With more and more companies employing a project manager either as a member of staff or freelance, we ask: are project managers a vital cog in the wheel of commerce, or just another trendy accessory?
Written by Rebecca Waters
Project Management established itself in the 1950s and 1960s and primarily consisted of techniques for planning/controlling schedules and costs for large aerospace and construction projects. Before the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt Charts (developed by Henry Gantt, referred to as ‘the father of planning and control techniques’) and informal techniques and tools.
While project management is a relatively new business process, companies have been quick to embrace it - thanks to huge advances in the 1980s and 1990s - with an increasing number of companies employing a project manager either as staff or freelance. While they earn a fair wage for the responsibility, they really make their money through adding value to a project. Even so, is it in a business’ best interests to have a project manager?
A VITAL COG OR A TRENDY ACCESSORY?
Julie Wood, a Director at ARUP, Winner of Project Management Company of the Year at the Association for Project Management Awards 2007, argues that project managers are vital to a business.
“You have got someone dedicated to making sure the client gets what they want in terms of quality, in terms of it being delivered on time,” says Wood.
“The other thing that they bring is that they work as a catalyst to the project, so they get involved, they are unblocking problems when you get stalemates with members of a project team, and getting involved in making sure that the project is still going forward.”
TURNING A PROJECT INTO A SUCCESS
Good project management is designed to ensure that outputs are delivered within tolerance (often referred to as "triple constraints") i.e. time, budget and scope. Often employees within an organization do not have the capacity to complete the additional demands on their time, or have the required leverage over line managers to make things happen.
“An organisation may have a person who is responsible for the management of a project and it might be that the person isn’t called a project manager – it might be that is someone within the business who is actually told it is your job to make sure the project works. So essentially you have still got a project manager, you just haven’t got somebody who is formally dedicated to doing that,” says Wood.
“What that means, is they are often trying to do two jobs – they are trying to do their day job and they are trying to make sure the project is successful – often they haven’t got time to do that,” she explains. “A project manager moves the project forward in either the right direction or at the right pace for the client’s needs.”
As well as time, employees do not often have the right set of skills to drive a project forward.
“Historically in the construction industry, it has been the architect who has done a lot of this work, bringing together the design team and dealing with a lot of the management issues. But I think in the last 20 years, architects have wanted to be much more focused on the aesthetic of the building and have passed their management skills to other people and that is really where the project managers have taken over,” says Wood.
HAVING THE RIGHT SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
Unlike the architects of the project, project managers have qualifications to manage the project. This means that unlike other employees, they have the right skills to ‘make things happen’ and successfully push a project forward.
In today’s competitive environment, professional qualifications provide proof of a credible candidate and are essential. The APM Group specialises in the accreditation and qualification of organisations, processes and people, within a range of industries and management disciplines. Among the project management qualifications APM offers is PRINCE2 and MSP.
ARE THEY WORTH THE MONEY?
There are, of course, some companies who can effectively manage a project from start to finish but other companies have a more ‘spotty’ reputation, which is why a project manager is an important part of an organisation’s arsenal.
As is often the case, without a project manager, projects are completed late, over-budget and without meeting the requirements of the client, due to lack of planning, heavy stress and overtime work. By investing in a project manager, the likely success of delivering a project to brief is increased. This is because the project manager is dedicated to synchronising all aspects of the project, from a controlled start, through delivery and onto business as usual. As Wood concludes, “good designers don’t always make good managers”.