INTRODUCTION

The Complete Project Manager integrates key people, organizational, and technical skills.

OUTLINE

Each chapter highlights thoughts and stories about a particular skill. Here is an outline of what is covered:

Leadership/management. Leadership and management skills are those vital visionary and “can-do” competencies that are so necessary for those who are in a position to influence colleagues, team members, upper managers, clients, and others. These include charisma, teachability, and courage, as well as delegation, listening, and relationship-building skills.

Personal skills. Personal skills are interaction competencies for dealing with people. The complete project manager possesses the aptitude, attitude, and networking skills to interact with people effectively and achieve results.

The role of humor and fun. We advocate for the use of humor and fun because they make work more effective, productive, and memorable. A project manager’s toolkit is more complete when fun is on the agenda and every day includes laughter.

Project management skills. Complete project managers build upon the foundation established by PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. We add insights and examples as aids for complete project managers in their quest to make sense of and apply the PMBOK®.

Environment skills. Complete project managers can make more systemic and widespread progress by focusing attention on creating project-friendly environmental conditions than through any other effort.

Organization skills. An imperative facing complete project managers is not only to embark on a quest to manage project management processes, but also to execute projects within “green” organizations—ones that encourage project-based work. A “green” organization, instead of a “toxic” one, is better positioned not only to survive but to prosper, even in difficult times.

Negotiating skills. The results delivered by projects depend upon what you negotiate. It is in your best interest, and for your team and organization, to embrace negotiating as a requisite skill and implement it dutifully.

Political skills. Complete project managers understand the power structure in their organizations. Influence exists in people’s hearts and minds, where power derives more from legitimacy than from authority. To be effective, project managers need to become politically sensitive.

Conflict management skills. In situations that matter the most, we often perform at our worst. Learn to assess conflicts, develop a response, and conduct a learning conversation. Embrace constructive contention.

Sales skills. Know that you are continuously in sales cycles throughout project life cycles. Do not be a victim of lost sales or opportunities. Embrace the sales process as the means to secure necessary commitments in a genuine manner that is worthy of a complete project manager.

Change management skills. You cannot move forward and stay the same at the same time. The keys to dealing with change successfully are having a good attitude toward it and being prepared to meet it. Understand the change management process.

Market/customer knowledge. All projects have a customer. Complete project managers take care to understand market forces and customer satisfaction issues. Apply servant leadership skills. Implement ethical practices in all interactions.

Epilogue. Form a more complete picture of your role by integrating key concepts via storytelling, perhaps as a project office of one (POO). Complete a personal assessment.

Throughout the book, we emphasize the importance of having a positive attitude and how that approach helps organizations achieve project success.

VISUALIZATION

We use the structure of a complex molecule as a metaphor to highlight key components of the complete project manager (with thanks to Wikipedia.org and with apologies to the chemical discipline).

FIGURE I-1: A Molecular Compound

Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives.

Organic compounds are structurally diverse. The range of application of organic compounds is enormous. They form the basis of, or are important constituents of, many products and almost all earthly life processes.

Likewise, project management is the application of knowledge, skills, and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. It is a strategic competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business goals and better compete in their markets. The focus of project management is shaped by the goals, resources, and schedule of each project. The value of that focus is underscored by the rapid, worldwide growth of project management as a recognized and strategic organizational competence in all industries and organizations, as a subject for training and education, and as a career path.

Organic molecules can often contain a higher level of complexity compared to purely inorganic compounds, so the synthesis of organic compounds has developed into one of the most important branches of chemistry. Biochemistry—the chemistry of living organisms, their structure and interactions in a controlled environment and inside living systems—opened up a new chapter of organic chemistry with enormous scope. Biochemistry, like organic chemistry, primarily focuses on compounds containing carbon.

Project management is all about people, and we are struck by the enormous complexity of interests, styles, approaches, and interactive dynamics that are unleashed when we attempt cross-organizational project work. Each day brings new challenges, unheralded actions, and innovations. Behind it all, we must never forget that we are carbon-based creatures, enormously capable but seldom perfect.

The crucial breakthrough for organic chemistry was the concept of chemical structure, wherein carbon atoms could link to each other to form a carbon lattice… the detailed patterns of atomic bonding could be discerned by skillful interpretations of appropriate chemical reactions.

Project management has always been practiced informally, and it began to emerge as a distinct profession in the mid-twentieth century. The Project Management Institute’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide; 2008) identifies the recurring elements: the five process groups—Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing—and the nine knowledge areas, Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Procurement, Human Resources, Communications, and Risk Management. While this guide provides a basic structure for developing project management skills, linking to other disciplines, such as organization development, sales, and negotiations, is crucial for breakthrough performances.

Early examples of organic reactions and applications were often serendipitous. Then came systematic studies of organic compounds, followed by the synthesis of highly complex molecules via multistep procedures. Total synthesis of complex natural compounds increased in complexity and finally reached commercialization. Pharmaceutical benefits have been substantial. Complexity of total syntheses has been increasing.

Accidental project managers—people who came into the profession with little knowledge of processes and procedures—were, and often still are, common. The PMBOK® Guide advanced the profession and provides the foundation to produce deliverables that offer unique results.

An ever-expanding number of professions and industries are embracing project management, recognizing the benefits of a disciplined approach to create new outcomes. This expansion has created a need to develop new ways to apply established processes and has increased demand for practitioners with varied skill sets who can operate in increasingly complex environments. Leaders with robust skill sets can fuse disparate groups into new organizations through organic growth or mergers. These groups can then build novel or innovative solutions.

FIGURE I-2: Stereoisomer Molecules

Today’s research targets feature molecule bearing groups, such that an interchanging of any two groups leads to stereoisomer molecules that have the same molecular formula and sequence of bonded atoms but which differ in the three-dimensional orientations of their atoms in space. Human hands are an example of stereoisomerism—having the same physical properties except for the direction in which they rotate. Two compounds that are mirrors of each other have the same physical properties, except for the direction in which they rotate and how they interact with other compounds. They may have substantially different biological effects.

No longer will one job description suffice for managing projects, programs, and portfolios.

In contrast to many inorganic materials, organic compounds typically melt, and many boil. The melting and boiling points correlate with the polarity of the molecules and their molecular weight. Organic compounds are usually not very stable at temperatures above 300 °C.

Such is life. People have their limits, and when those limits are reached, they totally disengage—“melt away”—or they boil over in emotional outbursts. These reactions are attributable both to natural personality inclinations and to the coping skills a person has developed. Complete project managers are able to maintain greater stability.

Life on Earth is made of left-handed amino acids, almost exclusively, because they are made of similar acids that formed in space and fell to Earth in meteorites. Why do amino acids in space favor left? No one really knows, but it is known that radiation can also exist in left and right handed forms.

New possibilities can emerge from concentrated intent and research. Is it possible to create right-handed molecules? Who knows? Maybe, because they are known to exist. Similarly, the possibilities are unlimited for complete project managers who strive to develop new skills. The profession of project, program, and portfolio management will truly benefit from their efforts.

You can use Figure I-3 as a guideline or outline in a journey to build your own combination of “molecules”—your project management skill set.

FIGURE I-3: A Complete Project Manager “Molecule”