Tuesday 14 December 2021

Essential elements for a good project manager

Combined with my years of project management summary and gain or loss, i think that a good project manager should be responsible, to be good at communication, can guide customers, can predict risk, good at summary, on-demand, good at motivating the team, but also to understand technology.

Responsibility


As a project manager, you must first have a sense of responsibility. with a sense of responsibility, you will treat the project as your own child and devote all your efforts. responsibility will drive you to pay attention to the progress of the project, do everything possible to find a variety of resources, push the project forward. even eating, sleeping, walking, taking a bus, thinking about the whole project team, thinking they're still working overtime, you might naturally bring them some late-night snacks, make a cup of coffee, and treat the staff.




With the project manager to lead by example, the whole team will support the work, morale is very high, technical problems are also solved, praised by the leadership and customer affirmation, the project will be in the desired direction.

Many developers complain that project managers don't do much in a day and that wages are high. in fact, the project manager is not idle for a moment, he is always thinking about how to better implement the project plan, adjust the progress of the project, etc. , the brain has been running, so the project manager is tired.

Good at communicating


The points out that project managers spend 75% to 90% of their time communicating. communication is everywhere, and project managers need to have good communication skills. such as: reporting the progress of the work with the leadership, introducing products and explaining the results of the work with the customer, confessing to the project members, seeking support from other personnel in the company, coordinating and coordinating with the co-operatives, etc. for project managers, most of the time each day is spent communicating with people. the project manager has the boss, the customer, the project team member, belongs to the splint layer, communication is not good, easy to accident.


The key to communication is: when, how, what information, to whom? in particular, it is important to make a good communication plan. at the same time, to master the communication needs of project stakeholders, to meet their expectations!

Of course, there are many ways to communicate, formal and informal. formal: a variety of review meetings, weekly meetings, project start-up meetings, project summary meetings, such as informal such as: personal conversation, dinner table chat, msn chat. combine the skills of using a variety of communication techniques. sometimes informal communication can lead to real-world information about the project, especially what developers expect, think, and think about the project.


Guide the customer


"Customers are god", but customers aren't always right, and sometimes they're wrong, especially when projects aren't modeled, and they sometimes don't know what they need. therefore, after the project start meeting, the two sides should "put the ugly words in front" and distinguish responsibility.

The project manager should stand in the customer's position, and strive to meet the customer's business requirements, so that the software really creates value for the customer. however, if the project manager is always led by the customer's nose, it is easy to fall into a passive situation, the result is that the customer's needs have been changing, resulting in the program constantly rework, the project is always in place, it is difficult to advance, over time, we are exhausted, enthusiasm is seriously frustrated. finally, the project was a mess!

Developers and user, to pay attention to the "position is equivalent", to find a voice, can clapboard customers, unified interface personnel, changes to demand, can not be said to change, to do appropriate change control, the author has been suggested to do "fall on paper", sometimes need customer signature confirmation.

For the customer's request, the project manager to rely on excellent technical level, abundant business knowledge to quickly estimate how much development effort is required to change the demand, there is no better solution. ideally, the program is largely unchanged and meets the needs of customers. but the author is often using a workaround, a different way to achieve customer needs. in this case, the project manager needs to have a global understanding of the system structure, the size must be pinched very accurate.

Project managers sometimes act as white-faced, sometimes black-faced, but in any case, must safeguard the interests of the team members, the author often sees a lot of project managers intentionally or unintentionally in front of the customer said that the developer is not, encounter customer dissatisfaction, blame the developer. this method is not appropriate, the author is generally with the customer statement, to the customer to admit the "mistake", and then look back to the developer reason, so that "internal problems internal solution."

However, the author has done a lot of projects over the years, many of which are large-scale projects,


As a project manager, the author and customer relations handled very well, the cooperation between the two sides is very pleasant, and finally the customer became a friend. be honest, polite, and "win-win" is the direction and goal of the project manager's efforts.

Predict risk


Risk runs through the project. as a project manager, you must have the ability to predict risks, such as whether the technical reserve meets the project needs, whether the staff is adequate, the project budget is insufficient, etc.

As the project progresses, the project manager anticipates which areas are at risk and takes early mitigation measures. many of the risks are obtained through private contact with customers and bosses, such as the possibility of a leadership change across years, the use of the current year's budget of state-owned enterprises, and the scrapping of cross-years.

The project managers can be passive or even caught off guard if they are as busy programming as programmers all day long and do not pay attention to changes in project risk. keep in mind that risk is everywhere, and as a project manager, you need to pay enough attention to it, be risk conscious, be able to predict and control risk.

Good at summing up


The author often said, "summary is to improve, thinking is to do better." especially young project managers, less experienced, can only do one side, while summing up, in the summary of progress. experience is not equal to experience, experience summary, precipitation before they become their own experience. Albert said that "my three provinces and my body", mainly more careful, often to experienced predecessors to consult.

Many project managers, especially those who are just beginning to take charge of the project themselves, always blame external factors for some of the project's mistakes, sometimes thinking they are right, but in fact, they often make preconceived mistakes. in fact, to find more reasons from their own, the courage to self-criticism, many links can do better.

On demand


"Everything is pre-determined, not pre-determined", do anything must have clear goals and plans, goal-oriented. with the plan, the project members see the direction of the effort, have "run head" and drive, arouse the enthusiasm of the staff, the morale of the whole team is very high.

Of course, the software industry, especially to do domestic projects, because the market, customers, software improvements and other needs, need to mobilize a variety of resources, so even a large number of specialized software companies, there is no fixed plan. 

 

Although "the plan can't keep up with the changes," the project manager should not use this as an excuse to ignore the consistency of the plan. make a plan to leave a proper buffer space, loose moderate, on demand!

Market-led research and development, research and development to promote the market. project troika: technology, business, management, which can not be less. the three elements of the project: progress, quality, cost, project manager should firmly implement. some project managers do not have the concept of "cost", the pursuit of perfection, obsessed with technology, and forget to deliver on time, which is a common disease of software developers.

Motivate the team


The project team is a team, the project manager as a team leader, first of all, recognize their roles, clear their responsibilities, gradually strengthen relations with team members, good at motivating others, building friendly relations, to deal with different people in different ways, while helping under performing people. therefore, the project manager can not just focus on technical research, more importantly, to drive the whole team, ignite the passion of the team, as the saying goes, "a bear, will bear a nest."

Second, we should define team goals, develop team codes, strengthen trust between team members, give employees challenging work, make the team full of vitality and vitality, give praise, coordinate interpersonal conflict, and deal with crises.

Finally, the project manager should be good at evaluating performance, so that the rewards and punishments are clear, so that bad tendencies and behavior habits are smothered in the initial stage.

Know the technology


The project managers can estimate workload only if they know the technology, and plans can be relatively feasible. secondly, understand the technology, in order to communicate with others, especially with customers, customers can trust you. 

 

It is not realistic to "outsider leadership" in software development. crucially, even if the main technical staff is gone, the project manager can fill the gap at any time, so as not to paralyze the project!


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