas have to be listed by the facilitator, who also usually has to telephone many of the participants in order to get them to participate in each round. The overall time to do the Delphi technique can be weeks depending on how dedicated the participants are.

Nominal Group Technique. This is another type of meeting technique. In nominal group the participants are known to one another as in brainstorming, but the ideas are submitted to the facilitator as written lists. This makes the ideas, if not the participants, anonymous. The facilitator lists the ideas on a flip chart or a board, and the participants add more ideas in another round of written lists until no additional ideas are added.

This technique reduces any status concerns or intimidation that might be present in a brainstorming session but does not eliminate it entirely. There is more work for the facilitator, but the nominal group method can be done in a single meeting, and participation improves over brainstorming even if some enthusiasm may be lost.

Expert Interviews. There might be experts available either inside or outside the company for a new project and a new kind of business. Expert interviews must be handled with care. If the project team is not prepared for the expert interview, much time can be wasted with the expert simply telling stories about his or her past exploits. An effort should be made to develop a list of questions for the expert.

Ishikawa or Fishbone Diagrams. Fishbone diagrams or cause-andeffect diagrams, also called Ishikawa diagrams after their founder, Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese quality engineer, are useful in identifying risks.

Related posts:

1. Defining Risk Management – Part 2
2. Defining Risk Management – Part 4: Risk Quantification
3. The Risk Management Plan

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I can’t get in to the PM Tips site at the moment due to a server issue in order to post comments, so I’m just going to write an article on the subject…since I think I can post an article through the login.

There have been great comments and discussions on the article I wrote entitled “Project Management: Is PMP Certification Worth It?” In fact, there have been nearly 100 comments posted on this article – by far the most of any on the site. I appreciate everyone’s comments and I think it’s been an incredible discussion – and it’s probably convinced many non-certified PMs to just go ahead and get certification.

The Premise

Remember, the premise of the article is that HR departments and hiring managers are becoming lazy in this job market by requiring PMs to have certification to even be considered for a position – it is happening on many jobs that are up for grabs out there. However, the overall perception is, it’s a game…if you want to play you probably should get certified. I agree.

Direction of Recent Comments

The comments are still coming through, but now they’re only trickling in. And what’s coming through now is equating PMP certification to an MD, or a CPA, or a certified CPR. I’d like to get my two cents in on these comparisons. I think they’re crazy.  (The comparisons, I mean…not the people making them.)

While all of those are important, they don’t equate to what a PM does. First, it’s not illegal for a PM to practice project management without certification. No one’s life is at stake. It is, however, very illegal to practice medicine without the degree. And sure, a person can administer CPR without being certified and a person can do taxes or manage your finances without being a CPA, but you’re probably more comfortable with a CPA doing your taxes. And as one comment suggested, if two people are standing over you when you’re choking and one is certified in CPR and the other isn’t but just knows it, you’d probably choose the certified CPR person if you’re given the choice. I would too.

Applicable to PMP?

How does this compare or apply to PMP certification? It doesn’t at all. PMP certification indicates you have a minimum amount of experience and passed a test so you know the fundamentals of PM and the PMI methodologies. What it doesn’t indicate are the soft skills that a PM must have to be very successful. A CPA or a person who is CPR-certified really doesn’t have to have the same interpersonal skills. They wife of a choking victim doesn’t care if the CPR responder can negotiate with someone or interact with the crowd of bystanders. They have one job to do and that’s it. The person having their taxes done by a CPA doesn’t care if that individual knows how to massage a customer and smooth over bad news. Or lead a team of project resources every day to accomplish all of the behind the scenes tasks. Not at all. They only care if their taxes are done correctly. And the CPA is pretty much a one-man show and he does the taxes correctly and that’s it. No song and dance.

For the PM, things are different. The work is not more critical or more important, just different. The PM must be able to inspire a team, bring confidence to a customer, manage a multi-million dollar project, answer to executive management, keep the CEO happy and do this on several projects at once. Again, not more important, just very different. And lots of soft skills that no test can ever validate. You either have it or you don’t. Some of these things you can’t get no matter how much experience you have, but experience usually can help you get there on most of them. Pass a test and getting certified won’t get you there.

I’ve been called in to fix projects where the customer was dissatisfied with the way the project was going so many times that I’ve lost count. A test doesn’t validate leadership, confidence, and that kind of experience.

Final Thought

So, yes, we all probably should be certified because that’s just the nature of how things are going. But, in my opinion, it’s very short-sighted to equate the PMP to an MD, a CPA, or CPR certification. It’s apples and oranges.

Related posts:

1. Project Management: Is PMP Certification Worth It?
2. Is PMP Certification Worth It? – My Analysis So Far
3. February Survey: PMP Certification

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This article contains another excerpt from Paul Tinnirello’s book “New Directions in Project Management.” This is the fifth installment in a six-part series entitled Balancing Critical Project Success Factors. In case you’ve missed the first four, here’s what we’ve covered so far:

• Introduction
• Selling Good Ideas
• Building a Common Vision
• Generating a Commitment to Ideas

In this fifth segment we cover engaging conflicts directly and resolving them efficiently and effectively.

Engage Conflicts Directly and Resolve Conflicts Efficiently and Effectively

Once project plans are underway, change happens. Requirements shift, the client does not meet its obligations in the project plan, and budgets can be reduced. Changes within the IT group can also occur. Tasks may exceed initial estimates. Key programmers leave to join other firms. Differences in opinion among IT professionals about the best approach can erupt into conflicts that push projects off track.

When this happens, IT professionals must assertively engage key stakeholders (e.g., users, user management, IT management) in problem solving about the trade-offs that must be made in quality, time, cost, and perhaps even customer service agreements. Assertiveness is critical because users (and admittedly IT management on occasion) would prefer to avoid making necessary but difficult decisions about trade-offs between quality, time, and cost. Interestingly, resolving such conflicts may be best viewed as a typical and not unusual part of what IT project managers do. In survey research of professional project managers, it was discovered that they report spending an average of 12 hours per week resolving conflicts.

When engaged in problem solving about trade-offs, stakeholders sometimes become frustrated and retaliate by challenging the competence or creativity of the IT project manager. IT professionals sometimes respond to such challenges by retreating from their legitimate interests. In a misguided effort to please, some over-commit to all three factors although significant changes in the project environment necessitate adjustments. The result is priority overload, stressed-out IT personnel, a loss of credibility and influence, suboptimal IT work products, or missed timelines.

Assertively championing one’s basic interests, exploring alternatives with affected parties even when they are not enthusiastic to do so, and collaborating to construct win-win agreements is the better response. Unfortunately, many people drawn to information technology (like many drawn to other technical disciplines) have a personal aversion to conflict. Consequently, for some IT professionals, enhanced negotiation skills is necessary.

Faithfully applying project management disciplines can limit the amount and scope of project conflicts that IT professionals have to manage. Conducting risk assessments early in the project life cycle to identify factors that might threaten project deliverables is one such discipline. If a risk is detected early (e.g., weak user management consensus on requirements) and focused problem solving occurs about what contingencies are necessary to address it (e.g., identifying a resource that can be used to do team conflict resolution with user managers), project disruptions caused by the risk can be effectively contained.

Providing regular user management updates is a second project management discipline. When updates work most effectively, not only is progress reported, but threats to project deliverables are reviewed and user management support of efforts to limit or resolve those threats is secured.

For some complex projects, more substantial organizational conflict management mechanisms are required. On large IT initiatives, the relative priority of the needs of different user groups can change over time. Because IT resources are often relatively fixed, reallocating resources to respond to a increased urgency for one user often means reneging on commitments made to other users. To address shifting priorities between users, some IT groups convene regular, periodic meetings of steering committees or users councils. When such mechanisms work well, users collectively learn about urgent priority changes, explore alternative responses to these situations, and finally make mutual decisions about priority changes and IT resource reallocation. In these settings, IT professionals facilitate the preparation of information that enables these groups to make sound decisions. By promoting quality dialogue between users, IT professionals enhance organizational problem solving.

Paul C. Tinnirello is the editor of “New Directions in Project Management” from the Best Practices Series.

Related posts:

1. Balancing Critical Project Success Factors – Introduction
2. Balancing Critical Project Success Factors – Enforcing IT Excellence
3. Balancing Critical Project Success Factors – Selling Good Ideas

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Ok, “fun” may be a stretch…but not really. When do we dislike our jobs the most? When they are dead ends. When we’re micro-managed. When we don’t feel leadership is leading us. When we feel that we aren’t given the tools or authority to succeed.

I’ve had one or more positions where all of this happened….maybe not all in one job (though I can think of one specific job that encompassed most of these). I’m sure we all can think of a job where we were pushed down and we were unhappy. We tend to not be at our most productive selves in these types of jobs and under these types of conditions.

I’ve always found that I am at my most productive when the work is fun and when I have a great deal of control over that work. The same goes for the projects that I lead. If I have executive management that has a great deal of confidence in my skills and basically lets me run the show with the understanding I’ll shout out when there are needs as well as keeping them up-to-date on status, then I usually truly enjoy.

In fact, I find that managing projects with the some or all of the following 6 characteristics end up being the most “fun” for me to manage:

• Job Autonomy – This basically means being allowed a great degree of freedom and discretion in a job. When I’m allowed to lead a project and do the job well, make the right choices, and decisions and lead the customer without an excess of executive involvement, work is more fun, more productive and I can form a much better relationship with the customer.

• Focused Resources – Having skilled, focused resources that you know you can count on to get the job done certainly makes managing the project with confidence a lot easier. Knowing those resources are focused on your project tasks when they should be gives you the confidence to make appropriate promises to the customer and have your word stick.

• No Micro-Managing – Somewhat similar to Job Autonomy. I’m at my worst when I’m micro-managed and second-guessed. That’s for managers with nothing better to do. I once was leading a team onsite with a customer and had 5 other projects I was also leading. I was onsite with this team for 2 weeks – meaning I had 10 other weekly status meetings during those two weeks, 10 other status reports to delivery, 10 other project schedules to get out, etc. Unfortunately, I also had a senior manager there doing nothing more than walking around trying to make sure my team was focused on the onsite customer – I think because HE was being micro managed as well. It made it difficult to serve my other customers for this company with this individual constantly trying to get me back to focusing on the onsite customer – even though the technical resources on the project we engaged in the tasks we were actually there to perform (I was mainly there to just oversee that…which doesn’t require 24/7 oversight – and I could certainly afford 2-3 hours per day to devote to other projects).

• Requires Some Innovation – Leading a project that isn’t just a slam-dunk is more challenging to me and therefore more fun. One that requires more out of the box thinking definitely gets my attention – and usually challenges my team even more and keeps them excited and engaged.

• Cool Technology – We’ve all been here…any project that requires some cool technology makes the work more fun, right? What’s more fun…a project that requires an out of the box CRM system to be tested and implemented or a project that calls for a slot machine load testing simulator to be built from scratch, heavily tested, and implemented?

• Some Technical Hands-On – Coming from a technical background, I appreciate the chance to get my feet wet sometimes rather than just ‘manage’ resources and project deliverables. Even if it’s just cleansing and manipulating data and loading it into the final solution. Anything technically hands-on that changes the pace for me adds to the fun of managing a successful project.

Summary

There are projects out there that are cool and fun and cutting edge and there are others that are as dull as burnt toast. The best we can hope for is that we get a decent mix of both. We need some easy ones once in awhile – especially if our load is usually heavy. But the really challenging projects involving some and cool technology can help keep us fresh and having fun in our Project Management positions that, let’s face it, can be somewhat dry at times….at least that what my wife always imagines.

Related posts:

1. Project Management: The Art of Keeping it Real
2. When Your Management Lets You Down
3. A Quick Guide Project Management Methodology

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This article is another excerpt from one of my favorite PM books, The Portable MBA in Project Management by Eric Verzuh.  It concerns a best practices study on Project Management and presents some key findings.  Please read on…

The data garnered from the best practices study enables us to develop a profile of a mature project management organization. As we analyze the data, we find that the enablers and practices observed in the best practice companies can be isolated into a few core best practice attributes found in these companies.  These include:

1.  Formal project management structure: Best practices companies have some type of project management structure, whether a program management office, project management office, project support office, or project knowledge center.  Distinctions among these various offices can be found in the pci best practices report available on the pci Web site, www.pcigroup1.com. Of the best practice companies surveyed, four out of eight have a program management office. What differentiates the program management office from other project management office structures is its responsibility for the delivery of programs, as opposed to strictly an administrative support role. In addition, the program management office is generally responsible to a vice president or director level with program managers directly assigned to this office. Data indicated that the program management office has a higher success rate than other project management structures in percentage of projects completed on time and on budget.

2.  Defined repeatable processes: Companies with defined repeatable project management processes had a higher rate of project success. Processes in these companies included the nine Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) areas.

3.  Executive involvement in project management: The best practices study found a high correlation between companies with a high degree of project success and those whose executives were actively involved in project management. The aspects of executive involvement with the greatest influence on project success consisted of:

• Alignment of projects to corporate strategy.
• Visible executive management sponsorship.
• Existence of an organizational structure that promotes and supports project management.
• Executive management that prioritizes projects

The most commonly accepted vehicle that demonstrated executive involvement was alignment of projects to corporate strategy. The companies studied had greater success with the percentage of projects completed on time and lower actual primary hours as a percentage of budgeted hours. It also demonstrates that best practices companies are using strategic planning methods to align projects to their day-to-day corporate functions, ensuring that work is being done on the highest priority initiatives. Visible executive management sponsorship showed a higher success in percentage of projects completed on time and for actual primary project hours as a percentage of budgeted hours. Executive management strongly indicates to personnel the importance of the project and that on-time and at-budget completion is a priority, which, therefore, contributes to a high degree of project success.

4.  Project management information technology: As might be expected, best practice companies all used some form of information technology or project management tools to enable them to support their projects. The tools varied considerably among participant companies, and data indicated that the tools were closely integrated with the project management processes.  The greatest area of consistency of tool use was in scheduling; 88 percent of respondents use some kind of scheduling tool, with more than 65 percent using Microsoft Project. Again, the survey data showed that companies using project management tools had a higher degree of success than those who did not.

5.  Experienced project managers: Finally, hiring qualified people was found to be the single most important success factor in the companies studied.  The skills that were identified for project managers included 

• Experience in project management.
• Ability to see the big picture.
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written).
• Willingness to do what it takes.
• Valuing of team members.
• Positive attitude.
• Ability to work well with the customer.
• Organizational skills.
• Leadership ability.
• Creation of a positive team/project environment.
• Ability to solve problems.
• Ability to collaborate and cooperate.

Some of the best practices companies hired people with these skills, while others provided the mentoring and training necessary to develop the project manager’s skills and expertise. Overall, the ability of the project manager was the attribute among best practice companies that had the greatest impact on project success. 

Related posts:

1. Best Practices for Mature Organizations
2. Key Characteristics of Enterprise Project Management
3. The Successful Project Management Office

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Our client is an international multidisciplinary consultancy with a worldwide reputation for their work.

They are looking for an experienced and talented professional to provide a wide range of project management services to their clients in the region. A large part of your role will involve working with a number of local authorities to manage the delivery of their capital projects, all the way from inception through to completion. However, you will also work with other clients as part of a multidisciplinary team that provides a variety of property services and support.
At all times, you will focus on developing a deep understanding of both client needs and the terms of the company’s contracts. The work focusses particularly in the educational sector and will therefore require an individual with a good appreciation of educational schemes and the ability to manage a combination and range of disciplines, including working closely with contractors.

Apply here..

Project Manager- Water Transmission- Middle East

Location: South Island
Salary: Negotiable
Company: Globester Recruitment
Sector: Building services
Job role: Project manager
Job type: Permanent
Date posted: 25/05/2009 16:28

Project Manager- Water Transmission- Middle East

Our client is a main contracting firm with operations in Europe and throughout the Middle East. They have an immediate requirement for a Project Manager to join them on a Water Transmission Project based in Bahrain.

They require suitably experienced Project Manager will have experience of managing similar large scale infrastructural water associated projects in the Middle East.

Please read on for the requirements for this role. If you meet these requirements, please do not delay in relaying as this client is receiving a number of applications.

THE REQUIREMENTS
o Candidates must have a degree (civil engineering ideally)
o Pipeline experienced candidates should have decent knowledge of the MEP issues involved
o Over 10 years experience with experience of working as a Project Manager on similar projects (from both consultancy and contractor background)
o Previous international experience preferably in the Middle East.
o Strong technical skills
o Have fluent English
o Ability to supervise and manage the construction of all works

The Project Manager will assist in all aspects of the management and development of the project.

Apply here…

Senior Project Manager – Mixed Use Hospitality Project

Location: United Arab Emirates
Salary: £-GB{
Company: Hays Specialist Recruitment (UAE)
Sector: Residential
Job role: Project manager
Job type: Permanent
Date posted: 26/05/2009 07:50

Senior Project Manager – Mixed Use Hospitality Project- Abu Dhabi

Job Description:

Boutique international project management consultancy is recruiting a Project Manager with a minimum 5 years hospitality experience to act as a number 2 on a mixed-use hospitality development in Abu Dhabi.

Requirements:

• Candidates must have as a minimum 8 years project management experience, of which the last 3 have been in the UAE. Due to the nature of the project, you must be able to demonstrate delivery experience of 4*hotel projects as a pre-requisite.
• Client-representative skills are essential and a consultancy background is preferred.
• Degree in either Architecture or Engineering is essential and candidates must be able to start on project by no later than 1st July.
• Due to location of project, candidates already living in Abu Dhabi would certainly have an advantage over Dubai-based candidates.

Apple here…

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