Paola Urrutia – Manuel Monge
Regional Community Managers
Patricia Ricaurte
Project Manager Grupo STT
When working as a project manager, it’s normal to encounter a variety of challenges. Overcoming such challenges is vital to functioning as a high-performance project manager. In this article we will analyze How to solve the challenges of the Project Manager?
Managing the work of a team with members of very varied talents is one of the main challenges for the project manager. Therefore, the work of the team must be unified. When the team is kept on the same page, they will be able to work simply and with a common goal.
All projects start with a well-defined schedule, and the team’s work is defined by the schedule. The project manager must be sure that all team members know the content of the schedule. They should also be aware of important calendar dates.
One of the biggest problems for the project manager can be ill-defined goals. Goalless goals can also lead a project in a dangerous direction. One of the most important jobs of the project manager is to define goals and objectives for the project. Therefore, this part of the process is a major challenge in which you have to succeed.
Patricia Ricaurte, our special guest, tells us her experience and her points of view in the area of project manager.
Patricia has been in the project area for 14 years, I started in this beautiful world when I was just 21 years old and I was given the opportunity to be part of several projects in a company, from this moment on the challenge began.
I have a specialization in project development which is focused on economic and financial analysis and another specialization in project management, you may wonder what differentiates one from the other? I will tell you a little so you can have clarity.
What is the difference between project management, project leader and project manager?
– Project Management is the discipline that studies planning, organization, motivation and control of resources in order to achieve objectives.
– Project Leader is the person who has technical knowledge for the project, an example in a development team, is the leader of that team.
– Project Manager: Project manager is the person in charge of providing a project office or organization with the necessary information to carry out one or more projects of the company.
What does a project manager do?
A project manager is the person responsible for generating the start, planning, design, execution, monitoring and control, and closing of the project.
What information is strictly necessary for the start of a project?
– Definition of scopes
– Clear objectives
– Assign the team of people who will be involved in the project
– Have the go on the part of the company
– Start with the right planning for the project
Do you recommend any methodology to face or carry out a project either at a personal or work level? What would that step by step be like?
Nowadays there are different types of methodologies to carry out projects, this depends on the organizational culture that is carried out in the companies, personally, there is a hybrid between PMI and Scrum; and you wonder what is this? I’ll explain.
Is there a formula for defining delivery times?
Following up on the commitments of the activities carried out in a project
Should you always prepare a planning or do you handle some flexibility?
Planning is extremely important since performing properly provides the success of a project.
How to coordinate management of groups and teamwork, when it is a project that involves different areas or suppliers?
Communication is important, since this is the key tool that ensures effective and efficient management in working groups.
What’s the best thing you’ve learned as a project manager?
The best thing I have learned is to work as a team and to have assertive communication with each of them, aside from many things I love about my work, is to organize in detail the activities and times since this gives us the pillars of the project.
What recommendation would you give when starting a new project with a client?
– Clarity in the requirements that are being requested
– Clarity in scope and objectives
– Have assertive communication
Often, when planning a project, setbacks that may arise in development are not considered. It is important to communicate such setbacks to the client and provide the most detailed information as possible about the work process.
Honesty and clarity will lead us to define better work deadlines; formulating a realistic work plan is one of the key tasks of a project manager.
It’s critical to keep these challenges in mind when you’re still in the planning phase before issues grow and become a burden on stakeholders, team members, and yourself.
But once you have a solid structure in place to solve any problems that may arise, you’ll be well equipped to prevent any management complications that may occur, or at the very least, you’ll have a contingency plan to solve it.
