What makes a good project manager answer?

Your ability to see the big picture is crucial, but so is your ability to keep track of the details and make sure nothing falls through the cracks. The best project managers are highly organized without losing sight of the ultimate goal .

What do project managers do well?

A good project manager will keep the stakeholders informed, but also explain what it takes to deliver what they're looking for . This is what a good project manager does–they build relationships with their stakeholders and team members.

What is the most important thing a project manager does answer?

If innovation is required to be successful, the most important job of a PM is to nurture an environment where the team can innovate . To do this, the PM must communicate with team and stakeholders throughout the project; focus on solving problems, and create space for failure.

What is project management in simple words?

Project management is the act of planning, organizing, and managing a project in order to achieve a predefined goal or outcome . All types of businesses rely on projects to achieve many of their short-term and long-term goals, because projects are how things get done.

What does a project manager do on a daily basis?

They plan resources, handle finances, and organize the business documents related to the project . They also work directly with higher management to streamline the entire project management process to ensure the project has a set direction for success and it meets this definition of success at the completion period.

Is project manager a stressful job?

Being that project managers are responsible for the team's coordination and performance throughout a project, the role of a project manager can often be extremely stressful . It is no news that increased stress can negatively impact your productivity, from missing deadlines to going over-budget.

Is project management difficult?

Project management work is complex since project managers need to be so detail-oriented and organized to get their work done, but that doesn't mean that this field is too difficult to learn.

What do you need to be a project manager?

Project Management Professional (PMP)® For those with a four-year degree: At least three years of experience working in a project management capacity. At least 35 hours of formal project management education. For those without a four-year degree: At least five years of experience working in a project management capacity.

What are the 5 stages of project management?

There are typically five project life cycle phases: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closure . Initiation is where you define the goals, scope, budget, and timeline.

What Does a Project Manager Do? (2024)

Project management has always been an important function in business, and it’s only getting more important as time goes by.

In fact, by 2030, employers will need 2.3 million individuals each year to fillproject management oriented roles. To help manage this increasing need, 89 percent of organizations now have a project management office. Clearly, the job outlook for professionals with project management skills is increasingly positive.

If you’re considering a career in project management, you’re likely curious about the different roles and responsibilities you’ll have after earning your degree or certification.

Here’s a closer look at what project managers do—including key responsibilities—so you can better decide if it’s the right career for you.

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What Does a Project Manager Do?

In the broadest sense, project managers (PMs) are responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the completion of specific projects for an organization while ensuring these projects are on time, on budget, and within scope.

By overseeing complex projects from inception to completion, project managers have the potential to shape an organization’s trajectory, helping:

Reduce costs
Maximize company efficiencies
Increase overall revenue

The exact duties of a project manager will depend on their industry, organization, and the types of projects a PM is tasked with overseeing. But across the board, all project managers share responsibilities across what’s commonly referred to as the “project life cycle.”

This cycle consists of the following five phases (or processes):

Key Responsibilities of a Project Manager

1. Initiating

Project managers begin each new project by defining the main objectives of the project, its purpose, and its scope. They also identify key internal and external stakeholders, discuss shared expectations, and gain the required authorization necessary to move a project forward.

Important questions project managers ask during the initiating phase include:

Why is the project important?
What’s the specific problem we’re trying to solve?
What’s the desired outcome, and what are the project’s success criteria?
Who are the stakeholders on this project?
What are the requirements and constraints within this project?
What assumptions are we making?
How will the project be funded?
What’s within our scope, and what isn’t?
Has this project been executed before?
If similar projects have been completed, what were the results and how should they inform future and current projects?

It’s important to recognize that project managers don’t do this on their own. Oftentimes, project managers aren’t involved until much of this work is well underway.

As soon as the project manager is assigned, however, they need to fully engage in the above work which should culminate in a project being chartered and formally assigned.

2. Planning

Once the charter is approved, project managers work with key stakeholders to create an integrated project plan focused on attaining the outlined goals.

The plan established during this process helps project managers oversee the following:

3. Executing

During this phase, team members complete the work that has been identified in the project plan in order to reach the goals of the project. The project manager’s role is to assign this work and to ensure tasks are completed as scheduled.

The project manager will also typically:

Protect the team from distractions
Facilitate issue resolution
Lead the team in working through project changes

4. Monitoring and Controlling

Despite being listed as the fourth phase, monitoring and controlling processes actually commence at the beginning of a project and continue throughout planning, execution, and closing.

In the monitoring and controlling phase, a project manager’s work includes:

Monitoring the progress of a project
Managing the project’s budget
Ensuring that key milestones are reached
Comparing actual performance against planned/scheduled performance

Since things rarely go according to plan, project managers must be flexible enough to work within a project’s plan and willing to adapt when necessary.

5. Closing

During this phase, project managers strive to ensure all activities necessary to achieve the final result are completed.

During the close of a project, project managers will:

Work with the client to get formal sign-off that the project is complete
Release any resources (financial or personnel) who are no longer needed for the project
Review the work of third-party vendors or partners to close their contracts and pay their invoices
Archive project files for future reference and use

After the project has been completed, a post-implementation review is often used to identify key lessons learned. Understanding what went well, what could be done differently, and what to stop doing can help inform and improve project management practices moving forward.

Is Being a Project Manager Stressful?

Project managers’ tasks vary substantially depending on which phases of the life cycle their projects are in.However, there are a number of general tasks that any good project manager can expect to perform on a daily basis.

Some of these responsibilities include:

Communicating with team members: Project managers must regularly communicate with members of their team via email, phone, daily check-ins, or team meetings to determine the status of various projects and identify potential roadblocks.
Communicating with key stakeholders: Project managers must consistently update key stakeholders on project progress and relevant data to ensure the project still aligns with changing company initiatives.
Issue identification and resolution: Project managers must ensure any issues related to scope, budget, and resource allocation are resolved effectively to keep projects on track.
Budgeting: For small-scale projects, cost estimation may be a weekly or even a monthly task. But for larger projects with many different expenses to keep in mind, project managers may review budgets or invoices from outside vendors daily to ensure the project doesn’t exceed resource allocations.
Time management and approval: Many project managers turn to timesheets or a project management software to see how their team is spending their time and whether projects remain on track.
Team-building: A good project manager will keep their team productive and happy. This can be achieved through team-building exercises to boost morale—particularly after challenging weeks or phases of the project—or organizing a weekly lunch or happy hour.

Due to these responsibilities, project managers must exhibit a variety of soft skills and technical skills to effectively manage an entire team and successfully meet project goals. To avoid stress, project management professionals must be well-versed in the project management process. A successful project manager should have excellent time management skills and always be focused on achieving the team’s project objectives.

Project Management vs. Portfolio Management vs. Program Management

Project management is an umbrella term which can actually refer to three different types of management: Project management, portfolio management, and program management.

While these disciplines are all similar and interrelated, they each have unique differences that impact the responsibilities of project managers in their given roles.

Three types of interrelated project management disciplines include:

Project Management: In a traditional project management role, the objective is to complete a project successfully, while remaining on time and within budget. Project managers utilize a variety of project management strategies to help organize teams and complete projects according to their success criteria while engaging stakeholders appropriately.
Program Management: A program is the coordinated management of a set of interrelated or similar projects to achieve an organization’s objectives in a way that’s not possible if managed separately. Program managers collaborate with project managers to ensure each project is strategically aligned and on track to hit major milestones. Program managers also facilitate organizational change, manage the dependencies between projects, and address any project- or organizational-level issues and risks that affect the program.
Portfolio Management: A portfolio is the organization’s collection of programs, projects, and operational work. Portfolio managers work with the organization’s leaders to identify, prioritize, select, balance, authorize, evaluate, and control the organization’s approved work to best meet its strategies, given resource capacity and risk.

Developing Project Management Skills For Success

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in project management, it’s critical that you develop the necessary skills to execute the tasks assigned to you. Earning an advanced project management degree is one way to learn and improve those skills, increase your salary, and enhance your marketability to employers while giving you hands-on experience in the field.

To learn more about advancing your career in project management, download our free guide below.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2017. It has since been updated for accuracy and style.