Project Manager Duties - Top 10 1/2

There are a number of project manager duties which are key in managing and delivering a project. Therefore whilst a project manager is ultimately responsible for getting the project over the finishing line to launching, there are a number of other, rather more mundane project manager duties which need to be fulfilled.

These include:

1.0 Project Management Documentation

A key element of a project manager’s duties is unfortunately documentation. This needs to be generated to provide a framework within which the project will delivered.

Examples of the project management documents a project manager will be expected to deliver include:

• Project Business Case or Project Justification Document (PJD)
• Project Initiation Document or Project Charter
• Project Scope Statement
• Project Management Report (Weekly)
• Project Risks and Issues Log
• Project Closure Report (PCR)

2.0 Project Planning

When you think of what the duties of a project manager might be I bet that the word planning came instantly into your mind and it is true that there is a great deal of planning in project management.

Examples of what a project manager might be expected to deliver in the course of their work includes:

• Creating a Project Plan
• Project Management Tracking
• Determining a Contingency Approach for the project

3.0 Project Risk and Issue Management

Managing project risk has become a real cottage industry within the project management profession. However as far as I am concerned it is far more important that one concentrates and manages the project issues, since these are the problems which have already occurred and are impacting project time and cost.

However it does pay to have at the very least a project risk log in which is maintained via the project risk management process, all the potential pitfalls which might occur on the project. This is required if only to ensure that should any of them happen, that you as the project manager are “covered”.

4.0 Project Resource Management

A key project manager duty is to ensure they get the right people working on their project. This is absolutely vital as it is your resources who will ensure your project is successful, rather the amount of paperwork generated.

Of course key elements in this are project resource planning and subsequently project resource management. 4.0 Managing the Project Budget In these constrained times, being able to effectively deliver a project within the budget set when estimating project costs is absolutely vital part of a project manager duties. Therefore a project manager has to become extremely creative in finding ways to get what is required completed within the given budget for a project.

Needless to say this is a great deal easier to do than you might think, and it is something which project manager’s definitely become more adept at doing with more experience.

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