The Project manager

The role of the Project Manager

It is in the nature of projects that no two are ever identical and managing them means making decisions on the basis of very uncertain information. The more experienced the project team, the more reliable will be projections as to the capabilities of the team and how quickly specified objectives can be met. Essentially, however, every project means breaking new ground and predictions are never 100% reliable. The role of the project manager is to minimise the risks involved in the development process by careful planning and monitoring. This involves building time, cost and resource safety margins into estimates and devising alternative emergency strategies.

While project management is an inexact science, the role of the project manager is nevertheless capable of definition. In general, it is the responsiblity of the project manager to:

In the planning stage, the project manager, after discussion with all team members, draws up a plan which includes: Sufficient safety margin has to be built into the plan to allow for such things as rise in costs, rise in salaries, holidays, illness, unforeseen technical problems, and additional expenses over the lifetime of the project.

In the production stage, the project manager

As a team leader, it is the project manager's role to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each team member. In doing so, the project manager should first listen to the ideas of team members as to where they can best contribute according to their talent and experience. Resolving conflicts will involve ensuring that all team members feel that their points have been listened to and weighed, and that the final decision is fair. A good team leader must also be able to delegate authority where appropriate and not over-direct. (Interactive Information Systems Ltd., (1991), "User guide", np.)

It is the role of the project manager to ensure good team communications through regular individual and group meetings, and the circulation of memos and other documentation. Keeping the team informed about the project's progress and regularly consulting and involving all members in decision-making will ensure that everyone retains a feeling of ownership in, and commitment to, the project. (Interactive Information Systems Ltd., (1991), "User guide", np.)

It is advisable that each team member keep a log of procedures, task progress and checks completed. It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure that procedures are adhered to and revised if necessary, and to draw up or collate new procedures when required, to be given to all team members. Tracking progress in this way will benefit not just the project in hand but future projects by generate a bank of data of use in making more reliable predictions as to the cost, time and resources required by similar projects in the future.

The project manager should be advised immediately about any problems that look as though they could have budget, deadline or product-quality implications.

Timetabling can be critical. The timings of tasks should be negociated with those involved to enable realistic targets for the team and individual members to be set. A timetable for the completion of tasks and team meetings can then be drawn up and given to all team members by the project manager. (This sample Gantt chart and sample network chart were generated using MacProject project management software on the Mac. Such software can be invaluable in identifying conflicts in the allocations of resources both within a project and between projects and in trying out alternative solutions in seeking a solution. See, also, this network chart of the development process.)

It is the role of the project manager to support team members, motivating the team, praising individual and team contributions, and pushing for the tools and other resources required to realise the project's aim within the available budget.

Because project management is a very practical skill, learned best by actually managing, experience is vital. Inexperienced project managers need to work with experienced managers as mentors. This is often the relationship between the producer and the project manager, where the producer has more experience of projects and acts as a mentor to the less experienced project manager. Often, however, the roles of producer and project manager are played by the same person.

Personal Skills and Qualities of the Project manager

The project manager must be a good team leader and team player, participative, non-threatening, open-minded, a good listener, fair minded, able to see things from competing points of view, a problem solver with the ability to steer not simply a middle course but a winning course in terms of the project's objectives and see decisions through.

The CD-I Production Handbook describes the CD-I producer (or project manager) as "a jack of all trades -- someone whose knowledge has to encompass a variety of areas, from sound-recording to software engineering, and from animation to video techniques, with project management and public-relations skills thrown in for good measure." (Philips IMS, 1992, p.4.)

As for the team leader, depending on the scale of the organisation and team-member experience, that might be a director, producer, or interactive designer. (Philips IMS, 1992, p.21)

Preston describes the need for talented and adventurous people with backgrounds in film, TV or corporate video, and book publishing. (J.M. Preston, ed., 1991, pp.55Ð56)

Bibliography

Interactive Information Systems Ltd., (1991) Principles of Project management -- Talent Series (Laserdisc training materials course)
Philips IMS (1992), The CD-I production Handbook, Wokingham England
J.M. Preston, ed. (1991), Compact Disc-Interactive: A Designer's Overview (Deventer, The Netherlands, 2nd edn.)
Rickard, S. (1994), Project Management: Delivering on Time", pp.201-210 in Turner, J. (1993), The Handbook of Project-based Management. McGraw-Hill.