Project management as a discipline consists of organizing
and managing resources in a manner that these resources deliver all the
work
required to complete a project within defined scope, time, and cost
constraints. A project is a temporary and one-time endeavor undertaken
to
create a unique product or service. The management of different
projects is
often very different and requires varying technical skills and
philosophy,
hence requiring the development of project management as a subject of
study,
and project management skills as a set of unique characteristics that
can help
the manager hone his abilities and develop and nurture his management
style to
suit the efficient handling of projects. The books in the bibliography
deal
with the acquisition of such skills and cite reference to the ability
to
generate what they list as the constituents of knowledge, achieved
in a
three-step process:
Awareness
(What you need to do)
Training
(How to do it)
Education
(Why you need to do it)
The skills required can
themselves
be classified into two broad categories, and are elaborated on herein –
Preparatory
Skills
These
are of two
kinds again, ‘The Personal Skill Set’ (those skills every project and
program manager
needs in order to lead their tasks and teams effectively) and ‘The
Company/
Customer/ Industry Skill Set’.
The
books define
‘The Personal Skill Set’ as those task skills and team skills which are
classified as problem solving, leadership, ethics, and presentation
skills. In
addition, independent research from multiple sources offers the
following skill
sets as those required by a successful Project Manager, which are
independent
of the Project or Program - Managing
Vision & Purpose, Strategic
Capabilities, Dealing
with Ambiguity, Business Acumen, Functional Excellence, Drive for
Results,
Customer Focus, Timely Decision Making, Innovation Management, Takes
Ownership,
People Development, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Building Effective
Teams, and
Ability to Withstand Pressure. Part of these are naturally ingrained,
but can
be developed concertedly overtime with commensurate education, effort
and
experience.
‘The
Company/
Customer/ Industry Skill Set’ consists of three groups of documentation
- the
first group (used by your company to convey the policies, plans,
processes, and
procedures established by management to control the business of the
company), the
second group (the documentation used by the customers with whom the
company
does business), and the third group (documentation of organizations
created to
establish standards, processes, and procedures for specific equipment
or
industries). These skills can only be acquired through thorough study
of the
necessary documentation, as they are technical in nature and require a
familiarity with the subject material.
Project
and Program skills
As
the types and
characteristics of projects and programs differ, so do the various
skill sets
required for them. The project and program skills can however be
classified
into five broad categories according to the bibliography, as follows –
Basic Skills - The basic-level manager coordinates or
supervises a single-disciplined task of low risk and is responsible for
applying the project management process to ensure that the technical
task is accomplished within the cost and schedule parameters
established. This requires the hard skills.
Advanced Skills - An advanced-level manager leads both
intermediate projects and large projects which differ from the small
project in the numbers of people involved, complexity and potential risk
Expert Skills – An expert level project manager is
involved with customers outside the enterprise under the aegis of a
legal contract that binds the enterprise to the performance of the
program. The expert level manager must have business and contractual
subjects in addition to the previous and may include sales techniques
and proposal preparation.
Specialty Skills – Includes all the above and an added
specialization in a specific area which may include new technology or a
new product is vaster in scope or application.
Principal Skills – Is essentially a strategic manager
role, encompassing all the above and thence the ability to handle any
project or program the enterprise has or may have. The task is
management-oriented and requires technical knowledge.
The
acquisition
of these skills starts off as being acquirable through education and
formal
training, and with time and an increasing skill level demands practical
experience as a prerequisite to the nurturing of basic skills to
advanced
skills.
Improving Project Management Abilities
The
improvement
of project management skills can be clubbed within broad categories
based on
the techniques for improvement and the skills sets one desires to hone.
In all,
this involves the expansion of knowledge in the project management and
later
specialist technical domain, in learning through training and
experience, and
in the improvement of the individual personality to best ingrain the
project
manager skill set described above. The application of these techniques
of
improvement, as mentioned, depends on the type and level of skills the
individual seeks to improve. This can be elaborated on using a
simplified
diagram, exhibiting that in moving from improvements in basic skills to
principal skills, the role of education and practical experience are
traded-off. As the project manager moves from basic to higher levels,
however,
one must keep in mind that the education and experience earned are
cumulative
in nature, and this diagram does not imply therefore that minimal
education is
required at a principal level.
Knowledge
expansion requires an awareness of the current skill set and formal or
informal
learning to broaden it and bridge the gap between current and requires
skills.
Formal education could take the form of certification. This then covers
the
expansion of knowledge and education. Improving abilities involves an
understanding of the personality type of the individual as the
cornerstone to
developing the personality, attitudes and methods critical to success
as a
project manager and training through self-help or workshops to develop
these
abilities (constantly improving, reviewing and enhancing performance).
As
indicated, at the same time, these must be applied for improvement by
gaining
initial experience (possibly through mentoring) and continuing to
acquire
project management experience.
Applying
Skills
and Abilities to Projects and Programs
Based
on the
type of project manager as classified by skill set, and the variety of
projects
and programs offered by the organisation, the project manager, in each
individual project, gets the opportunity to utilise his skill set,
develop his
skills and learn new skills. The complexity of the project with regard
to its
characteristics is based on the manager’s ability to leverage his skill
set and
successfully apply skills he has acquired in the past, or those he is
in the
process of improving or learning at the moment. Thus, it becomes
imperative to
match the project or program requirements with the skill sets of the
respective
project managers. The five broad categories of skills again provide a
framework
in the bibliography (as depicted in a diagram by Ronald Cagle,
re-illustrated
here) to match skill sets with adequate project categories -
Based
on the
skill set level, the project manager is selected or chooses the
program, and
then applies his skills through the various stages of the project. Akin
to
other group formation and task-oriented processes in organisations, the
soft
skills and technical skills are applied through the grouping processes
of
forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. It is mainly in
the
storming to performing stages that the technical skills play a
predominant part
while the softer management and leadership skills cited earlier as
preparatory
skills are applied throughout the project life cycle. A relevant
analogy from
the bibliography charts the application of these skills in the project
life
cycle as well – Initiation (management staff is the customer), Planning
(input
requirements, abbreviated Project Plan, budget and task allocations),
Kick-off
(approval), Execution (entire physical task, ending with the test
period), and
Closure (customer satisfaction). Thus project managers apply their
skills based
on their skill set levels through these stages, and learn and improve
their
skill set in the process of application.
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