1. Roles and Qualifications of the Project Manager
Presented by: Loren Karl Schwappach
Colorado Technical University
PM600-1103A-02-P1-T3 : Leadership and Ethical Decision-Making
For: Professor David Bowers
Hello everyone. If you have not met me yet, my name is Loren Karl Schwappach.
As part of HLR Inc.’s information technology (IT) department, I have been assigned to lead as project
manager for the largest project that has ever been undertaken by HLR, Inc.
This project will impact many aspects of the organization and will have significant cost and time
constraints. The project must be completed within the next 18 months and will involve people at headquarters, as well as
two remote sites, one of which is located in a foreign country.
Since past IT projects have not been completed within budget or time constraints the CIO of HLR Inc. has
provided his full support towards ensuring this project’s success.
Staff resources to complete this project have been authorized by the CIO for the following major business
units: sales, product fulfillment, customer service, billing, and marketing.
A few of the problems that are expected to impact this project that will need addressed are the different
and incompatible information systems and manual processes used throughout the major business units, a lack of
experienced and skilled human resources available for successful project completion, and a general lack and limited
knowledge in regards to the requirements of project management and the role and importance of the project manager.
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2. This briefing has been created to offer a brief insight into the project management process while
demonstrating the importance of assigning a dedicated project manager to ensure project success.
This briefing will cover project management concepts to include what a project is, the parts of a projects
life cycle, the process groups associated with a project, the benefits of using project management, the roles and
responsibilities of the project manager, and the skill requirements necessary for the project manager.
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3. In order to begin explaining the project management process and importance and requirements
necessary for a project manager I first need to explain what a project is.
A large majority of individuals view a project as a large number of selected tasks required to
complete a particular goal. By using this broad, unrestricted criteria, many things you accomplish each and every
day could easily be see as projects. However, this is not often or usually the case. (What is a, 2001, pg. 1, para. 4)
True projects will have common characteristics separating them from the mundane day to day
tasks you might first consider as projects. These projects tend to have unambiguous, well established objectives,
include a lifespan, usually tend to be one-time and/or first-time efforts, consume resources, and consist of explicit
requirements such as performance, cost, and time. (What is a, 2001, pg. 2, para. 3)
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) explains that a project is a non-
permanent venture which is carried out in order to generate a distinctive product, service, or result. (A Guide to,
2001, pg. 5)
The non-permanent nature of a project specifies it has a definite beginning and logical end which
is reached when objectives have been accomplished or once the project is terminated.
“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project
activities to meet project requirements” (A Guide to, 2001, pg. 6) The project manager is responsible for the
project as well as the results. This is why a project manager requires the full support from all project stakeholders
and the project team.
Projects can involve as little as ten thousand dollars and only one member or millions of dollars
and hundreds of members. The latter is why an understanding and methodology to project management is so
incredibly essential.
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4. Projects and as well as project management live in an atmosphere that is more broad than the project on
its own. The project manager, stakeholders, and project team must have a clear picture of the broad factors involved in a
projects lifespan to ensure that the tasks accomplished are in good alignment with the strategic and tactical goals of the
business and managed in relation to established practices. (A Guide to, 2008, pg. 15)
Projects can be expensive in terms of both time and money. (Foote, 1995, para. 1) Careful consideration
and planning in the beginning where cost and resource utilization are minimal can help in avoiding costly and disastrous
mistakes.
The project’s life cycle is an assortment of project phases whose name and number are set based upon the
needs of the organization and resource availability involved for each stage of the project. Although every project must have a
start and end date the activities and deliverables tend to vary within the project phases. The life cycle provides a frame work
for managing the project regardless of the work that is required to be accomplished. (A Guide to, 2008, pg. 15)
All projects can be mapped to the life cycle structure of starting the project, organizing and preparing,
carrying out tasks, and closing the project regardless of size and complexity involved. (A Guide to, 2008, pg. 16)
Other authors have illustrated this basic life cycle to incorporate the phases of conceptual, planning,
testing, implementation, and closure instead of those mentioned in the PMBOK fourth edition guide. (Kerzner, 2009, pg. 68)
The PMBOK structure is more simplistic and works better for service type projects.
Regular project life cycles incorporate the following characteristics. At the start of the project cost and
resource utilization are low, they peak as the work is accomplished and drop rapidly at the projects conclusion. Risks,
uncertainty, and stakeholder influence are the greatest during the projects beginning and decrease during the projects life
span. Finally, the ability to influence the projects direction and final results with minimal cost are greatest during the
beginning of the project and decreases during the projects lifespan.
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5. Managing a project consists of the execution of well defined activities required for the completion of
project objectives. (Babou, 2008, para. 1)
A process is a set of interrelated actions and / or activities performed in order to realize a predefined
service, product, or result. Every process is identified by its inputs, tools and usable techniques, and resulting outputs. (A guide
to, 2008, pg. 37) The project manager must consider and utilize all available process assets and environmental factors for the
creation and management of each process.
There are five project management process groups defined by the PMBOK, they are initiation, planning and
design, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. These five groups have obvious dependencies and are usually
carried out in the same sequence for every project. They processes in the process groups however will have various
interactions within the groups and among other groups and tend to follow varying sets of logical order based on the project.
(A guide to, 2008, pg. 41)
Process groups are not project phases however and are usually repeated for each phase or subproject. (A
guide to, 2008, pg. 41)
As an example imagine a project with several unique levels of execution phases. At the end of each phase
you may end up repeating the five process groups for the next phase or you may end up staying in a phase while lopping
between process groups (in conditions where you need to re-plan/design, re-execute, and re-monitor several times prior to
leaving a phase.
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6. The initiating process group contains processes designed to define a new project, subproject, or phase of
an existing project through obtaining authorization to begin each phase. The main processes of the initiating group as defined
by the PMBOK are to develop the project charter and identify stakeholders. (A Guide to, 2008, pg.43)
The planning process group contains processes needed to establish the projects scope, smooth and refine
objectives and identify courses of action necessary to complete project objectives. This group contains the following
processes: develop project management plan, collect requirements, define scope, create WBS, define activities, sequence
activities, estimate activity resources, estimate activity durations, develop schedule, estimate costs, determine budget, plan
quality, develop human resource plan, plan communications, plan risk management, identify risks, perform quantitative risk
analysis, plan risk responses, and plan procurements. (A Guide to, 2008, pg.43)
The executing process group contains the processes used to perform and complete work as outlined by the
project management plan and to satisfy project specifications. This group contains the following processes: direct and manage
project execution, perform quality assurance, acquire project team, develop project team, manage project team, distribute
information, manage stakeholder expectations, and conduct procurements. (A Guide to, 2008, pg.43)
The monitoring and control process group contains the processes utilized in tracking, reviewing, and
regulating the performance and progress of the project, identifying areas for change, and initiating changes. This group
contains the following processes: monitor and control project work, perform integrated change control, verify scope, control
scope, control schedule, control costs, perform quality control, report performance, monitor and control risks, and administer
procurements. (A Guide to, 2008, pg.43)
Finally, the closing process group contains the processes for finalizing activities across all process groups.
This group contains the following processes: close project or phase, and close procurements. (A Guide to, 2008, pg.43)
As mentioned in the last slide each of these processes is defined by inputs, tools and techniques available,
and outputs. The PMBOK is a very useful tool for breaking out these inputs, outputs, and available tools to assist in using the
process.
With over forty commonly repeated and reused processes available to manage each phase of a large
project the project manager and project management team have an incredibly diverse workload requiring a vast set of tools
and knowledge.
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7. It has been repeatedly proven that there are many clear–cut benefits when applying project management
techniques to a companies overall business strategy.
Strategic project management can create the capability for an organization to supply products and services
with reduced delivery costs through the use of well thought-out project management methodology by preventing excessive
costs without thorough consideration. (Egeland, 2010, para. 4)
Strategic project management typically allows businesses to deliver products or services more efficiently to
the market than competitors due to the continuous process monitoring and resource efficiency it creates. (Egeland, 2010, para.
5)
Strategic project management provides a focus advantage streamlining products or services to the clients
needs provided through the constant information updates. (Egeland, 2010, para. 6)
Strategic project management allows for increased production of quality deliverables by including
structured testing phases and quality control measures. (Egeland, 2010, para. 7)
Strategic project management gains the advantage of incorporating customer participation and
communication and allows for businesses to better accommodate and understand customer requirements. (Egeland, 2010,
para. 8)
Strategic project management allows for improved methodologies and increased capability in predicting
future project needs and concerns. (Kerzner, 2009, pg. 4) It also allows for improved risk management and enables managers
to make more informed decisions and cost predictions. (Mulcahy, 2002, pg. 3, para. 4)
Strategic project management allows for early problem identification (Kerzner, 2009, pg. 4)
Finally, strategic project management is a promoter of teamwork and increased communication across
departments in an organization.
With all of these benefits it is hard to imagine why anyone would ever choose not to practice strategic
project management.
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8. The PMBOK defines a project manager as “The person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objectives” (A
Guide to, 2008, pg. 444)
The project manager is the ultimate person responsible for the successful completion of a project within specified quality performance
requirements, time and schedule constraints, scope and budget constraints, and so that the end customer is satisfied. The project manager is also the leader of
the project management team and is responsible for managing the efforts and performance of the team.
The PMBOK specifies that project managers should be knowledgeable about project management (a wide grasp of the areas involved in
the project is also a useful aid), be consistently high performers, and have the ability to guide the project team while achieving project objectives. (A Guide to,
2008, pg. 13).
As the person responsible for the success of the project, the project manager is given sole responsibility and control of all aspects of the
project including creating the project management plan and related plans, ensuring the project stays on track (within schedule and budget), identifying,
monitoring, and responding to risk, and generating correct and timely reporting of metrics. (A Guide to, 2008, pg. 26)
Successful project managers utilize several useful techniques in order to deal with their often dual responsibilities and ensure project
success. Some of these techniques include, understanding the role of the stakeholders while effectively communicating and influencing the stakeholders in order
to maintain project support, strategic planning followed by efficient and decisive actions, managing the project rather than becoming managed by the project, and
keeping their eyes focused on the finish line.
The project manager has several roles and responsibilities. Some of the project managers roles include the role of a planner,
communicator, implementer, integrator, evaluator, manager, and leader.
The integrator role of a project manager includes the requirement that the project manager can integrate necessary activities needed to
develop, execute, and adapt the project plan. (Kerzner, 2009, pg. 12)
The role of a good communicator is essential for any project manager and demand that the project manager maintains an interpersonal
role, informational role, and decisional role.
The project managers interpersonal means that the project manager must be an honest, capable, dependable, personable and effective
leader. The project manager is responsible for dealing successfully with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, developing an environment of team
unity, resolving team disagreements, focusing team members towards milestones, motivating team members toward reaching goals, and constructing positive
relationships with stakeholders and the project team members.
The project managers informational role requires that the project manager be able to coordinate and lead team meetings, provide
critical feedback on project results, phases, problems encountered, and quality of deliverables.
The project managers informational role requires that the project manager be proficient at using his expertise to make sound judgments
without alienating others through the decisions made.
Finally the white page Competencies for Project Managers (Wourms, 2002) states that project manager should also be motivators, good
communicators, be able to talk the talk, understand and follow standard project management methodology, be able to coach the project team, and have an
active, wide and diverse grasp of technological understanding (essential for IT project managers). (Wourms, 2002)
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9. A project manager should have the following set of skills in order to successfully bring a project
to fruition. The project manager should have a project related technical background and experience in project
management and be capable of successfully utilizing the PMBOK guide for practicing solid project management
methodology. (Kerzner, 2009, pg. 149)
The project manager should have the talent for planning, organizing and delegating project
scheduling, planning, meeting, and teaching sessions.
The project manager should have good interpersonal skills and maintain a healthy relationship
with senior management and leadership.
The project manager should be well diversified and have multiple disciplined experience in areas
such as marketing and engineering.
The project manager must be a leader, team builder, and motivator.
The project manager should be an excellent communicator with good listening skills and be able
to talk the talk.
The project manager will perform hours of analysis and streamlining of project resources so
he/she should have good systems analysis and risk management skills.
The project manager needs to be flexible and yet persistent in order to ensure the projects
success.
According to the article What Makes a Good Project Manager (Bigelow, 2000), successful project
managers display the following skill sets. Successful project managers have “love of their work … and embracing
the challenges, clear vision … and communicating this vision, strong team building skills…and setting positive
tones, structure and alignment…creating the environment and direction, strong interpersonal skills…listening to
and leading their teams, discipline…completing each phase of the project properly, and communication
skills…knowing when and to whom to communicate” (Bigelow, 2000, pg. 1)
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10. Today we covered:
The Meaning of a Project and Project Management
The Parts of the Project Life Cycle
The Processes Associated with Project Management
The Benefits of Project Management
The Roles and Responsibilities of the Project Manager
The Skills Required of the Project Manager
Does anyone have any questions?
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11. Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning,
Scheduling and Controlling. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (4th ed.). (2008). Newtown
Square, PA: Project Management Institute, Inc.
What is a Project and when is a Project Manager needed?.(2001). Comprehensive
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http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/lifecycle/lifecycl_f.html
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12. Babou, S.(2008). “Project Management Processes & Process Groups”. Leadership
Champions, Retrieved July 13, 2011, from
http://leadershipchamps.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/project-management-
process-groups/
Mulcahy, R. (2002). The Organizational Benefits of Project Management. RMC Project
Management, Inc., Retrieved July 13, 2011, from
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Mgt.pdf
Egeland, B. (2010). “Strategic Organizational Benefits of Project Management”.
Project Management Tips, Retrieved July 13, 2011, from
http://pmtips.net/strategic-organizational-benefits-project-management/
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13. Wourms, B. (2002). Competencies of IT Project Managers Art, science, leadership,
and managership combined . PM Solutions, Retrieved July 13, 2011, from
http://www.pmsolutions.com/uploads/file/Expert%20Series%20-
%20Competencies%20of%20IT%20Project%20Managers.pdf
Bigelow, D. (2000). What Makes a Good Project Manager. PM Soulutions, Retrieved
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