Project Manager: Roles, Responsibilities & Challenges

Challenges for a Project Manager

Project managers need to manage resources and clients during project implementation. Some of the challenges that a project manager faces and needs to take care are as listed below2:

1.    Unrealistic deadlines: The challenge of the managers is to find various alternative approaches and methodologies in order to complete the project on time. Most of the time, deadlines of projects are unattainable due to wrongly set deadlines at the initial stages. Thus, the project manager needs to take the challenge of planning creatively, performing alternative analysis and communicating effectively to the members participating in the project.

2.    Cross Communication defect: The project manager needs to establish proper communication for the members of the project. It is essential for the manager to develop a checklist of the information that has to be conveyed.

3.    Scope changes: The project manager needs to communicate effectively to every member of the project team regarding any changes made in the project plan and the scope of the project.

4.    Resource competition: Projects usually compete for resources such as people, money and time. A project manager has to be able to define and set priority of the resources required.

5.    Uncertain dependencies: It is very important to determine the dependencies of the project and assessing the risks that are associated with the project. The manager has to be able to use various techniques such as brainstorming to monitor any uncertainties that are likely to occur in the project flow.

6.    Insufficient team skills: The challenge of the manager lies in documenting the core set of skills that are required to accomplish the tasks. On analysing the area in which the team lacks the skills that are required, the manager needs to be able to arrange for training sessions, additional resources and other external advisors to bridge the skills gap.

7.    Customers and end users are not engaged during the project: The challenge of the project manager is to maintain the deadlines of the project. It is essential to discuss and provide updates to all the participants of the project on a regular basis. It is required that the stakeholders and customers are kept informed of the progress of the work and the nature of the tasks accomplished. This ensures that everyone is equally engaged in the project and in turn gives satisfaction and motivates the team to progress in the assigned tasks.

8.    Non-centralized communication: The manager needs to maintain a centralized communication flow. If messages are ignored, it leads to various misinterpretations of key messages. It can result in unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings in the organizations.

A project manager has to be able to face challenges that come during the course of the project. We can summaries by stating that a project manager does the following:

• Manages stress and sustaining positive energy.
• Develops clear channels of accountability.
• Maintains positive attitude and relationships among employees.
• Motivates and facilitates employees to complete tasks in the defined time.
• Monitors and maintains a balance between the   expected and incurred cost in a project.

 Responsibilities of a Project Manager

The various responsibilities of a project manager are:

• Motivating the team.
• Allocating, scheduling and analyzing work for the team.
• Monitoring project resources.
• Effectively planning the necessary credentials.
• Setting objectives and targets for every individual in the project.
• Providing assistance to team members in solving queries.
• Performing a quick and effective review of the team’s work.
•  Reporting the status of work to the concerned department of the organization.

Project Management Roles

It is important that a hierarchy is maintained in the organisation to report any project related issues to the top management such as status of the work, suggestions, or any other factors. However, it is important that the issues are reported systematically and in order. The following steps illustrates the role of various members associated with the team Also, in some projects, where deploying manpower could be a problem, one person could execute more than one of the roles mentioned below:

• Project Expeditor: Responsible for monitoring and reporting the status of the project to the senior management. However, this role has no authority. A project expeditor acts only as a communication coordinator and does not possess the rights to enforce any decisions.
• Project Coordinator: The role is similar to that of a project expeditor. However, the project coordinator has some limited authority to make decisions.
• Programme Manager: The programme manager is also called as the change manager. The programme manager ensures that the delivery of projects benefits the business of the organization. The programme manager has command of all the managers and leaders responsible for monitoring the project.
• Project Manager: Manages individual projects assigned. The project manager has project leaders as reporting employees.
• Project Leader: Responsible for managing the different stages of the project. A project leader can report either to a project manager or to a programme manager or to both.

Self-Assessment Questions

1. What do we understand by the term ‘Project Expeditor’?

2. Is it necessary to maintain a centralized communication flow in the organization (Yes/No)?

3. Project Coordinator has no authority to enforce decisions regarding the project (True/False)