project management professional

project management professional

The Essential Guide to Becoming a Project Management Professional

1. Introduction to Project Management

Projects are specific kinds of assignments that don’t happen in the normal course of business. They have to be managed separately, carefully orchestrated for the specific purpose of producing a single product or service. Successful project managers are the ones who know how to bring all the members of their project team together. They’ve learned to motivate people, foster and encourage teamwork, and create an environment in which people can function at their peak level. And most importantly, they have something to show for their labor when it’s all done. How much can they expect for their efforts? With the added responsibility of overseeing a project, in most cases a project manager’s salary can be significantly more than that of the staff people for other job functions on the project are responsible.

If you work in the manufacturing, construction, software, IT, or retail industries, the title of project manager is a common one. Project managers are responsible for the success or failure of their projects. They’re the people who oversee every aspect of project development, from conception to implementation. And they also have the challenge of maintaining an acute awareness of each project’s overall requirements and limitations. Clearly, managing a project isn’t an event, but a carefully planned process, which involves a great deal of interaction and communication with the people on your team.

2. Key Skills and Competencies for Project Managers

The interdisciplinary skills approach embodies three types of skills: technical and professional skills, personal skills, and systemic and management skills. Technical skills are defined as “the professional knowledge, scope of attention, problem-solving, and project management competences – related to the achievement of objectives – that the organization possesses.” Professional skills for project management are defined as “the professional, personal, and team-related abilities necessary to perform the specialized activities required to achieve project objectives.” A composite entity of personal skills and systemic and management skills represents the behavioral skills. The development of these skills occurs through formal education, informal education, projects overseen and facilitated by a mentor. The study concluded that project personnel must achieve several technical skills, an interdisciplinary skills range, and professional skills for project management. The ten identified project leadership attributes include analytical thinking, business insight, command skills, and skills in the art of negotiation. These leadership attributes guide the application of interdisciplinary skills and extend the project manager’s talent focus into the strategic realms of organizational business methodology and executive behavior. The stipulated project manager skills and knowledge are subject matters to be managed throughout the project lifecycle. Lengthy project execution means acquiring these skills cannot take too long. Such a program aligns with recommended improvements in the on-the-job training of prospective project managers. Employers that equip high-potential talent with powerful capabilities tap into the potential for success. Promoting and developing internally develops familiar individuals with situational insight and builds motivation and confidence.

Project managers require a unique mix of skills and competencies to meet the demands of diverse projects and organizations. The common professional skills combine with technical knowledge to deliver project execution, meet customer satisfaction expectations, and produce positive outcomes. Leading professional and academic organizations, including the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the International Project Management Association (IPMA), offer certification for project practitioners that identify and assess the skills and competencies to meet increasingly demanding project delivery needs. The interdisciplinary skills approach for project management developed by Cristian Casanovas of the Open University of Catalonia is a useful framework upon which to elaborate these complex needs.

3. Certifications and Qualifications in Project Management

For maintaining the PMP certification, professionals must complete at least 60 professional development units (PDUs) every three years. The Project Management Institute also offers a “Certified Associate in Project Management” designation. The CAPM is designed for those with less project management work experience and education than PMP candidates, and it identifies the holder as a capable project team member or project manager who may be working under the supervision of a PMP. The requirements for certification still include at least 23 hours of project management training as well as passing an exam. Those individuals who are seeking career development or educational advancement in the field of project management are well catered for through a whole range of colleges, universities, and training institutions that offer specialized programs or full degrees in project management.

In order to apply for certification as a Project Management Professional through the Project Management Institute, an applicant must document at least 4,500 hours of work on projects (if the applicant has a secondary degree) or 7,500 hours of work on projects (if the applicant has a 4-year degree). Alongside the documented work experience, PMP applicants must also provide verification of their experience and proof of 35 hours of formal project management education. It is also essential for applicants to have their application approved by the Institute before taking the certification examination.

4. Advanced Project Management Techniques and Strategies

Waterfall project management is so-called with a top-down approach to defining a project management plan. It is a useful characteristic of this project management process. This means the first step is the project definition and last steps are to collect product requirements and acceptance. This water-theme does not suggest a natural progression of tasks, but many people think of a waterfall and it has stuck! Iterative development of products at various layers. Final products are created by many iterations that are progressively more detailed, and loose fixed points that allow the project to proceed accurately. Such successive refinement is a cornerstone to successful software development.

This section will cover advanced project management techniques used to manage projects. This section has practical application with some advanced topics but never fear if you are new to project management as I am going to explain these without too much jargon. Many people learn project management in order to pass an exam, but other professionals need to learn project management to really manage projects, and as such they may not be as interested in the formalities of various project management methodologies. I believe that the practical techniques are what the test is trying to assess, but still mention where each of the concepts is a subset of the guide to PMP project management.

Advanced project management techniques and strategies. Agile, Waterfall, and much more…

5. The Future of Project Management

As a result, sufficient knowledge and information of the project management domain and the service that the future project manager can provide is considered a priority by project management professional bodies, practitioners and knowledge workers, who increasingly expect project managers to adapt and develop high-value services to support all staff working on projects in every sector. Now it has become a profession of service. The future project manager can share their skills and knowledge to advise, develop, coach, and teach intern project management teams and project product teams involved in the larger inter-organizational and global projects, providing context management project knowledge of temporary situations in order to lay down the project’s foundations and definition and set it on a path to success.

As the role of project manager rapidly changes to support a broad range of business projects and government projects around the world, the types of projects, methodologies, skills, and knowledge required by project managers are also rapidly changing. Traditional roles in project management that were limited by and centering on client focus are rapidly expanding to provide just-in-time, just-enough and adaptable methods, tools, advising, capability building, and training. The future project manager is also focusing on the establishment of project management frameworks and controls, the project planning and expertise input by expert project professionals into project management.