How do you define Project Management?
I’ve had the privilege of working in US Federal Government contracting organizations, global and national software company services organization, and strict consulting organizations. In working with our diverse customer base, I’ve also been educated on industries such as creative and social media, IT service and solution providers, and even marketing and research organizations. Everyone has projects and everyone needs to manage them. What is interesting is how project management is defined regarding roles and responsibilities within each of these types of organizations. The role adapts to the industry.
My early career started in government contracting where I spent time in the project management role. A big focus is managing schedules and milestones, tracking issues and actions, and escalation management. Budget management, regarding effort, isn’t a huge focus and financial management is owned completely by the finance team. Resource management is a small discussion topic since department heads are responsible for identifying resources when headcount is needed. Scheduling tools, issue and action tracking tools, and clear communication plans serve as the key artifacts for Project Managers.
As I moved into the commercial world and started working with national software companies in a services Project Manager role, the responsibilities expanded beyond schedule and issue/action tracking to also include heavy budget management and effort scoping. It’s here I started dipping my toe into resource management as well since I was a matrixed organization that relied on resources from other teams. The department managers were still the headcount management but I had to negotiate customer milestones against resource availability. Then I moved to global software companies and expanded the Project Manager definition even farther to include profitability and pricing management. Definitely another level of information to manage which included being a trusted resource in the organization since I was granted access to loaded cost information. Resource management again was a matrixed activity but I had little control over the cost of that resource – just had to plan impacts on profitability if I needed to. Cross charges were also a hot topic for PM focus.
In working with other commercial industries, I find that project managers are sometimes caught up in both the resource management and project management role. This definitely expands the project manager role to the breaking point unless they have a dedicated team. Resource management requires negotiation of conflicts from multiple demands and that distracts from a project manager handling project level demands of schedule, budget, issues, actions, and perhaps profitability. If the PM has a dedicated team, then they are resolving issues among their own projects. A dedicated team is a luxury unfortunately when reality dictates different.
The common thread I can find among Project management definitions is schedule management, customer satisfaction handling, issue and action tracking. Budget management is fairly typical as well but not guaranteed. Resource management and profitability are the grey areas. As I look at all of these definitions, it’s no wonder there are so many tools on the market that tout themselves as ‘project management tools’. Be sure to clearly define your project manager role if you are considering a tool as it will be a key requirement to leveraging the right technology…I’m just sayin’.
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