Datasheet

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Part I: Setting the Stage for Project
Whether you have good news or bad, you can use reports to show your boss
how things are going compared with how you thought they would go. Then,
after you peel your boss off the ceiling, you can use many more Project tools
to make adjustments to get everything back on track.
The Role of the Project Manager
Although understanding the role (let alone the usefulness) of some manag-
ers isn’t always easy, it’s always easy to spot the value of a project manager.
This person creates the master plan for a project and tries to ensure that it
gets implemented successfully. Along the way, this key person uses skills and
methods that have evolved over time, always seeking to manage how things
get done and generally keeping schedules on track.
A real pro project manager may have a degree in project management or
a professional certification. For example, if you see the initials PMP beside
someone’s name, that person has achieved the Project Management
Professional certification from the Project Management Institute, the leading
global organization establishing project management standards and creden-
tials and offering educational and other resources in the field.
What exactly does a project manager do?
A project manager isn’t always the highest authority in a project; often that
role belongs to whomever manages the project manager, up to and including
members of senior management. Rather, the project manager is the person
on the front lines who makes sure that the parts of the project come together
and assumes hands-on responsibility for successes as well as failures.
In project management parlance, the person who champions (and has the ulti-
mate responsibility for) a project is the project sponsor.
A project manager manages these essential pieces of a project:
✓ The project plan or schedule: This is what you create with Microsoft
Project. It includes the estimated steps and associated timing and costs
involved in reaching the project goal.
✓ Resources: Managing resources involves resolving resource conflicts
and building consensus as well as assigning resources and tracking their
activities on the project. This part of the job also involves managing
nonhuman resources, such as materials and equipment.
✓ Communication with the project team, management, and customers:
Communicating the project’s status to everyone who has a legitimate
stake in its success (stakeholders) is a key responsibility.
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