What do project managers really want?

In a two-day informal survey of project managers at one of the world's biggest trade shows for industry, commerce and major projects[3], one of the authors asked experienced project managers what problems they faced in carrying out their project management responsibilities. The top five problems were as follows.

  • The people side of project management: understanding people, getting others in the project to understand people, getting people to rub along with each other, and adapting one's approach to project management to allow for every person being slightly different.

  • Lack of a common approach across their organization, causing inefficiency and risk, as the same fundamental administrative problems are solved anew in each project.

  • Having to deal with unexpected crises that could reasonably have been foreseen and, if not avoided, seen longer in advance, so giving the project manager more time to deal with them.

  • Getting highly skilled technical people and other highly intelligent employees to think outside their disciplines when necessary for the project especially (but not only) on the people side, as listed above.

  • Selling the benefits of project management to customers, so that they are prepared to pay for project management, either in terms of up-front cost, which saves money in the long term, or in terms of front-loading[4] design and planning of projects, which also saves customers time, money and risk in the longer term.

There was also a strong interest in providing training for project managers and others involved in projects, both the less experienced and the more experienced.

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Definitive Guide to Project Management. The Fast Track to Getting the Job Done on Time and on Budget
The Definitive Guide to Project Management: The fast track to getting the job done on time and on budget (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0273710974
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 217
Authors: Sebastian Nokes
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