Anyone working with or as a Project Manager can feel it: the air is changing. It’s not just the usual change management that managers have to handle, the business landscape itself is shifting. More and more in 2022, we see companies moving their processes from business-as-usual to project-based.
And no wonder! The aftermath of good project management is palpable even when the project is done: better interdepartmental communication and collaboration, improved operations, and better business decisions.
Nobody was born with the needed skills. We all start our journey somewhere, so if you’re planning on getting a career in this field or are already in it and want to get better at it, check the below steps and tips and tricks to be a good project manager in 2022.
What is a Project Manager?
Before you can be a PM, you need to know what it means. In short, as the name implies, it’s someone who manages a project. In business terms, this means it’s different from the normal day-to-day operations of a company: it’s a specific series of goals that a team will work towards, within a specific timeframe and budget.
And the Project Manager is the one coordinating all this effort. The success or failure of the project is reliant on their abilities first and their team’s abilities second, so good communication is a must. Strong organizational skills are needed, as the team they work with is usually made up of a patchwork of key people from different departments, with different professional backgrounds and subject matter.
In 2022 you can easily find a diagram creator or other online tools to simplify the planning, but once in motion, you’ll need to know how to keep the flow going. So, how do you end up getting started in this kind of career?
Surprisingly or not, most PMs learn by doing. While there are many certifications and training available, usually a company finds itself in need of a Project Manager and promotes internally someone with the closest coordinating work experience or skills. So if you’re in this kind of situation, don’t panic! It’s more common than you’d think!
The Process
The main benefit of project-based work is its malleability, as opposed to the rigid business-as-usual structure. You’re trying to make the internal processes work towards the goal, as opposed to making the goal fit the existing processes.
That makes it challenging to have one simple recipe for every project, but the same patterns can be seen in every successful project. They can be found in a variety of names depending on the type of company or field, but we’ve broken them down into the Vision, the Execution, and the Feedback Loop.
The Vision is everything done prior to the moment when the project is a go. This means:
- Planning or making the business case: the problem to solve; how much time, money, and resources would be needed.
- The scope of work: define clearly the goal of the project and how this ties into resolving the problem; settle on project completion goals.
- Forming the team – research the company workflows; manage dependencies between departments/teams; plan regular meetings.
- Making the roadmap – brainstorm with the team how to implement the project; create a prototype; adjust the business case as needed; ask for additional approvals.
The Execution is where we put the theory into practice. This is broken down into:
- Maintaining documentation and milestones: divide the project down into milestones; formalize team workflows into documented methodologies.
- Monitoring progress: compare results to targets; ask “Where are we?” & “Where were we planned to be?”.
- Managing change: direct team efforts to hit the roadmap targets; calibrate the team; ask “How can we get on track again?”.
The Feedback Loop is not to be confused with the team targets that track progress in small time increments for all milestones. This is the review and adjustment done after a big milestone is reached. This usually means:
- Collecting feedback: client input on work done so far & manage client expectations.
- Improving the process: review ease of error correction; troubleshoot discrepancies; ask “How can we improve?”.
- Implementing change: use the feedback to change workflows; adjust the targets; ask for additional approvals.
The People & the Problems
So you’ve gone through the steps, you’ve made the plan, and are about to put it into practice. You have the first meeting with the team and they all seem nice. But then, when you get to make the roadmap, they disagree. Either between themselves or with you directly. Or the target isn’t met and corrections aren’t applied. The client is upset. What to do?
Project management is more than just organizing skills. There are many schools of thought but it’s clear it’s at least equal parts general business knowledge and soft skills. To juggle with everything you’ll need to be a jack of all trades in terms of what everyone on the team does to be able to measure their output.
You’ll need to be in touch with other members of their teams, get feedback and training for you or them where needed. Sometimes, you’ll also need to be able to re-arrange the team, let go of some people and get others.
Regular communication with the client will also be needed to manage their expectations and provide and implement feedback into your roadmap of milestones and targets. Many customer problems come from lack of communication.
Don’t be afraid to go to your client and explain something went wrong. Most times they’ll completely understand the struggle in managing projects, other times they’ll just appreciate the honesty.
Final Thoughts
By the simple nature of project management, things will go wrong. This is normal. If everything goes smoothly then your alarm bells should be ringing: it means you are not receiving the needed feedback. So, it’s normal in the beginning to make even more mistakes. That’s good, it means you’re doing something and learning.
Creating a micro-cosmos within a company to fulfill a specific goal is filled with challenges that not even the best training will prepare you for. But the satisfaction you will feel when the change you suggested and implemented and coordinated will make it all worth it! You will feel the impact you had on the company as a whole. Take baby steps, and accept the chaos.
