A competent project manager should have the following abilities:
1. Be easy to communicate
In 2002, the author personally asked a project management expert in the United States, Dr. William Wells (the former program host of the Apollo moon landing program in the United States), and asked him what a project manager needs to do most. . At that time, his answer was, "There are three things that a project manager needs most, the first is communication, the second is communication, and the third is communication."
Please recall, what part of the project do you spend the most time on? Report the progress of the work to the leader, introduce the product and explain the work results to the customer, explain the work to the project members, seek support from other personnel in the unit, follow up Co-ordinating and cooperating with suppliers... For project managers, most of the time of the day is almost spent communicating with people.
Communication can be simple or complex. For some people, communication is all about expressing my opinion, what's the difficulty? However, there are so many people involved in the project process, so the consideration is not only to express opinions, but also to “at what time, in what way, and what kind of information to convey. to what kind of person".
Many project managers are classified as "passive project managers". That is, "You first say what project information you want, and I will find a way to get this information and give it to you." Therefore, the work of information collation is basically not included in the work control, and can only face the supply of information with a coping mentality.
If you look at it from a more active perspective, the project manager first understands what everyone related to the project wants to know, there must be some repetitions in this information, and then organizes and categorizes the information. Before you ask for it, I will I will provide it to you first, so that you have no doubts about the project, and turn passive into active. The action of sorting and classifying these information is directly included in the work control of the project manager, so that there is no "accident" for the project manager.
It’s easy to say, but it’s actually not difficult to do. You can make a communication plan in two hours. Just master a few steps:
(1) Get to know the project stakeholders
(2) Analyze the information needs of project stakeholders
(3) Find out the type of information according to the information needs
(4) Classification of information types
(5) Determine the period of information transmission
(6) Decide how to transmit information
(7) Collecting information
(8) Transmission of information
(9) Review the effectiveness of information transmission
2. Be thoughtful
Project managers are kind of like magicians. Think beforehand to perform those magic tricks, then prepare the props, cooperate with assistants, lights and the stage, first simulate and rehearse several times, instruct everyone on how to interact, and think in advance how to deal with problems if there are problems; after confirming that there are no problems, Start the performance; control the atmosphere of the venue during the performance, so that the whole venue has a feeling of climax; if there is a problem in the link, you must be able to respond immediately, so that the show can continue, rather than stop there; after the show, thank everyone for their cooperation , and at the same time review the areas that need to be improved in the entire performance process, so that a performance can be regarded as the official end.
The project manager's responsibility is to control the audience and present this performance flawlessly. However, it is too difficult. Anyone who has executed projects knows that first of all, it is not easy to understand the needs of customers, secondly, the planning time is not enough, and then there are many problems during execution.
Performing magic can be rehearsed in advance, find out the problem and solve it first, but there is no way to perform the project first. Therefore, whether the project manager can "play" how to implement and respond in the next six months, one year or two years will have a great impact on the success of the project. And this depends on the project manager's "planning" effort. Planning is actually a very annoying thing, I believe everyone has experience. You must consider how much time you have, how to do it, who can do it, whether it can be technically supported, and whether key technologies can be mastered.
Do a little exercise: Take a piece of white paper, and draw the product to be handed over to the customer in a tree-like manner on the top edge of the paper. Then in the middle of the paper, the main working steps of how to make this product (5-6 can be) are connected by arrows from left to right in the form of a flow chart; suppliers or other units are required to cooperate part, branching to the main steps.
The above steps are the basis of the whole plan. From the above figure, detailed work steps and time, required human resources and budget requirements, purchased items and contractor requirements can be developed. How to develop these details, due to space limitations, will be discussed later.
That's not enough. Take another blank sheet of paper and list the problems that may arise from performing these work steps. This is a very critical step. The more you list, the less you will have to deal with in the future (imagine if 100 problems may occur during project execution, you can consider 99 in advance, and you only need to worry about the sudden 1 ; but if you only think about 1 in advance, the result can be terrible). These problems are what you need to deal with in advance to reduce the time to deal with unexpected situations.
With two pieces of paper, the framework of a plan is formed. This is actually not enough to execute the project, but at least the project manager thinks about the entire project execution process first (just like a magician rehearsing first), and also establishes a basis for detailed planning in the future. Judging from the above exercises, it is not difficult to make a plan. The key is whether to think about it or not to do it.
3. Be able to predict outcomes
A friend of mine went to the United States a few days ago, and the plane was delayed. The airline did not announce how long it would take, so I sat at the airport for three hours. Some of the passengers who took that flight needed to transfer, some were picked up by relatives and friends at the destination airport, and some were visiting the United States for the first time. At this time, everyone at the airport looked anxious. The reason for the anxiety was that they couldn't know how much time they were late, so they had no way to control the future trip. Is it the same for your project?
Planning is "thinking" and execution is "doing". When we really do it, we encounter problems such as demand, ability, technology, management, and manpower, which will affect the execution effect. Although it can be completed in the end, if the time, cost and output of completion cannot be predicted, the project manager is like those travelers - helpless. Therefore, in addition to planning, the project manager must also be able to comprehensively study and judge the situation and predict the project time, cost and output results.
Taking a one-year project as an example, after the start, the project manager is responsible for success or failure, and all the pressure falls on the shoulders of the project manager. What the project manager thinks about every day is not just how to solve the problem of whose problem and how to live today, but whether I can deliver what the customer wants on time, and the company's project profit target can be met a year later. What can be achieved, what cannot be achieved today, what should I do in the rest of the time to achieve it. So in general, the project manager should not only do Micro Management (detail management), but also do Macro Management (overall management). The most basic way to achieve MacroManagement is to predict the project results from a comprehensive perspective, and take various countermeasures.
How to predict the result? If the work is delayed today, it will be delayed tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. How to make up for it in the future? Traditional project managers have no concept at this point in time. I was rushing to work, and then I realized that the money I had to spend had already eaten up the profits.
比较好的作法是今天发生问题了，找出原因，评估这个问题如何解决。如果一定得增加时间及人力，那幺假设今天这个工作得延长二周，照着时程表推下去，所有相关工作，包含对人力资源、合同商、成本的影响为何都要找出来;再往下看，推到项目完成期限，是否会延误(不是所有工作的延误都对项目完成时间有影响的!);如果有影响，就要思考后续的工作要如何先期调整，以适度的调配资源。要做这些评估，较简单的方式，可能仍得借助项目管理软件。目前项目管理软件，不论是国内或国外的，都能做到计划功能，也能够经由计划的调整，去分析对整体的影响。
项目经理的工作其实是很复杂。对于一个不愿意看全局的项目经理，这些步骤全部在不知不觉中被省去。但是对于一个企业来说，由一位没有看家本领的项目经理来执行重要的项目，公司的时间、名誉、获利及质量保证，不仅仅是儿戏。
您的项目经理有没有这些看家本领呢?
本文转自PMP