5 Reasons Why Engineers Should Understand Project Management Principles & Practices

Since I started giving project management training a few years ago, a week doesn't go by without me having to answer a question or two about why engineers need to spend time thinking about project management principles, best practices and skills. Here are my top 5 reasons.

1. Because you are already a part-time project manager

Whether you feel like it or not, you are always involved in projects as an engineer. If you are a designer, group leader or a project leader, being good at what you do will force you to take care of some high-value engineering initiative; or in other words, manage a project. Whether this is an easy or more challenging project, it is indispensable that you align yourself with best practices from day one on your (new) role.

2. Because you are accountable to the project manager

In matrix organizations, the project team members are accountable to the project manager and to their functional managers. Whether you are the project team leader or not, you must be able to handle team member conflicts and deal with different personalities to help keep your team working efficiently together and stay on track.

3. Because you want to be professional

If you do not consider how you approach project management, but rather simply do what you “feel” is effective, then you are not being professional. There is more to project management than what was picked up throughout your engineering career by trial-and-error or from other engineers. Talk to professionals who have had formal training, or even hold the PMP certification, and you will realize that there is an alignment among engineering, team work, leadership, and other career activities that can be acquired from a well-delivered dose of formal project management training.

4. Because it saves you time and mental energy

Whether we are talking about project management or any other domain, having standardized and proven operating procedures in place helps you optimize your work habits, productivity and quality. Project work has some repetitive tasks. Knowledge of best practices will allow you to efficiently align those tasks together. It will also help guide you to the best process to follow for new and more strategic tasks.

Also, consistency is a key success factor for teams. If you are consistent in the way you manage your projects, the people you work with will become increasingly confident in your ability to organize and execute. From an engineering career standpoint, being consistently effective is a major asset.

5. Because it may be the best next development for you

Of course, you are the one to decide what is your next self-fulfilling career step, but whether you are looking at engineering management, project engineering, project coordination or any formal career as a project manager, then project management training is one of the most relevant learning spaces for you.

Information on project management is massively available online; simply search for it, and if you would like to have better structured information, let me know and I would be glad to help. Also, there are several certification tracks for project management professionals, such as the PMP? certification by the PMI?. Keep in mind, however, that those certifications do not provide you with formal study of the principles that it represents.

Once you have the right knowledge, it's up to you to be the professional you are capable of being in your career.

------------------------------

Samer El Itani, M. Eng, PMP is an international engineering & project manager, consultant, trainer and author. Samer has an extensive experience in team leadership, project management, and engineering earned from a career as an engineering manager and technical sales in the energy and infrastructure industry. Samer coaches engineering professionals and project managers helping them to create a career and life of fulfillment.