It’s a new year; a time that many project managers (PMs) should consider using for reflection and self-improvement. But in the pursuit of professional development, which essential skills of project management should PMs resolve to improve in 2019?
Project management requires a wide variety of different skills, but there are a few core competencies to focus on. Today, we’re looking at the key skills that are most important for PMs to prioritize when looking to increase their chances of future project success.
Communication
One of the most important skills a PM can master is communication; it facilitates just about every part of their role, from negotiating with vendors to holding performance reviews. PMs need to be able to delegate work, present to stakeholders, and manage resources on an individual level. Good communication aligns all members of a team towards common project goals, providing a much higher chance of project success.
To improve your communication, you need to make project expectations and goals clear to all relevant parties. Openness and visibility are essential for PMs, so a unified project plan which makes all your resources clearly visible will keep stakeholders and employees working towards the same goals. Create a system that fosters a culture of open communication; the resource management tools you use should make your project plan more transparent and provide you with intelligent insights to update stakeholders.
Time management
Time management is an art that can help streamline projects in many ways. PMs need to be able to effectively manage the allotted project time they have to avoid missing deadlines. Understanding how to prioritize means being able to identify the highest value tasks quickly, and those that will best advance the project.
There’s a great deal of data and moving parts involved in managing resources. To simplify time management, you need to create watertight project plans that outline realistic timeframes. Managing and reallocating the resources in your projects can be a time-consuming process. Simplifying how you manage resources is among the easiest and most important ways to improve time management.
Organization
PMs need to be able to understand how to prioritize work during a project so that they can forecast for the future – which requires effective scheduling. Organization is an art that can create order from chaos, and projects are susceptible to becoming chaotic without proper scheduling.
To improve your organization, you’ll need to look at how you plan. Do you plan out your daily, weekly and monthly tasks? Do you have clear structures for your project models and forecasting? How do you monitor your projects and identify areas for improvement?
These tasks help by saving time in the long term. If you’re looking to become more organized, tools can help by consistently generating in-depth and intelligent reports and forecasts. Monitoring resources can also be simplified with resource management software, which allows you to spend more time planning for the future.
Tempus Resource and the essential skills of project management
Today’s PMs are expected to take on more projects than ever, and this requires a remarkable amount of skill. Between the skills discussed in this blog and others, it can seem like PMs often have too much on their plates. In order to stay productive and successful, using a resource management tool is a PM’s best option.
Tempus Resource offers an intelligent resource management solution that gives PMs the insights and organizational tools they need to complete projects successfully. It offers ‘What-if’ simulations in a risk-free environment to help PMs make better business decisions. Using heat maps and cool maps to highlight resource allocation and performance, it also helps them identify areas where resources could be better used. Tempus Resource is the solution you need to improve your project management.
Find out more about how you can become a better PM with Tempus Resource.
