The role of the Project Manager (PM) is a function of the size of the project. If you are a beginning or novice project manager you might be at the top—it’s your project and you’re in charge. If you are an employee or a professional Project Manager you are empowered to act, but you take direction from others and you could potentially be replaced and the project would continue. However, a PM almost always has interactions with others in the process of running the project, no matter what the size. Let’s look at some of those relationships. Project Managers Can Have Employees The relationship between employees and the employer is well-described in both common practice and legal terms. A straightforward example would be a General Contractor who hires people to do the work of building a house. The employer is responsible for everything the employees do on the job, including the quality of the work and how they behave toward others (including co-workers and customers). A successful Project Manager, like any boss, will usually achieve the best results if they train, guide, and support their employees to ensure a good outcome. An employee who is damaging the project may need to be fired if remediation doesn’t improve their behavior. An employer typically can’t sue an employee if the employee causes a problem for a project. Project Managers May Hire Subcontractors Subcontractors are different from employees in that the Project Manager can hold them responsible for their work. If a subcontractor hires employees for a job it is the subcontractor who trains them, guides them, and pays them. If the subcontractor doesn’t perform the work appropriately they can be dismissed from the job by terminating the contract, and can be sued if they cause a problem that results in a loss to the project. Project Managers May Have Multiple Stakeholders Within Their Own Company A Project Manager within a corporation may handle multiple projects at the same time, or may have separate divisions that either contribute to or rely on the success of the project in question. The PM may have to manage competing priorities if the team is overextended. Project Managers Rely on Suppliers Some projects are largely intellectual or creative, such as an architect who prepares plans, but many projects require materials as part of the process. For a construction project the materials and supplies will often be the largest cost category and the Project Manager is more effective if the relationship with the suppliers is solid. Selecting the best suppliers and maintaining a good working relationship with them can help ensure that materials are available when needed and problems are corrected quickly. An entire project can grind to a halt if the materials are not available at the right time, even if the labor force is ready to go to work. Project Managers Have to Interact with People Who Have No Personal or Financial Interest in the Project Construction projects require permits and inspections from the City or County where they are located. Neighbors may voice complaints about noise, traffic, or dust. A software development project relies on coding standards that are set by agreements that the Project Manager has no control over. These third-party interests can affect tiny projects or large ones, and sometimes the small projects are more vulnerable because there are few resources available to resolve petty disputes. Large projects are absolutely dependent on following the correct protocols. Permits, inspections, and approvals are essential. Many of these “milestones” must be set up far in advance of the date they are needed. Who approves the project—the Lender? The Owner? The City? The Health Department? The Board of Directors? A citizen review committee? All of the above? What is the lead time for ordering materials? What happens to the project if there is a power outage? Who pays for the cost of delays due to bad weather? These are all questions that may be resolved in unexpected ways, including the courts if disputes are not resolved any other way. The PM should have an appreciation of the downstream consequences of today’s decisions and behaviors. Applying for approvals may be the first step, but until approval is granted the project can’t proceed. Many of these groups need special handling—the Project Manager does not want to jeopardize the good will of the people who hold the power to deny the project. A good Project Manager will have excellent “people skills” as well as technical knowledge. How Can the Project Manager Get Help? If your project is small you may be able to do the management yourself, without administrative help. You might need to hire employees or subcontractors but you can keep the details sorted and maintain the paperwork. Medium to large projects need support staff. One type of support is to have an Administrative Assistant. This person should be great at handling the details, such as verifying that paperwork and documents have been received, creating documents such as contracts (usually using pre-approved forms), coordinating meetings and schedules, communicating with the appropriate groups, etc. This person is knowledgeable if they have experience, but their role is generic. They could change jobs and do much the same tasks for a completely different company—possibly in a different industry. An Assistant Project Manager can act in a project-management capacity. They are knowledgeable about the specific work involved. They will often be in charge of a portion of the project and make reports to the Project Manager. There can be multiple Assistant PMs, each one handling a different aspect of the project. This is a “career-track” position for people who want to become a Project Manager when they gain more skill and experience. An On-Site Superintendent manages the day-to-day things that happen at the jobsite. This is typical for construction projects, but it can also be true for other kinds of projects that have teams working in multiple locations. Whether you are building a house or filming a movie, you may have people who are working in a location that is not the main office. One thing that affects on-site superintendents for projects is that they plan to move from place to place. When the project is over they will go somewhere else for the next one. For local projects this could mean a new commute route, but for big projects it might require moving to a different city or state. What Else Does the Project Manager Do? The PM has to track the people, scope, schedule, and budget. The people involved in a project can change for many reasons—illness, death, resignation, being fired, being transferred to a different role, adding new people to the team, etc. The scope can change for many reasons—the Owner requests additional features, something happens on the job that requires remediation, cost-overruns require a reduction in scope, the City requires additional safeguards, etc. The schedule can change because of extended bad weather, accidents or illness, change in the scope, incompetence of one or more of the team members, materials shortages, unrealistic estimates in the original schedule, failure of the Owner to make timely progress payments, failure of a participating entity (e.g. a subcontractor declares bankruptcy), or any number of possible delays. Occasionally a project will finish early, but delays are more common. Even if a project is ahead of schedule the PM will need to coordinate all the later tasks if an accelerated schedule is desired. The budget will change because of any of the things noted above. It can also change because of a failure of the funding source to meet their obligations. For a small project this could mean that the Owner wasn’t able to manage their finances well enough to have cash on hand when a payment is due. For a large project it could mean that the economy entered a downturn or a financial portfolio didn’t perform as expected. How to Become a Project Manager The best advice for improving a skill is to practice, and fortunately projects come in all sizes. Even children can be taught to manage projects in ways that will form a foundation for future excellence. Finding an instructor or mentor will facilitate the learning process. Pick a project and get started!
Starting from Scratch Planning a project—large or small—begins with three fundamental steps. Even if you have never done a significant project in the past, you can learn by following some simple guidelines. It helps if you have a mentor who can give you some advice, and that’s what iClarity Insights can provide. First, describe the project. This can be a single phrase, such as “build a house,” or “plan a wedding.” The next step is to define a budget. At first you may not have any realistic idea what the budget will be, but you can still identify what your budget is—based on how much you have to spend—and work from there. The third step is to determine how long the project will take to complete. This can also be a guess, based on some simple research. What you need is a starting place. If you want to accomplish something that seems too big, complicated, expensive, or time-consuming you may be tempted to give up or hire someone else to do it. That might be your best strategy! But all good project managers started off as a kid with no experience. How did they become experts? It’s usually a combination of desire, guidance, opportunity, and luck. The way many of us became project managers is because we wanted to save money and we wanted to retain control. The way we actually learned was through practice. So let’s get started! Step One: Describe the Project You can think of this step as preparing your “elevator speech” where you answer a question with a short, succinct response. A professional architect might say “our next project is the expansion of a commercial building by twenty thousand square feet.” A wedding planner might say “my next project is a fully-catered wedding and reception for 300 people on the island of Maui in August.” You might say “I want to build a storage building in my backyard because I’ve run out of space in my garage.” The answer to the next two steps might be “it depends,” so we’ll come back to Step One later, but for now we have identified the project concept. Step Two: Define a Budget If you are the architect in the above example you will probably have some idea about what 20,000 square feet might cost, but the specific project could be much higher or possibly lower depending on the details. You take your best guess (and do a little internet research if you are starting from scratch) to get a starting point. This is where you can do a reality check. For example, if your budget for the storage building is $250 you will not be able to accomplish your goal; the budget is inadequate. You need to give up or find additional funds. If your budget is $2,500 you might be able to pull it off as long as you are diligent in limiting your scope and material costs. If you have $25,000 to spend you will be able to build a larger structure with more features, such as lights, heat, windows, shelving, and a clean-up sink. Start with your best guess and refine your budget as you collect further information. This process determines the order of magnitude—the difference between hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars. If you are in the “billions” category you are probably already an expert, or at least have experts who are giving you advice. Step Three: Determine Your Schedule Schedules are made up of tasks. You can identify a major task like “create the foundation” but it will be made up of smaller tasks, such as digging the trenches, building the forms, pouring concrete, and waiting for the concrete to cure. Some tasks can be done simultaneously; others must be done consecutively. You normally can’t build the walls until the foundation is completed, but if you are building a house in a factory you can frame the walls before the foundation is done. The amount of time it takes to complete your project is limited to the “critical path” of your tasks. You need to allow for enough time to complete each step that must come before the following step. Understanding the sequence of your project helps define your schedule. It’s always helpful to allow time for things you can’t control, such as weather, inspections by others, illness, etc. Few projects fail because they were completed early; many projects fail because a deadline is not met. A Word About Spreadsheets Before we continue our discussion of project planning it’s worth considering the use of a spreadsheet. We take these tools for granted today, but not everyone is familiar with them and how powerful they can be if you know the tips for using them effectively. iClarity Insights has additional posts on how to use spreadsheets for project planning. A Closer Look at a Project Plan The three steps above provide a simple framework for planning the project, and now it’s time to figure out additional details. The three steps are entertwined—each one affects the other—so where do you start? You can use a paper and pencil to capture and refine your plan, but we will proceed using a spreadsheet as the planning tool. Many projects include two specific cost centers—labor and materials. For a construction project this would include items like “roofers” and “shingles.” For an event this might include things like “waiters” and “beverages.” There are techniques to estimate larger projects that are based on a per-unit cost. For construction there is information available online regarding “price per square foot.” If you want to build a 1,200 sq. ft. house and you have no other information to establish a budget you can look up an approximate price per square foot and multiply it by 1,200 to get a starting budget. If you are planning a wedding you can use the same technique. You might use a factor of “price per person” for catering estimates. If the first estimate is more than you can afford you can either reduce the scope of the food provided (sometimes called “value engineering” an estimate) or the number of people attending. You are using someone else’s prior experience to give you an idea of a realistic cost, without any details being supplied. Your project will come in higher or lower as you refine the details, but at least you have an idea about whether you should keep going. Unit pricing is the first approach to get a realistic assessment of the cost of a larger project. If you know that you can’t afford the amount in the first try you can decide to postpone or abandon the project. If the budget guesstimate is within your capacity it’s time to delve deeper. The Role of Teamwork—Do You Have a Team? Most projects involve teamwork of some kind, so let’s review roles and responsibilities. You are the Project Manager. Is there anyone else who has more authority for the project than you do? Someone owns the project. This is the person or organization that has the money, desire, and capacity to make a project happen. For small projects this might be you, the Project Manager. For larger projects you may have been granted the authority to manage, but you can be overruled or replaced. Are you a business owner or contractor working for an owner? An employee working for a boss? A husband who wants to please a family? A member of a Homeowners’ Association charged with getting maintenance work done? These are roles that have a reporting structure, and you need to be sure that you are authorized to make and implement the decisions that are made. You will almost certainly have people and organizations that answer to you. These roles include employees, consultants, suppliers, sub-contractors, and anyone else that you have the authority to select or remove from the project. As Project Manager you are responsible for the entire project, even if one of your employees makes a mistake. Sometimes there are people or organizations that are not in the reporting structure but they still have an effect on the project. This includes government agencies such as the building department, health department, lender, local regulations regarding noise or design, and industry-standards. We have set the stage—let’s move on to the next phase!
