There is such a cool profession in IT as PM or Project Manager. What’s so great about this profession? Well… You’ve probably seen a conductor and at least half of you have thought – “How cool it is to wave a baton from side to side, it doesn’t take much intelligence.” And conductors also make a lot of money.
Well, a project manager is a conductor of an IT project. Such a specialist is in contact with the client and his team, he actually does nothing, he just communicates. Is it so? Certainly not! Despite the relative ease of mastering this specialty, the work of a PM requires maximum dedication and extensive knowledge.
Just like a conductor – from the outside he is just waving a baton, but in fact he knows the part of each instrument thoroughly; the musicians feel this control and follow the conductor’s instructions exactly, who has no right to make mistakes.
And now let’s talk more specifically – what does the Project Manager do?
- Draws up the ToR.
- Manages the team.
- Predicts risks.
- Monitors deadlines.
- Makes reports.
- Communicates with clients throughout the project.
When a client comes to an IT company, PM manager should 100% understand the tasks set, and a good specialist will always offer the best solutions at the moment, dissuade from implementing some idea or vice versa. With the achievement of experience, it is PM who can turn an ordinary project into a real goldmine for the company by offering SEO, PPC, mobile application development and so on. As you understand, you need to know a lot here.
A project specialist is a bit of a SEO specialist, a bit of a marketer, layout designer and programmer. You have to understand what you are offering and know at least the basics in order to be able to offer the right information to the client.
Managing the team. In IT, it so happened that each specialist works independently. It is very difficult to synchronize the work of each person. Sometimes their work is not combined. It is impossible to say that some specialist did not do his job well. What does the Project Manager do here? He puts all these puzzles together, or rather makes sure that the specialists initially work in sync and do part of the same job.
Risk Forecasting. Sometimes a client wants something that can be very detrimental to the project, or his wishes are impossible to fulfill with the current budget. This is probably the most difficult technical part for Projekt. Here you need to take the current tasks and calculate how feasible it is and if it is worth doing at all + you need to make a convincing argument.
Deadline. IT specialists get their salary mostly based on hours worked. A PM’s salary depends on a project being closed on time. If the deadline is missed, the client will be dissatisfied, the money will not get to the IT company on time, the salary will be cut. It is the Project Manager’s job to motivate every specialist, to ask, to flatter, to swear in general any means to prevent breaking the deadline.
Reporting. All the work that happens on a project should be documented. This is necessary for both the IT company and the client. Writing frivolous notes in a notepad will not be possible. Here you need to be able to make this documentation in the right format.
Communication with the client. PM is a direct representative of the company who is constantly in touch with the client during working hours (sometimes after hours). Almost always an IT company allocates a specific time to communicate with customers, but in practice it is difficult to keep a clear regime. There are different clients – some are dissatisfied with the work done, some want to speed up the process and give their advice, sometimes clients even want to break off cooperation. It is the Project Manager who takes care of all this.
You should also take into account that a Project Manager’s earnings often depend on the timely delivery of projects and his knowledge of the language.
Drawing conclusions
Project Manager in IT is a specialist who controls the process of working on the project. First you need to listen to the tasks and desires of the client, then to bring them to the team of specialists. During the working process, you practically have to be a “babysitter” for each team member and the client himself, explaining where and how their money is spent.
To make a project a success, you need to initially correctly draw up the TOR and analyze all the risks. When everything goes upside down (this is most likely to happen), the Project Manager should gather the will in his fist and “finish” the tasks with a mighty punch.
