The first time I had to jump into a gigantic project all by myself I had no real idea where to start. I hadn’t taken any type of formal training, any college courses, or even read any books about the subject. Sure I had some experts around me to help out with the general process.
And then the little box goes over here and we’re done!
However, I did not know at any given time where I should go next, unless I did a ton of work to figure out that next step. That’s because I didn’t realize the required skills of a project manager. With the awareness and focus of learning these required skills, I began to be more effective. Let me help you in that regard, too.
Understanding Budget Control
Being able to properly estimate, appropriate, and then implement the right amount of budget at the start, during, and towards the end of a project, is an absolutely critical skill. And you might think going and saving, quote unquote saving a ton of money, is good for your project, but it’s not.
There’s a special term for it, and it’s called under-running the budget. It’s not a great thing, and it is frowned upon, especially if you have any type of future work coming. This is so because the stakeholder that sees this under-run is going to say, “hey, you overestimated, and now we’re going to take some off the top the next time you try to do that.” That’s not a good thing.
Understanding Schedule Control
This isn’t just the ability to use Microsoft Project. This isn’t just the ability to put a whole bunch of numbers into a Gantt chart. This is the ability to work with everyone in the organization from top to bottom, and to see how every single piece of the puzzle fits into the overall idea of getting things done from start to finish
All of this needs to be done without hurting anything along the way, too. This is also putting in enough margin to cover for the unknowns and for the mishaps that are inevitably going to happen along the way. Basically, this is the art of planning for the unplannable. Fun times! But don’t worry, there are techniques for dealing with this.
Understanding Influence Without Authority
As a project manager, you have to work with technicians in the field, you have to work with people that deal with paperwork all day long, you have to deal with managers, you have to deal with customers, and you have to deal with other engineers.
This is a monumental task because you have absolutely zero managerial authority over any of those people, but you still need to get stuff done. You need to have a greater grasp of influence over all of the people in a positive and effective manner in order to reach your project’s goals. This is not an easy task, but a skill that must be mastered.
Project Management Made Useful
The really successful companies out there know that project managers have required skills in the area of budget control, schedule mastery, and influencing without authority. These people are best able to get the greatest return on investment for their company, and it shows. Here are some tools that will help you get a greater understanding of where you stand in this overall thinking process. See what you have, what’s missing, and how you can leverage resources to grow.