Project Manager: 10 Daily Aspects Worth Following

Daily aspects for a project manager vary from project to project, company to company and most certainly by individuals. Project management requires a certain ability to foresee different aspects of a project in advance. A successful project manager is someone who is proactive and looked upon in a time of crisis.  Managing a project effectively and efficiently calls for day-to-day decisions, resolving conflicts, problem solving and keeping track of the overall progress.

To an extent Project Management certification from PMI helps gain valuable experience. It provides for insights into the granularity of project management practices. Check out this post on how to avoid and audit of a PMP application. You can also read this post to get some tips on how to pass the PMP exam successfully.

Following are some of the 10 important aspects that a Project Manager should aspire to focus on a daily basis –

  • Being proactive
    • Project managers should not be reactive. Acting after-the-fact is not a good practice. Being proactive helps foresee a lot of issues even before they occur.
    • Risks, conflicts and critical tasks should be monitored proactively to ensure a smooth progress.
    • Taking initiative rather than waiting for things to fall apart is a recommended approach to project management.
  • Being realistic
    • Budget planning, scheduling and resource planning should have realistic guidelines and goals.
    • Being over pessimistic or optimistic is a trait which the project manager should be well aware of.
    • Gaining stakeholders buy-in should be achieved on realistic achievable goals.
  • Being focused
    • Setting priorities and focusing on ways to follow them is an important aspect for any project manager.
    • If the project calls for extreme focus on customer needs, a project manager should adapt to this requirement.
    • Focusing on the end result might demand focusing on the interim processes and details of a project along the way.
  • Delegating work
    • As a project manager an important task is to delegate project activities carefully.
    • This calls for apt resource management, building a successful team and being able to leverage the varying experience levels onto a common platform.
    • Most of the project success depends on how effectively each task has been delegated to the appropriate deserving resource.
  • Monitoring and tracking project progress
    • Modern day project management practices demands daily monitoring and tracking of project progress to ensure end success.
    • As a project manager one should make it a habit to spend time and effort on requesting status updates, comparing them to baselines and identifying variances.
    • Any unaccounted risks, changes or deviations should be resolved to bring the project back on track.
  • Maintaining sanity and calmness
    • Project managers are always under pressure. Deadlines, goals and milestones add to the pressure of delivering the final product.
    • A successful project manager should be able to maintain a cool head, direct team under pressure and above all perform to the best of his or her abilities.
    • Succumbing under pressure and clouding the judgment capabilities are not traits of an experienced project manager.
  • Sticking to promises made
    • A project manager is not only responsible for building a product but also building reputation.
    • Promised made should be kept. This is tied to the aspect of being realistic while making promises. Anything which cannot be achieved should not be bragged about.
    • Promises could be external for a customer or could be internal for team members.
  • Risk management
    • Projects are always at risks. Most common constraints include cost, schedule and resource limitations.
    • Proactively identifying risks, creating response strategies and implementing these plans when the actual risks occur is utmost important for any project manager.
    • The approach to handling risks defines the success probability of achieving project goals.
  • Building relationships
    • A reputed project manager not only builds but maintains various relationships with different stakeholders across the organization.
    • Interactions with team members and external customers are an integral part for any project manager.
  • Doing what is right
    • Gold plating should strictly be avoided for a variety of reasons. A project manager should be able to say NO if needed.
    • Doing what is right for the project and for the overall organization is the primary focus of a project manager.
    • Project management ethics are also crucial to follow and implement as a project manager.

The above factors are not necessarily the only best aspects of project management. But these are pointers for any project manager to build a platform on. As the cliché goes, “The buck stops with the Project Managers”! The responsibility of a product or a service entirely lies with the project manager and thus it is imperative to establish clear ground rules and setting expectations early on in the project. What has been your experience to define some project management practices? Feel free to share your insights in the comments section below.

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