Project Managers Need Soft Skills

Being able to manage a project is not always about technical ability.  A project manager must be able to have what are often called soft skills.  I would rather call them human relations skills.  Projects are staffed by humans and so a project manager needs to be able to deal with humans.  Probably the first of those skills is communication.

Project managers need to have strong communication skills.  There communication skills include both oral and written communication.  Project managers need to be able to talk to technical personnel and the to non technical personnel.  They need to be able to explain the project to executives and to other stakeholders.  Communication is a skill that will serve a project manager well throughout their career.

Human resources management is another area of human relations skills that a project manager needs to learn.  There are many pitfalls that a project manager will find when navigating the maze that is employment law.  There are the FLSA, ADA, EEO, FMLA, etc. All these laws might effect your project.

And there is human relations training that helps project managers and employees deal with each other.  By recognizing the signs of workplace bullying, harassment, professional standards or other relationship issues, a project manager can help to nip these issues in the bud before they become lawsuits.  This is an important thing to learn, because the project manager might have to give this type of training during a meeting or other gathering.

Lastly, there is performance and disciplinary counseling that has to be done, There is hiring and firing and knowing how these are done to limit the liability of yourself and the company.  I can tell from experience, you always remember the first person you fire and it never gets easy...nor should it.

A project manager's human relations training never stops.  These topics are always evolving, so these courses change every time they are taken.  I suggest that project managers plan this training and make learning more a habit.

Future Proof Yourself

The last couple weeks I have been seeing a few stories about tech leaders, most notably Bill Gates and Elon Musk, talking about how robots are going to take the jobs of most Americans.  This is probably going to happen and those Americans are going to have to learn new skills to survive and thrive in a new economy.

How do you future proof yourself as a project manager in the new economy?  That is a good question.  I always find that it is important for human beings to be in a continual state of reinvention. This reinvention may include learning new skills or rearranging those skills into a new configuration. It could mean bringing those skills into a new industry or into a new endeavor.  I find that as a project manager, I have many skills and have many more skills to learn.

Additionally, there is an area in which project manager skills absolutely have a place and that area is in the creative field and innovation.  Humans are made for creative endeavors and creating new things, this is the kind of stuff that project managers already do.

Anyways, here is an interesting podcast by Mike Dillard's "Self Made Man" about the rise of robots...sounds scary, but with the right skills and learning mindset project managers will survive,

 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/self-made-man/id982006298?mt=2&i=1000382378517

So I suggest you find a new skill to learn today and start to future proof yourself.  If robots don't take your job, somebody else with skills will.

Identifying Stakeholders

One important task that a project manager must do is the identify stakeholders. Stakeholders are those people or groups that have some interest in the project.  Some stakeholders are easy to identify and some are not so easy to identify.  As a project manager, it is important to find all the stakeholders. Once those stakeholders are identified then it important to discover their issues or where they have stake in the project.

There is a group of stakeholders that are relatively easy to identify.  For a project, these stakeholders might include end users, customers, management, or shareholders.  These groups are easy to identify because they are not only the most obvious, but they do have an immediate stake in the success of the project.

The other group of stakeholders is those that are not so obvious. These groups might only have a small interest in the project or may not be directly influenced by the success of the project.  This might include suppliers, outside industry groups, or other partners.

From my experience I once managed a program with  a subcontractor.  This subcontractor changed their timekeeping software program without notifying their partners.  This transition did not go smoothly and caused their timekeeping reports and invoices to be late.  This effected my ability to complete program schedules and invoice the customer. Although this was a small blip in the continuation of the program, it effected me.  I was a stakeholder in the success of that timekeeping software project and I didn't even know it.

Once stakeholders are identified, it is important to record them, there interest in the project, and issues that might be encountered in a stakeholder register.  Once this is done, then a communication strategy should be developed for each stakeholder and then put into the plan.

Project Managers Deal with Adversity

Project Managers always have to deal with adversity.  Adversity is present in many of the things that a project manager has to do.

Projects are disruptive to the normal operation of a business.  Hopefully, the project is initiated to improve the business or to take advantage of an opportunity.  This type of action is disruptive to the employees in the business that do the same thing the same way since the beginning of time. They will be passive aggressive.  Change is never easy and it is harder when people believe the that change will do away with their jobs.

Sometimes project managers need to depend on others that are not their employees and they can not influence in any way, such as in a matrix type organization.  This odd relationship does not mean that the project manager is off the hook, it means the the project manager has to deal with that adversity.  This type of arrangement is hard and the project manager must communicate and build a relationship with these employees.

Another area where a project manager must face adversity is when there are somewhat hostile stake holders.  This is another area where the project manager must communicate and build a relationship with the stakeholders.  Stakeholders provide a bigger challenge in someways because they have their own agenda.

Project managers must deal with adversity, I certainly have.  To me, adversity is an opportunity to improve my communication and relationship building skills.  Sometimes this is hard, but it also makes success all the much sweeter!

Tools Tuesday: Requirements Tracker

The requirements tracker is an important tool that you can use to log and track requirements.  I use this tool to log, categorize and to track the requirements that I elicit from the customer.  Of course, this helps as you start to work the project and start to complete the requirements and as new requirements are discovered.  It also helps to keep the track of those requirements that are in the contract and those that are not.

This document was made in excel and is updated as needed.  This is a handy tool to communicate with project team members and stakeholders.

Another way to elicit requirements is through a survey.  I have in the past had mixed results with the survey.  In my recent experience, the survey was not sent to the subject matter experts and the survey data was not very helpful.  As a matter of fact, the group/panel discussion provided much better data.  It was a step backwards from where I wanted to go, but at least I found this out early in the project and did not attempt to provide a product that did not meet the requirements.

This is why requirements are important for the successful project manager.

It's All About Requirements

Before a project is started and maybe even while the project is going on, there needs to be good requirements.  For many projects this is a difficult enterprise.  This is because there may or may not be time to elicit the requirements.  But successful project managers know that this is absolute an imperative action to ensure project management success.

Requirement elicitation is important.  It is important to know exactly what the customer feels the features of a done project look like.  There are  techniques that a project manager use to elicit these requirements.

One technique is to interview the customer about the requirements and what done looks like. This type of information might be in the Statement of Work (SOW) or the Performance Work Statement (PWS), but that is not always the case.  The interview should use probing questions and should refrain from yes and no answers.

Another technique is to hold a panel or focus group of the customer's subject matter experts.  This type of technique can draw out many responses, but it can also get out of hand quickly and requires a steady hand to guide the discussion.

Once the requirements are discovered they need to be categorized as critical, must haves, and like to haves.  This categorization allows the project manager and project personnel to understand the prioritization of work.

Then the project manager needs negotiate all the requirements into the the SOW or PWS and included into the contract. 

All the critical and must-have requirements are tracked in the requirements tracker throughout the project.

Project Managers Need Grit

Project managers need grit.  Yes, there is a certain amount of mental toughness that gets a project manager through the doldrums of most projects.  There are times when the project stalls, loses support, looks like it will never be done, and may even fail.  Successful project managers know that this is the time to refocus on the project and push through.  They got to have a certain amount of stick-to-it-itiveness to see the project to completion.

Grit is an interesting concept.  There has been much talk about the concept of grit lately.  Recently, I heard an interview with Angela Duckworth about grit.

Check out this Ted talk from Angela Duckworth:

https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance

Grit is an important trait for successful project managers.