Challenges for a project manager

The other day, a bunch of techies were discussing about their career path. Most of them wanted to go deeper and deeper into their chosen technology and attain nirvana. One among them had displayed a keen interest in moving to a project management role and all others were critical of his choice. Their main contention was that there is no challenge in a project manager’s role! All agreed that each project had the same set of challenges and once one had done project management for one project, all other projects were cakewalk. They had somehow figured out that all challenges in life lie in technology. Coding all through the night and feeling elated when a critical issue was resolved or a bug busted was all they thought of challenges and each project according to them offered newer technical challenges. However, project management, according to them, was bland!

Some people still prefer to live in their own cocoon. However, all said and done, there is spice in project management! Agreed that a project manager independently can not complete a release. He is the person who is always dependent upon his team members. But, a project manager is the person who is responsible for getting the work done. And whenever the job gets done, the project manager smiles to himself and is contented. The project manager is the facilitator among all the different project stakeholders. And each project has a different set of stakeholders. This calls for different types of people management in different project team. Similarly, the structure of the engagement, the deliverables, and the processes, the risks, each are different in different projects. There is a lot to learn from all of these. One the most important job of the project manager is to ensure productivity increase and this requires various innovative ideas to structure and execute projects. I have felt that, apart from managing the people and keeping them focused and motivated, this is one of the biggest challenges a project manager can have which changes from project to project.