Anyone interested in being a Project manager must get the proper training and certifications

A Project manager is meant to manage the daily stages and progress of a project and must have the drive to control the six aspects of a project: scope, schedule, finance, risk, quality, and resources. These professionals work on specific projects to define results, set time limits, and must stay within a reasonable financial plan.

Anyone interested in being a Project manager must get the proper training and certifications. You can start a career in software project management solely with a bachelor's degree in business, software engineering, IT, computer science, and project management. Novices frequently start as interns or junior developers and later switch their careers to business analysts or software development directors.

The duties

The tasks a Project manager must complete may include, but are not limited to:

• Plan all steps to be done, who will complete the tasks, when they need to be completed, and assigns deliverables for each assignment.
• Thinking about all the possible risks and disadvantages of every project. Manage and contain those risks.
• Setting the bar high with quality standards to provide the best outcome possible.
• Find the right way to motivate the team and people involved in the project
• Delegate and coordinate the work done by several people
• Track and make sure the project runs on time and within budget
• React to unforeseen complications and prevent them if necessary
• Make sure the project provides the expected results and complies with the goals

The skills

There is a wide range of skills needed to be a project manager, and they're not necessarily all technical. These can be the ones you use in your day-to-day life, maybe the ones you use to handle your personal projects or difficult situations. They can also be job-specific abilities built while in college or a different type of work.

These are called soft skills and hard skills, which can range from good management, being able to inspire and help others, having good communication and decision-making skills, managing risk, making financial arrangements, and project planning.

The processes

The success of any PM task relies on five phases:

Initiation

It's the first phase of the project life cycle, where you get an idea of the project and determine what it will take for it to work. Determine the goals, scope, potential risks, timeline, and estimated budget.

Planning

The planning process is where you decide the project's scope and create a plan to meet the goals. The scope helps detect costs, create timetables, and establish a baseline to measure progress and execution. Define responsibilities and roles to achieve the goals.

Execution

The PM will oversee the purchase of resources and develop a team. Have status meetings, and set up a system to track overall progress.

Performance/Monitoring

PMs ensure the project's development and performance to assess performance with the baselines set during the project's beginning stages.

Closure

The final phase occurs once the stakeholders accept and confirm the project's outcome.

To sum up

Project manager soft skills can be transferred from one industry to another. The tools and techniques needed by a good project manager are universal and should be able to add value to any environment and activity.

As this article explores, it is essential to have the right balance and blend of the numerous skills needed to be a successful, goal-driven project manager.