The Effective Project Manager
HOW TO MANAGE YOURSELF AND MANAGE OTHERS IN ORDER TO BE AN EFFECTIVE PROJECT MANAGER
MICHAEL STRATTON
THE EFFECTIVE PROJECT MANAGER. Copyright © 2014 by Michael Stratton.
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Edited by Carolyn Daughters and Angela Jankousky
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2348-7
Dedication
Dedicated to my father. I wish you were here.
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the experiences gained through cumulative interactions with colleagues, close friends and family. I want to thank Joanna, my beautiful wife of 13 years, for being the chief strategist, psychologist, motivator and project manager of our home. Joanna puts her heart and soul into emotionally supporting, educating and disciplining our three beloved children each and every day. I admire her innate drive to succeed at everything she does. I admire her positive attitude and her uncommon ability to be all things to everyone.
Thank you to the smart, talented colleagues I’ve had the great fortune to work with over the past 15 years. It’s through these interactions that I have shaped my professional worldview. I want to express gratitude to my peers, managers, executives and project teams for all the knowledge they have imparted to me. If this book provides just one single tip, tool, phrase or special insight that will remain in my readers’ professional knowledge toolkit for the foreseeable future, I will have accomplished my mission of giving back to the project management community.
Foreword
I’m many things to many people. I’m a father to my three sons. I’m a husband to my wife. I’m a brother, uncle, son and grandson. I’m also an author, a runner, a cyclist, a photographer, an artist, a neighbor, a chef and a soccer coach. I try to be a nice guy, humble, kind and fair. In my professional life, I’m a vice president, an IT business analyst, a visionary, an IT project manager, a marketer, a Tier 1 and Tier II helpdesk technician, a consultant, a presenter, a listener, a scribe, a coach, a leader and a believer in processes. I’m a coordinator of people and ideas. I attempt to do things to the best of my ability in my personal and my professional life.
I’m expected to be a different person depending on who I’m interacting with at any given moment. What with wearing so many hats on a daily basis, it’s amazing that I don’t ever forget who I am at the core. Just like most of you, I strive to be the best I can be in my career.
My job title is IT Project Manager; however, this position involves much more than spreadsheets, project plans and status meetings. There are literally thousands upon thousands of IT Project Manager jobs in this world, and each employer of IT Project Managers has its own idea of the value an IT Project Manager brings to their organization. There are also many different project methodology frameworks, certifications and processes that can be used to help project managers lead a project.
The idea behind this book is simple. To succeed in your project management career, you need to be effective. You need to be able to take care of business. I provide insights that can be used by any project manager within any organization. This book is project methodology agnostic, meaning that it takes the best concepts from various frameworks and puts them to work for you. Having a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI) may help you land a job, but it won’t guarantee you’ll be effective at your job. Many other elements go into being a successful project manager. I will bring those elements to light by sharing my real-world experiences.
Introduction
This book is conversational in tone. My intent is to present the ideas in this book in such a way that you feel like I’m in your living room, sitting across from you at your dinner table or chatting with you at a coffee shop. This book doesn’t offer a 10-step plan for a successful project management career because no plan can possibly address every project contingency. This book is a necessary guide for any coordinator of people and projects. You may be a planner, thinker, strategist, project manager, business owner, executive leader, business analyst, athletic coach, parent or simply an individual curious about ways to become more effective at work. Any way you slice it, you’ll benefit from reading this book.
Specifically, this book explains in easy-to-understand terms what you need to do in order to become the best project manager you can be—an Effective Project Manager (EPM) as I like to call it. The key themes are time management, people management and thoughtful production of work that matters. You need to be able to tell what work is the most important during any given hour spent on the job. You’ll learn how to accomplish this task by better understanding people and organizations. You’ll get people to tell you things by listening, planning and leading. You’ll turn into a doer who can handle any situation thrown at you. You’ll learn how to organize your thoughts and structure your planning process by using mind maps and pictures. You’ll find out how to track progress easily and give your teams proven processes to use. Finally, you’ll learn the common traits that all EPMs share.
There are all kinds of project managers in this world, and you need to decide what kind of project manager you want be and what type of organization you want to work for. Honesty and respect aren’t just buzz words. Honesty and respect are real things that matter to real people. If you’re honest and respectful, people know it and appreciate it. And if you’re not honest and respectful, how can you expect to lead people successfully?
The book is split into two parts. Part 1 focuses on how to manage yourself and includes tools that will help you become more effective in both your professional and personal life. Part 2 focuses on how to manage others. If you can manage yourself and manage others effectively, then you can lead almost any project. This book is supplemented by tools available at my website, www.effective-pm.com.
Throughout the book, I refer to various IT project methodologies such as waterfall and agile, but I don’t mean to endorse any of these methodologies. I endorse effectiveness. I refer to real-world experience and examples that have brought me success in my personal and professional life. No project methodology framework is going to make you 100% effective even if you follow the methodology to a tee. Life isn’t a 10-step process, and you shouldn’t run your projects as a 10-step process either.
This book includes a number of lists that summarize the most important EPM concepts and guidelines for easy reference. These tips belong to one of three categories: productivity, people or technology. The terms Effective Project Manager and its acronym, EPM, are used interchangeably.
Lastly, remember that project managers are doers. Project managers make things happen. Project managers are some of the most valuable people in an organization. They know who’s doing what and when. They know what’s holding the company back (people, processes or technology). They have process improvement suggestions. They understand how to be efficient. They have industry knowledge. They understand many different business functions within an organization. They track information. They have insight and valuable knowledge. Organizations that listen to their Effective Project Managers succeed in the marketplace. With these thoughts in mind, it’s my hope that you use the information in this book as a basis of becoming the very best Effective Project Manager that you can be!
PART 1: MANAGE YOURSELF
Here we are.