The Project Manager Does Not Do The Work
The Project Manager Does Not Do The Work
By Jorge Dominguez
We all know that the PM is responsible for the outcome of the project. It is very easy to loose sight of why the PM position was created for. The PM is responsible for initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the project. But, the PMs do not do the project work as many are asked to do.
Managing a project is a full time job and it is a mistake to ask PMs to do project work such as business analysis, write specifications or some other type of work that, I don’t say they don’t have the skills to do, is outside of real project management work. The PM must concentrate on managing the project. The reason this position was created for is because of the need for someone to manage the projects so that they were on time, on budget and within scope.
After the PM has planned the project s/he must spend her/his time communicating with the project team (including stakeholders and customers) about the project, managing expectations, setting and re-setting priorities, forecasting resource demand, managing the project schedule, cost and quality, chairing meetings, controlling the project and identifying risks and issues that affect the project outcome.
Having a PM doing work other than managing projects is a serious mistake and contributes to the high volume of project failures.
Jorge Dominguez, PMP®
Jorge,
I agree with you on the basic notion that the PM is not responsible for actually doing the work.
However, real life is different.
While this may be true on multi-million multi-year projects, the reality of most project manager’s lives is that many of us manage small and medium sized projects. We have limited budget, limited staff and a tight deadline. This means that the PM simply has to step up and participate in actually doing the work.
Furthermore, many companies have cut back their staff significantly. This means that we as PMs have lost valuable players on our teams as well. Who is left? A smaller team, which includes the PM. Once again, because the PM is ultimately responsible for delivery, the PM has to step up and work on actual deliverables.
Is this good? No. But it’s reality.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
The Project Management Podcast
Absolutely,
More importantly, there needs to be a psychological separation between the project manager and the team. The idea is that the project manager sits to one side and views progress objectively and impartially. If a PM gets involved in the work it’s too easy for him to start to ‘believe’ that things are on time rather than assess that objectively.
Kate
Cornelius,
My pleasure having you make a comment on my article. I am a fan of yours.
You are 100% correct that in real life PMs do perform some of the work and in some cases all of the work. That is the reason of my writing. Thanks for your comments.
Jorge Dominguez, PMP®
http://www.Expiriance.com
Kate,
That’s the way it should be, shouldn’t it? Thanks for your comments.
Jorge Dominguez, PMP®
http://www.Expiriance.com
Jorge,
I appreciate and agree with your perspectives on the role of a project manager. Generally, a project manager is not hired to “do the work” the project manager is hired to “get the work done” or “manage the work effort.”
In my opinion, performing hands on type of execution work diminishes the value of the project manager’s contribution. This is not to say that performing the work is any less important than managing the work. However, as project managers, our expertise is in management.
Of course, we are often required to be hands on. But, a great project manager will build a strong enough team, establish solid roles and responsibilities, and effectively communication the expectations of resources to have the work performed by team members. Allowing the project manager to continue managing.
My two cents.
Kevin,
Absolutely in agreement. It is also our job, as PMs, to keep this message alive and carry it with us every day so that the profession does not go down.
Best regards,
Jorge Dominguez, PMP®
http://www.Expiriance.com
I agree with Cornelius’ comment. I expect my PMs to be hands on, especially in the areas of analysis, testing, and organizational readiness. For packaged implementation/system integration projects, I’ve seen great success with the very hands-on PM model.
Jorge,
Absolutely agree. If a project manager is doing the work, then he isn’t managing the project! We need to remember where our skills lie. Often we will get dragged into doing the project work, but this is a failure of project management (usually on the organisation’s behalf, not the project manager’s), not an essential part of it.
Make sure you are using appropriate resources to get the work done. The project manager is rarely an appropriate resource!
Having said that, I have ended up doing project work for the vast majority of projects I have worked on. This isn’t a good thing, but it is the real world. You should aim to avoid this if at all possible.
Trevor Roberts
Project Management Guide