5 Top Responsibilities of a Project Manager
Project managers are a critical piece of a company’s operations. As an essential role in any firm, project managers are responsible for the long-term planning and daily implementation of the firm’s strategies. While the duties of a project manager are ever changing between projects, firms, and industries, the 5 core responsibilities of a project manager remain the same:
- Planning
- Organizing
- Leading
- Implementing
- Analyzing
1. Planning
Planning is arguably the most important responsibility of a project manager. In order to successfully execute a project, a firm must have a developed plan that considers the company’s ultimate corporate strategy and accomplishes the primary goal of the project itself. The plan sets the tone, timeline, and scope of a project and can include resource and activity planning, developing a budget, cost and time estimating, and analyzing potential risks.
2. Organizing
Especially relevant in large corporations, the project manager role is responsible for organizing the structure of the project plan so that execution is as efficient as possible. This function can reach outside of the company to include organizing external vendors, or remain internal through the organizational structure of the project team. Organization tools are a project manager’s biggest ally for maintaining structure throughout the project. Assets like The Priority Matrix allow project managers to organize priority management, increase internal project visibility, and streamline collaboration within the team.
3. Leading
Although leadership is soft skill, it is integral to ensuring success in the role of a project manager. In order to deliver quality and satisfaction, a project manager must utilize their leadership skills to maintain their team’s motivation and direction throughout the project timeline. Leadership allows the project manager to motivate team members to keep the project’s progress within the predetermined timeline and minimize potential risks as the project advances.
4. Implementing
Project implementation is the culmination of the project manager’s responsibilities. In order to ensure a smooth execution of the plan, the project manager must track the project’s progress and process any deviations that may hinder the project’s completion. Project implementation requires the project manager to ensure effective communication throughout the organizational structure. With luck, the aforementioned responsibilities of a project manager will make this function run like clockwork!
5. Analyzing
In order to measure the project’s success against predetermined metrics, a project manager must report and analyze results upon project completion. Not only does this allow management and shareholders to conceptualize the project’s data output, but also offers useful information for continuing to improve operations into the next project. Data from previous projects provides risk prevention opportunities that can be implemented when a project manager ultimately restarts the cycle and begins planning their next project.
The effective execution of these 5 responsibilities of a project manager can give anyone the opportunity to successfully achieve project goals and further their firm’s overall corporate strategy.