Contents
Companies are willing to pay those who flexibly manage processes so that the project is launched on time and makes a profit. Learn how to become a project manager.
What is project management?
Project management is the work of planning and organizing resources to achieve a goal. For example, publishing a book, organizing a wedding, renovating an office. The project manager does everything for the team and the customer to achieve the goal without breaking the deadline and inflating the budget.
Five Stages of Project Management
A critical property of a project is time constraints. Here, as in a play, there should be a beginning, a middle and an end. At the beginning, the costs and the team are small, in the middle they increase, in the end both the costs and the number of people in the team tend to decrease. The project life cycle consists of several stages:
- Initiation. Define a business problem. They outline it with large strokes, answering the questions “why?”, “Who will benefit?”, “Doable or not?”. This is done in order to understand whether it is worth getting down to business.
- Planning. A process that is not interrupted throughout the project. It is necessary to discuss the terms of reference with the customer, set goals, draw a project roadmap, determine KPIs, budget, dates and deadlines, distribute roles in the team.
- Performance. The team constructs the results and offers them to the customer.
- Monitoring. It goes along with the execution. The project manager controls the timing, budget, team workload and goal setting, that is, checks if there are any actions that lead away from the final goals.
- Completion. As a rule, they conduct a presentation for the customer, debrief in a team and, as in the case of IT projects, transfer it to support.
The material was prepared for the special project “Guide to MBA”
Types of project management
There are more than 15 methods in management that are suitable for projects of various sizes and topics. They can be grouped into five families:
- Classic
- Flexible
- Change Management Methods
- Process Based
- For large and complex projects
Classical methods
Their essence is to perform actions sequentially: completed one – do the next.
The waterfall method, or the waterfall model is suitable for creating physical objects: for example, a country house or a collection of clothes. The strength is that each step is pre-planned. The weakness is that the waterfall method is not tolerant of changes.
Critical Path Method (CPM). Suitable for projects where there are interdependent parts. Tasks are divided by duration and priority, critically important are selected, and they are given maximum attention. The method allows to increase speed and minimize errors, but does not adapt well to changes.
Flexible project management, or Agile
The main business value of the method is speed. It brings new products to market quickly. This is achieved by 61% of companies using an agile approach. Therefore, it is gaining popularity in our country. The share of mature Agile companies, according to ScrumTrek, reached 2020% in 21-23 against 13% in 2018-2019.
- Scrum suitable for developing something innovative. The work goes on in short cycles of 2-3 weeks, during which the product is released, tested and improved. The team and the customer are involved in the process as much as possible. Pros: speed, adaptability, team involvement. Cons: Difficult to budget.
- Kanban allows you to quickly adjust to new inputs, change priorities, load. It migrates from under the “umbrella” of agile, positioning itself not as a method to manage a separate project, but as a way to improve business processes in the company as a whole.
- Extreme Programming applicable only for software development. The point is to elevate effective practices to the absolute. Pros – high speed and quality of the code, and cons – difficult to implement, requires deep changes in the programming culture, suitable only for a strong team.
Change management
Methods focus the team’s attention on risks, negative scenarios and change.
- Event Modeling (Event Chain Methodology, ECM). The goal is to write a realistic scenario and identify how external predicted events will affect speed and feasibility.
- Extreme Project Management (EXP) created specifically for short projects with a high rate of change, high uncertainty and risks. The extreme is that it is allowed to change the plan, budget and even the result.
Process Based Methods
If the project can be represented as a car assembly line, then the Lean method, which originated in the Toyota concern in the mid-twentieth century, or Six Sigma, which was developed by Motorola in the 80s, are quite applicable to it.
- Lean manufacturing aims to eliminate waste: non-manufacturing costs, product defects.
- Method “Six Sigma” (Six Sigma) aimed at combating losses and speeding up processes.
For big projects
Certified and carefully documented methods that offer to break a large task into many subtasks, determine their duration, interdependence, degree of criticality. For example, American and British methods:
- PRINCE 2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) Created by the UK Department for Trade, OGC. Carries a product-oriented way for complex projects with given requirements. Strictly documented.
- PMBOK belongs to the American Institute PMI. It is a set of rules and practices of a recommendatory nature. It outlines 12 management principles in 8 areas.
Management tools
These are technical solutions for effective team work: calendars, task managers, bug trackers, systems for collaboration. Manage distributed employees, set tasks, control deadlines and manage workflow help:
- Asana
- Slack
- Trello
- Jira
- Pipedrive
- Notion
- MS Project
- Wrike
- Basecamp
- Monday
- ClickUp
- redmi
In connection with the sanctions of 2022, there are fears that the owners of popular services may leave the Russian market, as Worksection did, for example, or restrict work, as Slack announced that it was shutting down some Russian clients. The sanctions also called into question interbank payments. An overseas service may suddenly become unavailable for payment. Therefore, attention is switched to analogues, for example:
- Bitrix 24
- EvaTeam
- Advanta
- Megaplan
What do project managers do?
Having studied 25 vacancies of real employers on hh.ru, we recorded recurring requirements and grouped them. The main functions of a specialist:
- Коммуникация: discuss the business value of the project with the client and the team, build transparent communication, initiate meetings, resolve conflicts.
- Organization: assemble cross-functional teams, masterfully coordinate distributed teams.
- Planning: to know the methods of planning.
- Monitoring: control deadlines, resources, budget, loading.
- Application documents: draw up design and technical documentation, write tenders, collect a knowledge base.
Is the profession in demand?
In April 2022, 11 active vacancies for the position of “project manager” were published on the hh.ru website, half of them in Moscow. Specialists are looking for manufacturers of food products, household appliances, IT developers, transport and construction companies. For comparison, there are 574 times fewer vacancies for product managers – only 5. If you don’t have enough vacancies on SuperJob, hh.ru, Rabota.ru, pay attention to the selection of channels, sites and communities with current project vacancies.
Who can become a project manager
In practice, project positions are occupied by both high-level professionals who have gone from junior to senior specialist, as well as people with little work experience. To start, it is desirable to try and love to lead (any) projects, to have an idea about the basics of management, and, of course, brilliant communication skills.
Project Management Institute calls 7 basic skills for project managers:
- Коммуникация
- Leadership
- Motivation
- Making decisions
- Building trust
- Conflict Management
- Organization
How to enter the profession?
A perfectly working way is to get an internship or a starting position, but take on more responsibility than the position implies. This does not guarantee a transition to the position of a project manager, but it certainly increases the chances of a successful promotion.
Similar options are to implement a personal project, perhaps outside of the main job, or participate in a startup. Just be careful with the topic: it is advisable to choose startups and events worthy of a portfolio.
Free courses, participation in conferences, subscription to tg-channels help to understand whether the profession suits you, to consider it from a close distance.
- PMCLUB is a channel and an online school for those who make projects and products.
- Management Channel – several conferences about management in the IT business.
- Yandex School of Managers – lectures and webinars for people with average training.
- Netology is a free introductory module to the profession.
- Telegram channels and podcasts for projects and products.
Project manager salaries
The average salary of a project manager in our country for April 2022 is ₽69, according to the Rabota.ru portal, the minimum is ₽000, the maximum is ₽47.
In the IT sector, according to the results of the Habr.Careers study, the median salary is ₽130, the minimum is ₽000, and the maximum is ₽60. In the second half of 000, the salary of a manager in IT increased by 250% compared to the first half of the year.
Where can I learn project management?
A perfectly suitable base for development in the profession is a bachelor’s degree in management or economics. Separately, you can master project management in practice or short-term courses. They systematize knowledge about project management, and also give “hands” to try the same agile, for example, in educational website development.
University
If there are four free years for study, and you have chosen the field of development, then higher education is a logical decision. You can get a bachelor’s degree, which will become the basis for development in project management, in almost any university that has faculties of management, business, and economics.
Examples of suitable universities:
- High School of Economics (Moscow) trains project managers in the creative industries, media and production.
- Siberian Federal University (Krasnoyarsk) trains specialists in innovation.
- St. Petersburg University of Communications of Emperor Alexander I graduates bachelors in the profile “Economics and management in construction”.
- Murmansk State Technical University offers to master the management of innovative activities.
Courses
They are designed for those who want to quickly, in 3–12 months, immerse themselves in a topic. The courses allow you to practice basic tools – Agile, PRINCE2, PMBOK, Scrum – as well as work on business simulations and in real cases.
Courses are held:
- Institute of Vocational Education
- Geekbrains
- Skill Factory
- Netology
- Laba
- Workshop
- SkillBox
- ScrumTrek
- XYZ School
- International Academy of Expertise and Evaluation
MBA in project management
If you intend to cooperate with international companies and take on very complex projects, then the best way to reinforce this intention is an MBA degree.
Business schools with a specialization in project management:
- HSE Graduate School of Business
- Moscow Business School
- MIRBIS
