Project Management Personnel achieve the eight required capabilities at the highest level

Project Management Personnel achieve the eight required capabilities at the highest level

From: UML software engineering organization author: Author name]

There is now an emerging global trend in the project management field: enterprises are making significant investments in the development of their project managers, while providing them with a direct path to senior management. For many years, there has been only one way to promote to the highest level of enterprise: You must enter the management layer. From a failed project, Enterprise Management recognizes that there is no mutual connection between technical talents and management capabilities. In fact, there is a lot of evidence that the more technical a person is, the less likely he is to become a good manager! Therefore, enterprises have established a second career development path so that these technical professionals can be promoted without entering the management layer, such as the chief engineer. Now, we see the third career development path in the enterprise: project management. Like Compaq, IBM, ABB, Motorola, NCR, and other companies, they have become pioneers in the development of project management professionals by building career paths for their project managers. The establishment of this career development path itself strongly shows that the position of a project manager is not only an indispensable role, but also a crucial position for many companies. In fact, their work proves that the project manager, like the management or technical staff, plays a key role in the success of a company. This is the prime time to become a project manager. First, according to the survey, more and more enterprises are looking for and hiring people with experience and education background in this emerging field. Furthermore, once hired by an enterprise, these promising new users will receive many development opportunities, including project management qualification training courses, international transfer opportunities, and the desired degree courses. By providing these opportunities, enterprises not only recruit the best and smartest talents, but also reserve these valuable resources so that they will not only change jobs for higher salaries. In addition, many studies have shown that these courses are far more attractive than salary. All in all, many companies around the world are offering career development opportunities to thousands of people, that is, offering comprehensive development courses in project management. Project Management Personnel achieve the eight required capabilities at the highest level Most of the project manager's promotion paths follow the steps below: * Vice President of Project * Project Director * Project Planning Manager * Project Manager * Deputy Project Manager Among them, there are many "common" basic capabilities of project managers. I. "nuts and bolts" in project management (basic knowledge) Obviously, basic project management knowledge is essential to everyone in the industry. Most companies define these "nuts and bolts" using nine aspects of the project management knowledge structure ", in addition, these practitioners are required to obtain PMP qualification certificates to test whether they have mastered these nine aspects. In addition, enterprises require these personnel to demonstrate and use this knowledge in various projects in different situations. Many project managers start from working in the project team and then develop into team leaders, implement and manage small projects, and gradually take over projects with larger scales and greater responsibilities. In addition to understanding these "nuts and bolts", the company also seeks two areas of experience: 1. Experience in using tools. Currently, anyone engaged in project management should be able to use some related software tools (you do not have to specify which one is required ). 2. Experience in using some work methods. They should have used some work methods, whether it is a specific project management process or system development model. 2. Customer Relationship and consulting skills Project managers should not just be technical experts in the office. On the contrary, they should be at the front line of the customer, understand the customer's needs, and develop and implement solutions to meet these needs. Correspondingly, the ability to listen to and understand customer needs and to develop more valuable solutions has become the key core competence of the Project Manager. However, many project managers do not have these skills. According to a recent US Management Association survey, more than 300 of managers interviewed agreed that their project managers needed two skills to develop: consulting and customer relationship skills. A recent study by zhiyue consulting company also showed that enterprises need a series of advanced project management courses. Each zhiyue customer requires us to develop consulting skills courses for project managers in addition to various management courses. These courses do not have to be related to the project management topic. It can be seen that this information clearly expresses: consulting, listening, and providing suggestions for customer business solutions will be the main work of the project manager, and they need to do better! Iii. business and financial skills Today's project managers should not only focus on technical solutions, but also work out proposals with sales personnel. To become a good partner for sales personnel, the project manager needs to know two important business elements: the business model used by the company to bring its products and services to the market; support the financial situation of the business model. For example, suppose we are a large company that manufactures IT hardware. We have been well-known for many years with superb technology. With the passage of time, the marginal gross margin of hardware has been greatly reduced for various reasons. Correspondingly, we now find that providing customers with hardware services is more profitable than simply selling hardware. We can reduce the hardware price to the price that only recovers the cost and create opportunities for customers to sell our services. This is our business model. Each enterprise has its own business model and strategy for entering the market. Interestingly, many IT project managers do not know the business model of the enterprise, and fewer people know how finance supports the enterprise's business methods. Iv. Leadership The leadership ability can be reflected in many aspects. The key to the project manager's leadership ability is to let a group of people do a specific job. Furthermore, I and all our customers are optimistic that these leadership skills can be taught, learned, and applied to the benefit of the enterprise. Leadership art training can take a variety of forms from extreme, such as standing in a hot tub in front of your team to back poetry, to common, such as attending a labor law training course. Regardless of the type of training or the purpose of a specific training course, the final purpose of the art training is to help the Project Manager lead a work group to complete a job. In addition, the Leadership art training uses a step-by-step approach to gradually develop the project manager's leadership by allowing the project manager to complete various difficult tasks within a period of time. 5. "sales up" Skills In the process of communication or cooperation with the customer, there are often some potential or additional requirements. If you can identify this opportunity to sell additional services or products to the customer and make full use of this opportunity, it plays an important role in both the enterprise and the project. We refer to this capability as the "upward sales" skill. Interestingly, the customer often expects the company's project manager to have the "upward sales" skill. One of the clients I have trained once told me that some projects are progressing smoothly, however, he was very disappointed with the cooperation with the project manager. You see, after working with them for so many months, they never gave us any suggestions for improvement. Some project managers are not interested in selling more products and services to customers. They said they do not want to be seen as "sales" personnel. But in fact, customers expect them to bring new suggestions to help them develop their business. In fact, isn't the project manager working with the customer day after day? Isn't it because the project manager has a deep understanding of the customer's business situation? Isn't it because the project manager may give the customer the best advice to help them improve their business performance? 6. negotiation and communication skills When most people hear "negotiation", they immediately think of buying cars, houses, or signing contract agreements with customers. There is no doubt that we need some negotiation skills to negotiate for buying cars, houses, and contracts, but we also need such skills, that is, to direct a group of people with different ideas to a common goal, to deal with difficult customers, and to appease the sentiment of a shareholder. You can call them negotiation, political, or diplomatic. Whatever you call them, If you master these skills, you can do things or make concessions without causing mutual hostility. Of course, communication and negotiation skills are as inseparable as "hands and gloves". In today's project-based modern enterprises, project managers are increasingly asked to present project progress to the enterprise management. For example, we are currently working with a large pharmaceutical group that provides a project manager for every major pharmaceutical development project. These projects can take up to eight years and cost $0.4 billion. Therefore, it is important for the senior management to know the specific progress of the project in a timely manner. The management is composed of the President of the Group's pharmaceutical Branch (with an annual turnover of up to $30 billion) and other key management personnel within the organization. In other words, there are some influential people in this management committee. So for a project manager, stand in front of them to demonstrate the progress of the project and suggest them continue to promote the project or terminate the project, it becomes one of the most important capabilities that affect his career development. Some people call it a touchstone, which determines the end of a career or a higher level. 7. Dare to take risks Every manager I know wants their project manager to take on more risks at work. They are looking for people who can overcome work difficulties with perseverance and boldly innovate for the benefit of customers. However, they do not want project managers to take unnecessary and blind risks. Professional development in this area will focus on understanding the vitality of risks and using a set of tools and techniques to identify, respond to, and control risks. In addition to risks, project managers need to be alert when looking for and taking full advantage of opportunities. Many managers think that the project manager has not invested enough time to identify potential opportunities for themselves and the company. 8. Strategic Vision The project managers that enterprises are looking for must be able to have foresight, surpass the limitations of their own projects, and fully understand the relationship between the project and the company's business objectives and the customer's goals. With this vision, the Project Manager can see things that other people may not see, understand the relationship between a job and the next job, and provide suggestions for customers who do not fully understand the problem. Develop career promotion path for project managers What are the benefits of developing a career promotion path for a project manager? Why should enterprises spend so much time and energy on this? The following are the three main reasons. First, it enables enterprises to hire and retain the best project managers. Our three multinational companies, together, need to hire 1000 project managers to take charge of various projects distributed on six continents. Their business is developing rapidly and there is a shortage of dedicated project managers. This career promotion has sent an important message to those who intend to do the job: companies are very concerned about your future. Second, by providing the project manager with training and development opportunities for the above capabilities, enterprises can help them make better decisions, make customers more satisfied, and obtain higher business income. Third, the company's reputation in the market will be improved, because the industry will value and praise a company that has invested a lot of effort in the development of project managers.