Project manager: who is he and what does he do?

When they say "doctor", "welder", "teacher" or even "meteorologist", everyone understands more or less who it is and what it does. But the "project manager" sounds somehow more incomprehensible. True, it is not so difficult to understand this, you just need to look at the main responsibilities and functions, study the requirements for the position.

The profession "project manager" (in some sources referred to in English as Project manager) is more formally referred to as "project portfolio manager". Thus, from the name it follows that this specialist does not usually work with any one project: there are several of them at once, and you need to carefully balance your attention. A project manager can work with organizations of a very different profile:

• web studios;
• publishing houses;
• trade structures;
• industrial enterprises;
• musical groups;
• firms for the transport of goods;
• real estate and insurance agencies and so on.

It may seem that there is nothing in common between these areas, and there is no place for one specialist in all of them. However, it is not. In any area, success depends on the selection of the team, its structure and the distribution of responsibilities. These three points are the main focus of project managers. They do not give orders "to send such and such a load there and in such and such a car", "this year we are going on tour there" or "we are starting the production of aluminum tubes with a cross section of 20 mm."

One of the advantages has already been named. This is what a project manager can, in principle, find a place for himself in any field of activity. However, this also gives rise to a serious disadvantage: not everyone clearly understands why such a specialist is needed at all. So it turns out that in different organizations, his responsibilities are not the same. In some cases, project managers are entrusted with the selection of performers, drawing up current and long-term plans, and making operational decisions. In others, they are only entrusted with the functions of a secretary and a simple coordinator, and they are not admitted to any important matters and even significant information. If we talk about real project management, then this is a rather nervous job. You will have to constantly:

• be aware of the state of a certain field of activity, perhaps more than one;
• study, at least in general terms, "who does what and why";
• follow the news in related professions;
• be able to make decisions quickly when there is a lack of information;
• find contact with a wide variety of people and even help them establish working relationships with each other;
• instantly switch between different projects.

But this is an ideal area for applying strength for sociable people who are ready for such risks, for constant emotional and intellectual stress. Working as a project manager teaches responsibility and the ability to quickly adapt to the most difficult situation. Even if at work or in everyday life several problems "fall" on such a person at once, their solution will be found as quickly and efficiently as possible. In many areas, project managers often travel, sometimes even abroad - this can be considered both a plus and a minus.

These professionals have to put up with information overload. And not only with information: for the direct executors and their leaders, any business, any complication in this business is emotionally colored. No matter how abstracted the manager from these emotions, they will still overtake him. And if some plan fails, even if for objective reasons that could not have been predicted, the person responsible for the project is often the one to blame.

The job tasks of a project manager can be highly dependent on the area in which he works. This person interacts with the customer (with the management of the organization or with other people who set the main goals). He is in charge of identifying key requirements, prioritizing those requirements. It is assumed that such a specialist is at any time ready to demonstrate what has already been done and achieved for each task, what still needs to be done in the near future... Demonstrate not only “in fact that something is working and is already ready”, but also in the format of a full-fledged report.

The position of a project manager implies regular and even continuous monitoring of compliance with deadlines. This specialist is the first assistant to the general management. It is he who must quickly inform him if something goes wrong, new resources are needed, new cardinal solutions, additional employees on the project. At the same time, he is also obliged to build the most trusting relationship with employees of all levels. One person's miss or his lack of involvement in the case is enough to make a terrible failure.

But the PM needs to interact even more deeply with the team that he gets. He must participate in the recruitment and formation of the group, in the distribution of responsibilities between the participants. In redistribution, if necessary, in training and implementation of the necessary skills.

The project support manager also does a lot on the following points:

• organization of the work process;
• adjustment of interaction in real time;
• conflict resolution;
• quality control of the work performed;
• identifying the most and least effective performers;
• comparison of different versions of the product, independently developed by individual performers;
• tracking the profitability and practicality of the project.

But these are all characteristics in the general case. And project managers are also divided into more specific specializations. Let's take a specialist in salary programs. Such employees function in almost any commercial bank. To put it succinctly, they are working on an original banking product - charging money to employees' salary cards.

The number of salary projects in any enterprise can be anything - this is dictated by the convenience of bookkeeping and financial accounting. Therefore, the manager must be ready to work with projects of all sizes. However, this scale does not affect the level of responsibility. Anyway a specialist should try to do everything to make it more profitable for the company to cooperate with him, and not to look for some other bank... Therefore, he will have to delve into the nuances of document flow, financial and accounting documentation, taxation, movement of financial flows.

The situation is different for a construction project manager. He will have to keep track of how the latest technologies are being used at the construction site. In the conditions of the rapid development of the construction industry, typical for our country, this specialist will undoubtedly find a use for himself. Any construction requires:

• many approvals;
• clear plans and schedules;
• substantiation of economic and technological indicators;
• conducting tenders and purchases;
• selection of equipment and materials;
• selection of employees for direct work;
• tracking the safety of property at a construction site or at a used warehouse facility;
• full interaction with organizations responsible for housing and communal infrastructure.

In each of these processes, at any moment something can go wrong. And the project manager is obliged to anticipate such complications. And if a problem does arise, his legitimate duty is to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

The manager of educational projects is somewhat different in this regard.... He is looking for, for example, lecturers for new educational programs. It monitors the impact of existing programs to attract people and to fully educate them. In such activities, it is impossible to do without very close contact with marketers and sales managers, on the one hand, teachers (lecturers) and students, on the other.

A seemingly mysterious status such as digital project manager. It is not difficult to understand, upon careful reading of the term itself, that this specialist concentrates on all the works that are taken out into the digital space. And there are more and more of them every year. But corporate activities on remote servers and in cloud applications must be coordinated very carefully. Although it may seem virtual, in fact, losses from an incorrectly made decision, from inconsistency in work or information leakage are measured in completely real money.

Digital Project Manager is obliged to seek to increase the transparency of all information exchange and management in the organization. It sounds not entirely clear, but it is easier to say this: so that it is clear where this or that decision or action came from, who initiated it.Accordingly, the management will clearly understand who to reward and encourage, and who to punish for an inappropriate initiative or even kick out for inactivity.

You will also need:

• provide the simplest possible access to the necessary information;
• to delimit this access, allocating to each a certain circle of data necessary for work (but no more);
• change graphics as needed;
• redistribute responsibilities.

BIM manager-designer is a unique profession in many ways. It will appear officially in our country only in 2020. But in fact, there is already an urgent need for BIM class technologies. The bottom line is that such a manager accompanies the project throughout its implementation. He will have to collect all the practical and economic parameters of the program together in order to operate them in conjunction.

The project created and supervised by the BIM manager is built in such a way that even if the indicators are partially changed, all dependent parameters will automatically be changed appropriately. Most often, the term BIM refers to the construction industry. It involves the compilation of special three-dimensional models of the objects under study.

Already a brief overview of the main activities of a project manager and the specifics of his activities shows: this person must be resistant to severe stress. And even to several stresses at the same time, because sometimes you have to carry out several works at once. At the same time, the project manager must be "multitasking", that is, instantly switching between individual tasks. He must have leadership qualities in order to lead people at the right time. Or simply so that his instructions are taken seriously. Also, an important role will be played by:

• general intellectual level;
• knowledge of professional terminology in specific areas where the project is being implemented;
• sociability;
• flexibility;
• the ability to analyze a significant amount of information;
• result orientation;
• persistence and dedication;
• self-discipline;
• the ability to strictly manage your time and not succumb to the temptation to adjust the schedule.

Basic professional skills are:

• work experience in a grassroots position in any area;
• practical leadership experience (at least 1 year);
• scrupulous knowledge of a certain field of activity;
• proficiency in English at the spoken and written levels;
• the ability to “say no” in time to both the team and its individual representatives, and even the customer (so as not to get involved with what is obviously unattainable);
• willingness and ability to integrate into current business processes;
• strategic thinking and attention to detail;
• the ability to negotiate;
• knowledge of the market and consumer characteristics.

The basic points for mastering this profession are given by any other experience in any other profession. But it is impossible to limit ourselves to this and watching thematic videos on the Internet. You should definitely try to get a thematic internship in a studio or an agency with the appropriate specialization. You can also try enrolling in face-to-face preparatory courses. Finding a job is best done in a familiar field. Those who came to project managers from medicine - in commercial clinics, sales managers - in the trade sphere, and so on. You should also consider:

• the need to carefully study the list of job responsibilities before applying for a vacancy;
• confusion in job descriptions for project managers with sales managers, marketers, and so on;
• the need to pass tests;
• the optimal parameters of these tests (good HR specialists in a good company will evaluate the project manager in a couple of hours, and will not conduct many hours of testing);
• the opportunity to apply for almost any vacancy with no experience or with minimal experience.