Project manager

A project manager (hereinafter, the Manager) is literally anyone who manages a project. However, this term often refers to a professional in the field of project management.

Nature of work

Alternatively, the Managers can be defined as those who lead development of one or more products based on the requirements of project financiers, who can be project sponsors, product owners, buyers, or those who provide the development with finances.

Products

Those one or more products which development the Managers lead include:

• Unique deliverable such as an item or items, service or services, result or results, or any combination of those which the buyer pays for;
• Requirements collected from project financiers. These requirements can be related to one of two groups:
  1. Requirements related to the unique deliverable to be developed;
  2. Requirements related to the development itself;
• Plans for how the unique deliverable is going to be developed;
• Acquisitions and separations related to:
  1. Those stakeholders who contribute to the requirements;
  2. Those vendors who contribute to the development; and/or
  3. Those staffers who work on the development;
• If project financiers and/or laws require, any documentation related to the unique deliverable and/or its development. Some documentation can also be a part of the unique deliverable;
• Communications related to the unique deliverable and/or its development. Usually, these communications occur between the Manager and project stakeholders.

Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any domain of engineering. Project managers are first point of contact for any issues or discrepancies arising from within the heads of various departments in an organization before the problem escalates to higher authorities. Project management is the responsibility of a project manager. This individual seldom participates directly in the activities that produce the end result, but rather strives to maintain the progress, mutual interaction and tasks of various parties in such a way that reduces the risk of overall failure, maximizes benefits, and minimizes costs.

Overview

A project manager is the person responsible for accomplishing the project objectives. Key project management responsibilities include

• defining and communicating project objectives that are clear, useful and attainable
• procuring the project requirements like workforce, required information, various agreements and material or technology needed to accomplish project objectives
• managing the constraints of the project management triangle, which are cost, time, scope and quality

Related lectures

• Project Management Quarter.