The Role “Project Manager”: The WHAT and WHY of a Project Manager
A Project Manager is the coolest combination of an Emergency Technician/Cybersecurity expert, a Battle Leader/Commander, and a Choir Master.
An Emergency Technician/Cyber expert who shows up when there is crisis or chaos, They work to prevent or handle crises such as cyber-attacks, detect security breaches, and respond to such incidents by developing a plan of action.
A Battle Leader who knows how to influence his soldiers and provide courage without force, and help them carry out their tasks diligently. These soldiers can be ready to give their lives for the cause.
A Choir Master/Organist who keeps steadiness in the choir as a lot of things are happening around him. In a choir, you’re going to be surrounded by a bunch of talented people. A Singer, Pianist, Guitarist, Keyboardist, Drummer, Trombone player, Bass player, trumpet player, and you, keeping the tempo of the team, the songs and making sure that everybody is working and syncing in time.
In a Tech company as a project manager, you might potentially spend a lot of your activities with your product and engineering counterparts talking a lot about strategy, updating the status to key stakeholders, and trying to figure out what comes next for the product.
Project managers are people who are organized, action-oriented, diligent, and strategic.
A project manager is expected to have a Project management skillset, which is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet the project requirements and achieve the desired outcome.
A project manager is rooted in a belief that a strong foundation in project management can be from every day of your life and can help anyone start a great career as a project manager. You might as well practice a lot of these skills in your life or some of the activities you engaged yourself in either a group, school, church, events or any other activities.
As a Project manager in a professional setting, you are expected to have project management fundamentals(goals, objectives, and deliverables), risk management, team dynamics; project management methodologies, data-driven decision-making, and more.
You’ll also need to gain a deeper understanding of different project management methodologies like Agile(Scrum) and Waterfall. You’ll use tools like Kanban, Scrum and learn about project management software like Jira, Asana et al.
A project manager must learn about the importance of thorough project planning, identifying key milestones and dependencies, documenting project plans, scheduling, budgeting, and risk management. Communicating effectively, managing risks, understanding team dynamics, using data to inform decision-making and tracking progress.
This new set of skills and knowledge is very vital in every part of a role in every organisation. The great thing about project management is that it’s a life skill that’s useful in almost any organization. Wherever your interests lie, whether it’s IT, Construction, Real Estate or something different. Deciding what you’d like to do with all that new knowledge is an exciting prospect, there’s a good chance that your desired industry needs project managers.
Project Managers are highly paid and can earn as much as 950 pounds per day(or more) for a 3/6 months contract role or fulltime role.
Conclusively, The most important thing for you to keep in mind as a project manager is staying organized. The more organized you are in your actions, the more organized your team is in their thinking and their actions.
Here are some helpful project management resources available online:
- Atlassian Agile: A comprehensive and in-depth guide to learning Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Agile Project Management, Product Management, Agile Software Development and a lot more.
- The Project Management Institute is the leading association for those in project, program, or portfolio management professions. Their website provides guides, industry standards, articles, templates, job boards, certifications, and more to help support professionals in these careers.
- Jira | Confluence
- The Scrum Guide defines Scrum, as a technique used in Agile project management. This guide describes Scrum’s roles, events, artefacts, and the rules that bind them together. You can also find hundreds of free resources to learn more about Scrum at Scrum.org Resources.
