Value of Project Managers

I often wonder how in the world Companies can survive or grow without Project Managers in place whether for strategic reasons (developing proper business plans), Innovation projects, executing commercialization projects, Marketing operations, Engineering and Construction, IT solutions and implementations, etc.

Let’s face it; Project Managers are a critical backbone and element to business success. They aren’t simply an “individual contributor”; they are the people who lead teams from Ideation/Scoping all the way to Market Execution. They are the ones who ensure the critical success factors of Quality, Cost, and Time are evaluated, considered, and integrated into each and every project and against the company’s strategic agenda.

Too often, I see companies place “functional” roles as a Project Manager lead. As long as they have the experience and training to be a Project Manager, there shouldn’t be any issues. It’s when companies “devalue” Project Management and don’t see Project Managers as critical as Accountants, Engineers, Doctors, Marketing Managers, etc. that they run into problems and issues. Would you want an accountant in your R&D lab working up new ideas? I think not, unless they have experience and training to do so.

Project Managers should be a specific, strategic, leadership role in your company and can lead ideas in your pipeline from strategy to execution.

Project Managers carefully and methodically consider where a project starts and where the hopeful execution outcome will be and what it looks like when completed. They start building the big picture and the various process elements. After this is mapped out, they begin to “fill in” the rest of the structure until they have a project plan, scope, timeline with critical path, milestones, work breakdown structure, resources, budget, etc.

Consider this, if started out carefully, identifying where to start, and ultimately how and where the project ends up, companies will have better success. That’s not to say, that in the middle of the project, it’s decided it’s not the best project and you stop it… of course, a bad project should be stopped, or one that adds little to no value. What is the point of continuing to build/develop, if it appears that the project will surely fail and/or cost the company more to implement than return? That’s why companies need Project Managers! They see the big picture and all of the details.

Let’s look a little closer at Project Managers and what they do…

With projects and as a project manager, it’s important to focus on the specific scope and goal. It’s also important to have the team on board, early on, and who understands what the project entails. After the scope is defined and work is started on building the business case, you’ll need to start defining what process this will follow and who will handle what tasks along the way.

A Project Manager NEEDS their Team! Nothing replaces live meetings, reviews, and asking for help. They rely on each team member to complete specific, functional work, raise risks and issues, offer solutions for challenges, and ultimately contribute to the project execution.

By communicating and working carefully, the Project Manager and Team ends up with a solid project, worked across a process, and in collaboration, not silos. Along the way, they can identify gaps and make corrections.

A successful Project Manager will communicate with the team, work together to identify gaps or critical areas, along a timeline that supports that anticipated “launch” or “implementation” date making course correction as necessary to ensure the right work is being done for the right reasons with the right resources.

Along the process (perhaps Stage-Gate®), risks need to be validated and mitigated and uncover any potential issues that might prevent the project from being successful. This can be anything from financial risks to technical risks to market placement risks. It’s imperative that each Team Member helps the Project Manager assess this from their functional perspective and give guidance to help support in decision-making and/or a plan to further investigate what are the options.

Furthermore, each task in the process should be owned by the appropriate functional role, unless it’s lead by the Project Manager directly. Work occurs on the tasks (across the Stage) until a point is reached (Gate) requiring a decision to continue, go back and redo work, or simply stop the project.

Regardless if you are following Stage-Gate® or some other process, having all of the risks, issues, financials, scope, strategy, legal checks, etc. will help the leadership make the most appropriate, educated decision on where to place resources or reallocate them to more valuable areas.

A Project Manager knows how to lead all of this, build and execute, collaborate with the team, and guide company leaders on making educated, strategic decisions on projects!

Again, not all projects will make it to the end. Sometimes, projects need to be stopped whether financially no longer viable, too risky, too many technical challenges, not part of the overall strategy, etc. It’s better to stop a project before it fails and costs the company more money than its value…

With on-going communication, using Team Member help and advice, and ensuring quality information and/or data, more thorough and accurate portfolio and pipeline (PPM) views can be provided, more projects can be completed against established success criteria, and better leadership decisions can be made for long-term strategic growth.

Value Project Managers as integral leaders in a company! Without them, including as described in this article, companies risk cost, quality, and time and the opportunity to be more strategic and competitive.

PhIT provides guidance and planning around Program Management Office (PMO) implementations including designing and establishing a Strategic Process (e.g. Stage-Gate). We also design and deliver Project Management training (both technical and soft skills) especially for Marketing Professionals. Additionally, we translate and guide companies implementing PMO on Business aspects and functional areas in conjunction with their IT solutions.