What exactly a project manager does? We know what the development manager does, what the engineers or worker bees do, what functional manager do and so on. What is a good definition of project manager? This is an easy question, but hard to come by with a unified answer. The problems is that there are multiple expectation or job description for the PM rule. As the technology gets more complicated, no PM can have a good handle on all the technical disciplines deployed in a project. So he needs special skills. I have my list and based on my experience feel is as close as it gets to what a real PM does or should do.
- Communiator; a PM has to be able to communicate
- Planner; a PM should be able to take an idea and put a plan in place
- Decision maker, a PM needs to decide on limited information and time constraint
- Listener; A PM should be patient and a good listener
- Coach, a PM should be viewed as a coach by the team, somebody they can trust and share issues as soon as they arise.
- Leader, a PM should be a leader, say it as it is and don't play games. Give both good news and bad to both the team and upper management
- Fair; to be able to judge and reward the truth
As you see this is a tall order and that is why so many project end up with huge time and cost overruns.
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