Information Technology Project Manger Skill

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction:

The best practice is that the manager has to optimize the organization resources to achieve the goal and objective of the project. He or she can use his or her own experience by dealing with the variety on the projects. Of course he or she has to have basic management background knowledge. For instance Project management Body of Knowledge.

In other part Robert Buttrick suggested the following basic principles on how to manage the projects which are follows:

1.     Be sure that projects are driven by strategy and it is in line with company or organization business strategies

2.     Involving all stakeholders in all phases of the project

3.     Encourage team-work to work as the team, all the time

4.     Communicate clearly all issues (good and bad) to all entities that involve the project

In my own opinion, the project managers are managing the processes that come with projects management. This means that project managers are not work alone. He or she works as a team to make a project successful. He or she has to manage team or people to helping him or her in developing the project, define the clear objectives and goal of the project, mitigate the risk of the project, managing the scope, and work plan. Once the project is lunch project managers have to manage all project activities and control the processes, including have to manage the communication.

Therefore I do suggest the information technology project manager have to have variety skills as follows:

Ø Project management process skills

Ø Communication skills (written and verbal)

Ø Business or technology skills

Ø Problem solving and critical thinking skills

Ø Negotiation, conflict resolution skill

Ø Leadership skills

Ø Strong team builder skills

Ø Strong in the delegation tasks or build trust to the team members skills

Ø Consistent and ethical behavior 

However, not all of the listed skills above are mandatory for project managers to have. Basically project managers have to manage all resources that needed in the project within time line and cost efficiency.

Overall the project managers have to use their skills in every situation because certain skills are use in certain situation only. In other words different situation needs different skills.  

Another example larger project needs a strong leadership, has relevant experiences in the past, has a good team lead and player, has communication skills, has planning skill, and has people skills. For the uncertainty project needs person that has risk management, has expectation management, has people skills, has leadership, and has planning skill.

The leaders have to have a big picture of the project and motivate the team all the time in order to achieve the goal; while the managers have to have a details to meet the specific objectives. Most important is that the project manager has to lead by example.

Conclusion:

Not all skills for the project managers are needed in certain situation of the project management; they are all depends on the nature on the project itself.

The project managers are managing the projects with the leadership and manager role at the same time.

References list:

·        Schwalbe, K. Information Technology Project Management, Revised 6th edition

·        Lecture note, PM_WK1_Lecture_notes University Of Liverpool/ Laureate Online Education (2010), Lecture Notes from Information technology Project Management Module Seminar 1 [Online]. Available from: University of Liverpool/Laureat Online Education VLE (Accessed 7^th May 2011)

·        Besner, C., and Hobb, B. (Feb. 26, 2008) Project Management Practice, generic or contextual: A Realty check [online]. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pmj.20033/abstract  (Accessed Date: May 6, 2011)

·        The 7 most important communication skills an IT leader should have [online]. Available from: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/the-7-most-important-communication-skills-an-it-leader-should-have/622# (Accessed Date: May 6, 2011)