Project Manager: Roles and Skills

Generally, the project manager is responsible for the overall accomplishment of the project, and accountable for ensuring objectives of the project's assignment.

One foremost responsibility of the project manager is; the very project itself.

The person who takes this ultimate responsibility and guarantees for the desired result to be achieved on time, and within budget is the Project Manager. And his job is to coordinate a project from initiation to completion; using maximum utilization of project management tools, techniques, experience, creativity, and management skills, to reach the predetermined objectives.

In a project as a Role his "Leadership quality" and as a Skill his "Management excellence" is accredited. The role a project manager performs is in many ways similar to those performed by other operation managers; however there are some important differences; as Project managers have a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels and are often "generalists" differentiating themselves from an operational type role to one whom specialized in the respective areas of management. In addition, project managers play specific roles to facilitate the project team rather than supervising them.

Role of the Project Manager:

As a role, project managers must satisfy these sets of needs:

Task Needs + Team Needs + Individual Needs

The project manager role; he should meet his "Task Needs" as follows;

Attaining team objectives
Planning work
Allocating resources
Defining tasks
Assigning responsibility
Controlling and monitoring quality
Scrutinizing progress
Checking performance

The project manager role; he should meet his "Team Needs" as follows;

Appointing secondary leaders
Building and upholding team sprit
Setting standards and maintaining regulation
Training the team
Setting up systems to facilitate communication with the team
Developing work methods to craft team function cohesiveness

The project manager role; he should meet his "Individual Needs" as follows;

Developing the individual
Balancing team needs and task needs
Balancing team needs and individual needs
Performance appreciation and rewards
Helping with other team members personal problems

Skills for Project Manager:

Furthermore, in order for an effective project manager, he needs the following core skills;

Leadership skill to arouse action, progress, and change.
Contractual skills to organize subcontractors.
Legal knowledge.
Evaluation of alternatives and ability for decision making.
Planning and controlling for necessary counteractive measures.
Financial familiarity for budget risk management.
High communication skills.
Negotiating abilities.
People management to motivate them towards the project goal.
System designing and maintenance.

Overall, a project manager has responsibilities from the beginning of project initiation, planning, controlling, and executing to both management and to the project team. A project manager must steer his project towards the bigger picture and be responsible for the job; a project manager must be experienced, committed, dependable and flexible, as his position remains in the nucleus of the system and success and failure centralizes on the project manager's shoulders.

Resource and Reference:
Surrex Project Management is a premier provider of project management strategies and solutions specializing in IT services for mid-size and Fortune 500 companies, with timely, reliable, high quality Project Management Solutions and Project Management Tools.