Exploring how a project manager adds value

Introduction: Becoming an effective project manager

Welcome back. Let's start by reviewing what we've discussed so far. Earlier, you were introduced
to project management as a career path. We discussed how this course can help you advance your
career goals with a project management certification. We also discussed some of the basics of
project management, like how to define a project and its different components. Then, we went
over some distinct project management careers, roles, and responsibilities. Now it's time to gain
a deeper understanding of a project manager's role. By the end of this module, you'll be able to
explain the unique value a project manager brings to their team. You'll also be able to describe a
project manager's roles and responsibilities, and list their core skills. This course will help you
continue to recognize the skills that you already have that will help you become a successful
project manager. It will also help you identify new skills that you may need to learn in
preparation for your new career. Ready? Let's get started.

The value of a project manager

Earlier in this course, we introduced you to the world of project management.
We discussed how project management spans industries and companies of all kinds, from large
corporations to small businesses. Now let's define what a project manager is and describe how they
add value to their teams and organizations. Let's start with the definition. Project managers shepherd
projects from start to finish and serve as guides for their team, using their impeccable
organizational and interpersonal skills every step of the way. As you learned earlier, project
managers usually follow a process that involves planning and organizing, managing tasks,
budgeting, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved
timeframe. We'll dig deeper into these topics throughout this program.
What you need to know right now is that project managers play a crucial role in their
organizations. Project managers add value to their teams and organizations in key ways that include
prioritization, delegation, and effective communication. So let's break these down. First, we'll discuss
prioritization. Project managers add value to their teams and organizations through effective
prioritization of tasks required to complete a project. They're experts at helping team members
identify and break down large tasks into smaller steps. There'll be times when a project
manager may not know which task to prioritize. To determine which ones are the most critical to the
success of the project, they'll connect with their teams and with stakeholders to gather information
and make a plan. Stakeholders are people who are interested in and affected by the project's
completion and success, like the leader of an organization. You've probably used prioritization to
complete work in the past. In any kind of project, personal or professional, there are tasks with
different levels of priority. For example, let's imagine that you've decided
to rent a house and plan to repaint the rooms. You've picked out your paint and you're eager to get
started. While it may be tempting to start painting right away, you'll need to prioritize tasks like laying
out drop cloths to protect the floors and furniture,
applying blue tape to the rooms' edges, and much more. Those preliminary steps are critical and
need to come before painting. Other related steps, like choosing new face plates for your light
switches, can come later in the process or be switched out of the project entirely if you run out of
time or money. When you choose to take care of these preliminary steps before wedging open the
paint can, you're prioritizing the tasks or steps of your project. You're also increasing the likelihood
that you'll be satisfied with your newly-painted rooms. This process is similar for professional
projects. When you effectively prioritize important tasks, you set up your team and yourself for a
better project outcome. Now, let's discuss delegation. Project managers use delegation to add value
to their teams and organizations by matching tasks to individuals who can best complete the work.
Let's return to our house painting example for a second here. Painting multiple rooms can be a time-
consuming project, so it's possible that you might enlist a few friends to help you get it done.
Maybe one friend has professional painting experience. Now, with that in mind, you might ask her to
handle the more challenging aspects of the project, like painting the ceiling or the detailed
molding. You might also schedule her to paint the molding before another friend paints the walls. So
by delegating this task to the person with the right skills to complete the work and ordering the task
appropriately, you're applying knowledge of your team's strengths to the planning of your
project. That makes sense, right? Finally, let's talk about effective communication. Project managers
deliver value through effective communication, both with their team and with key stakeholders.
This refers to being transparent, which means being up front with plans and ideas and making
information readily available. Project managers keep in regular contact with their team about the
progress of the work and help identify areas where a teammate may need support. In our house
painting example, this might involve checking in with your friends periodically to ask if they have
enough paint or supplies left to complete their tasks. Checking in regularly means you'll know if you
need to buy more paint before the can is empty, which ensures that the project stays on track. In
addition to keeping up with teammates, project managers keep in regular contact with people
outside of the team, like company leaders who are invested in the project outcomes. For example,
you might reach out to your landlord to get permission to paint and to share the days you'll be
working on this project. Though your landlord isn't directly involved in the project's execution, the
outcomes will affect her property and so it's important to keep her informed.
Without your project management skills, you might run out of paint halfway through the projectyour
walls might get painted without drop cloths to protect the floors, and your landlord could be caught
off guard about your plans. So it's a good thing you're here to keep the project running smoothly and
efficiently. Great. Now you should be able to define what a project manager is and explain how they
use prioritization, delegation, and effective communication to deliver value to their organizations.
Coming up, you'll hear about the career path of a real life project manager at Google. Their journey
to me is fascinating and we can't wait to share it with you.

JuAnne: Path to becoming a project manager

My name is JuAnne. I'm a Senior Program Manager at Google. I'm a first-generation Chinese
American. My family and I came to the United States when I was young. My parents worked
really hard when I was growing up and I spent a lot of time by myself, basically just having to
take care of myself; planning my meals, doing my homework, taking care of chores. I feel like I
got a little bit of my program management skills from just being really organized, having to be
really organized all the time. My path to being a project manager really started as a business
systems analyst. I was writing requirements or gathering requirements for our customers and
translating them into documentation for our engineers so that they could implement it. Through
that process, I became a project manager. I started to manage the timelines, manage the tasks,
understand all the pieces, and who needed to be involved. There you go, you have a project
manager. I think the funnest part about being a project manager is really working with people.
You get to meet all different kinds of people, different personalities. Sometimes you get to travel
to places to meet them but even when you don't, just meeting new people and understanding how
we interact, how people interact and behave is fascinating. I think if you build a relationship,
focus on the relationship, and really understand what their style, where they're coming from,
what their concerns are, it will help your working relationship much better. You can
communicate with them in the style that's necessary. You can work with them in the style that's
more receptive to them and that would just make the project better all around.