A Good Project Manager a Cure for a "Bad Project"

There is no such thing as a “Bad Project “, but however there is always a good or a bad project manager. A manager is the leader of a project, and the result of a “bad project” obviously comes from a bad manager. In 2570 BC, a huge project called Great Pyramid of Giza was built. Since then, archaeologists are still trying to figure out how they were built, and that mystery is still a question mark. According to ancient records, there was a manager for each face of the great pyramid responsible to their completion. Every project has its difficulties of accomplishment, but the project manager is the one that makes the job easier or difficult. The case of pyramid is just one of the real facts how one big and difficult project in ancient times came to light, and nowadays it is still tricky how it was managed. Thinking of it, the first thing that immediately comes to mind is there must have been a good project manager.

 Project Manager is the guide of a project, as always there are specific and general characteristics that PM is expected to have. What makes a good project manager: is the experience, the field, or what? Most common characteristics that are requested from managers are: experience, communication, vision, basic knowledge on accounting, and proper work delegation. If a candidate for a project manager does not have these characteristics, it is better not to hire him/her at all.

Let’s be honest, it is not really an easy and amusing job to get involved in a “ Bad Project” and no one would like to continue to solve someone else’s mess. Therefore, the remaining question comes in mind:

How to choose a good manager?

Companies usually tend to hire managers that have previously worked in other projects; however, this does not always result in a good way for a project. Sometimes, young managers are more eager and work harder than leaders. So keep that in mind, a good manager is one that communicates with employees/workers. In most of the cases where the project goes wrong is when the project manager does not have self-confidence to talk to upper management, and project managers should always show the facts and should inform the upper management how the real deal is. It is important for a project manager to know that the team is the core of a project. A good project manager knows how to delegate work to each of the team member, knows how to listen, give advice, communicate and approve the work/project.

Project manager should not lack on basic knowledge in accounting. Why is this important? Since a project manager will have to factor costs into a project, he/she has to have an idea of how these costs would affect the quality of the project. A good manager knows how to build a relationship that would have a positive effect on team members and involve them in open dialogue and transparency. A good project should have a vision; a manager without a vision is practically a no-no manager. A manager must have a vision in her/his mind, and should be able to write it anytime; because when a manager has a vision then the vision implies a future, a future in a project implies that a manager knows the final result.

Have I mentioned listening before? Well listening is a key to a successful project. A project is not a project without a good manager and a nutshell team. Wilson Mizner said: “A good listener is not only popular everywhere but after a while, he knows something”.

There are books, standards, rules, training, and special education on how to become a good manager. One thing should always be kept in mind: not everything is written in the books, it has to go beyond the books in order to know the reality. The same goes for a manager as well, they have to be challenged in order to improve their performance, gain experience, accept incapacity, etc.; as the quote of Natalie Gulbis says ”When you fail you learn from the mistakes you made and it motivates you to work even harder”. That quote goes for a bad manager, so let’s accept the failure so we can learn and improve more, hence there will be no place for failure but success only.

To help professionals become better project managers, PECB as a certification body on a wide range of professional standards, among other standard certifications, it offers certification against Project Management with ISO 21502.

ISO Standards and Professional Trainings offered by PECB are:

• Certified ISO 21502 Lead Project Manager (5 days)
• Certified ISO 21502 Foundation (2 days)

Rrezarta Halili is a Risk and Management (RM) Course Development Manager at PECB. She is in charge of developing and maintaining courses related to Risk and Management. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact: training@pecb.com.

For further information, please visit PECB ISO 21502 Training Courses.