Project management is crucial for a successful business. But many have the question of what a manager does and what we must learn to become a successful project manager. Well, the project managers are responsible for planning, organizing, and controlling specific projects for their companies. Project managers have the potential to change the company’s trajectory by overseeing various projects and successfully completing them.
Talking about What does a project manager do, the exact duties of managers depend upon the organization, the flow of the market and industry, and what kind of project the manager is handling. But there are some duties that are common, and every project manager has to fulfill these duties. Their duties are as follows.
• Planning about what needs to do to complete the project successfully and what is the role of everybody
• Calculating the risks involved with the project and finding solutions to lower the risks as much as they can.
• Making sure the quality of the project is up to the standards
• Motivating the team to work hard and efficiently
• Making sure the project is right on the schedule
• Controlling the project and providing help if someone needs it
• Making sure the project is completed with the desired outcome
These are the processes of the project manager that managers must return to various times during the lifecycle of the project. The project manager performs so many duties that instead of asking what the project manager does, the right question will be what the does not project manager does.
Duties and responsibilities of the project manager
The following are some duties that the project manager must perform. It may be an appropriate answer to What does a project manager do question.
Planning the project
A project manager is responsible for planning the whole project according to the outcomes defined by all the stake stakeholders. The project manager makes sure that completing the project is linked with the bigger strategic goal and gets money from all the investors and stakeholders by ensuring the success of the project.
The project manager do the project management in accordance with the given deadlines and instructions. He defines the role of everybody and assigns tasks to his team. They figure out how they are going to achieve various objectives over the course of the whole project. This planning is very crucial as the whole project will be based on this planning.
Gathering the resources
After planning the whole project, you need the means to fulfill the project according to your finalized plan. You need money, time, and manpower to complete the project.
• The project manager has to do resource management and he must be smart about it.
• The whole success of the project is dependent upon good resource management. Gantt chart software helps to do that.
• Resource management is very difficult and tricky because resources are always going to be limited.
You must work on what is given to you and project managers have to figure out ways to utilize the resources in the most efficient ways. If they make any wrong decision about utilizing resources, the whole project can result in failure.
Good management of the project
Many people answer the question of what project managers do is managing the project. Managing the project is one of many duties of the project manager.
• No matter how smartly you planned a project, problems are going to arise as you go along with the project.
• Things are going to deviate from your schedule at one point or other.
But good managers know how to handle these situations because they are already expecting the unexpected. They have done enough research on risk management and they know what kind of complications can arise and they already have the answer for it. They are responsible for keeping the ship sailing in the right direction. So, this is the core of the answer to the question, What does a project manager do.
Motivating the project team
The project manager must also motivate their team to give their best work in addition to just focusing on timelines, budgets, and resources.
The project manager must know his team members well to motivate each member to work efficiently. He must control any conflicts that arise between different team members and make sure everybody is happy at what he or she is doing, and they are feeling valued.
If the team is not properly motivated then there will be various unnecessary problems that will arise, and the pace of the project will be very slow. So, it is very important to motivate your team from time to time.
Delivering the project
The main thing that the project manager is responsible for is delivering the project on time.
• It may sound easy but there are a lot of factors on which the successful delivery of the project depends.
• The manager must make sure that the planning, resourcing, and managing of all results in the project are completed in time.
• He also must count on the unexpected problems that arise and has to solve them very quickly.
After the project is completed, good managers conduct meetings to make sure that everything went as planned and the project was a success. They also go over things that they could have done better and implement them in future projects.
Tasks project managers must handle:
The following are some tasks that the project managers have to handle on a regular basis.
Budgeting
Budgeting is one of the most important tasks of the project manager. He must make sure that the project is completed within a given budget.
• For small scale projects, you have to review the budget weekly or in some cases monthly to make sure that you are not spending above the given limit.
• Small scale projects are easy to handle with any kind of budget.
• But in large projects, the project manager must review their budget daily to make sure that they are not going overboard with the money.
There are many things that you have to keep in mind to make sure the project does not exceed allocations.
Team building
Project managers know the importance of the right team for any specific project and build the team that is most suited for the project.
• Different people have different strengths and weaknesses and choosing the same team for every project is not the ideal solution.
• You must think about each member of the team to do the job best.
After choosing the right team you have to make sure that they are properly motivated and happy. Good managers do different exercises to increase the morale of the team and to make sure they are ready to put their best effort into their work. Providing them with incentives is also a very good option.
Communicate between teams
Project managers also act as liaisons to make sure that everyone is on the same page and the project is moving in a forward direction.
• If there is any conflict between different teams or members, project managers diffuse the situations and make sure that everybody is focused on completing the project successfully in the given time frame.
• If there is bad communication between the team or are issues between team members that it can greatly affect the performance of the teams and the quality of the project will also decrease.
So, it is a very crucial task for the project manager to keep everybody on the project.
What does a project manager do on daily basis?
The job of the project manager is very fast paced, and each day is different. They must deal with new problems each day and make sure that nothing will affect the schedule of the project. Depending upon the different phases of the project the following are the daily responsibilities of the project manager.
• Deciding the scope of the project by meeting with leaders and all the stakeholders
• Deciding the budget of the project and if the project requires more money asking the financial team to provide the team with money
• Plan the entire project beforehand and set milestones and objectives to complete the project in the given time.
• Communicating with team members and monitoring the status of the project and making sure that objectives and milestones are being met in given time periods
• Keep in mind what issues can arise during various stages of the project and have the solutions to these issues
• Conduct meetings daily or as often as possible to check the progress of the project
• Reallocating tasks among your team members and making sure no one is working over and under capacity
• Provide help to team members that are struggling with their work.
So, this is the answer to the question of what managers do on a regular basis. Project managers perform various tasks on a daily process and if you are thinking about becoming a project manager or manager of any kind that you must know it is a very demanding job and you will be responsible for the whole project and your team as well.
Conclusion
What does a project manager do? Well, we saw that in detail above. In the success of every organization, project managers play a vital role. They overlook the whole project and make sure the project is completed successfully on the given deadline. Gantt charts are great tools to manage deadlines. Organizations will not survive if they do not have the right project manager.
