From the Ask Tom mailbag –
Question:
I was in your workshop last week. When you look at qualified candidates for a role, you say “It’s all about the work.” We are looking at a project management role. What do you consider the three most important parts of project management?
Response:
Project Management is a classic Strata II role. From a macro level, it involves the coordination of people, materials, equipment and project sequence. Three core Key Result Areas (KRAs) drive the project forward.
- Project Planning (creating a comprehensive project plan including milestones and accountabilities).
- Task Checklist (documenting and tracking all the details for completion and quality).
- Project Schedule (creating and monitoring the project schedule, prioritizing and sequencing time frames associated with changing elements of a project).
The value adds for Project Management are project control, accuracy to project specifications, timeliness and completeness.
Other KRAs would include –
- Pre-con Hand-off Meeting (critical meeting where pre-construction hands the project over to project management).
- Punch List (audit of the project checklist, when everyone else thinks the project is complete).
- Buy Out (assembling the list of material suppliers and subcontractors, with competitive cost information).
- Customer Relations (creating the necessary customer relationship that addresses project discrepancies, project change orders and avoids litigation)
All of these would make the basis for a comprehensive role description for your Project Manager. -Tom
I would add that a Project Manager must also be held accountable to the project budget. A high degree of Financial Acumen separates good Project Managers from GREAT Project Managers.
Developing high financial acumen = Good to Great.
1. Establish a budget
2. Buy and perform to budget or better
3. Create contingencies through whatever savings are created on each line item
4. Constantly (at least bi-weekly) review and re-forecast costs to complete to identify potential problems early enough to mitigate or correct any out of budget tasks.
A Project Manager who does not have a budget or access to all controllable costs is managing in the dark.
I agree with the budget bullet. I would add one more bullet to Tom’s list: Communication and Clarity with the project team. What is the plan for meetings, updates and status reports?