A project manager's top priority should be…

One day I accidentally became involved in an interesting conversation. A developer was telling a story about his conflict with another developer on a project. The less experienced team member did not want to learn from the more experienced one, and when this resulted in mistakes, he refused to admit them.

And I asked the first developer: 'Why didn't you go to the project manager? After all, this is one of the most important functions of the PM to resolve conflicts and ensure a healthy atmosphere in the team!'.

And that developer answered me something like this: 'Our PMs are mostly more traditional – they are responsible for schedules, budgets, and communicating the status of the project to the client'.

And then I wondered: what is a 'traditional' PM?

What is PM in the understanding of PMs?

I asked PMs I know a question: 'What, in your opinion, is the main function of the PM?'. And I received the standard answers:

• complete the project on time and within budget
• complete the project with the required level of quality
• satisfy the customer’s needs

Literally, only a few remembered the team and the role of the PM as a guarantor of the team's performance, as the person who is called upon to protect the team from negative external influences.

But the team is the main resource of the project, and no project will be completed on time, within budget, and with proper quality if the project team is not healthy!

Unfortunately, there are often cases when PMs 'squeeze' everything out of the project team to meet the deadline and budget, without even thinking about how this affects the team, and how it motivates it.

There are also quite often situations when the PM asks the developer questions about his tasks in an incorrect form, questioning his qualifications, diligence, and responsibility. In such cases, most often we have a project completed on time and with minimal deviations from the budget, a satisfied customer, and... a completely burnt-out team, unable to repeat their great achievement again.

What is PM according to the project team members?

I also often heard the opinions of teams (developers, QA engineers, BAs, designers, etc.) about what the PM is. And here, too, the range of opinions turned out to be minimal: PM is a 'boss' who

• assigns tasks
• controls deadlines for their completion
• sends reports on the status of the project to the company's management and to the client
• can 'retell' to the customer what he learned from the team about the status and problems of the project: especially if the customer speaks a foreign language

And again, not a word about the fact that PM is a person who inspires and motivates the team!

What is a PM from my point of view?

It's hard to say why this happens. Perhaps this is based on the 'classical' approach to project management with its 'project triangle': time, budget, and scope. And quality of work at the center of the triangle. But if you look at it deeper, then all this is impossible without a properly formed, organized, and motivated team.

Therefore, my opinion is that the main focus of any PM should be on the team. After all, people are the main resource of any project, without which no PM will complete any project.

A lot has been written in the literature and on the Internet about team management, but many tools are not used in practice.

So, what are the main team management activities that a PM should perform?

Team formation

Of course, not every company allows a PM to select resources for his project independently: he often has to work with those people who are on the company's staff and available at a given time.

Nevertheless, at the stage of forming a team, a PM must at least

• introduce the guys to each other
• ensure the same understanding of the goal of the project
• inform about the approaches to managing this specific project that he is going to use
• motivate them to work together in a positive way.

Onboarding

If it is still possible to attract external contractors to the team, then the most important action of the PM should be #onboarding.

In general, it includes all the same actions that are performed when forming a team, but here it is additionally necessary to inform the new team member about the rules for working with projects that exist in the company: time tracking, notification of unavailability (e.g., day-off, sick-day), rules for participation in meetings, etc.

Conflict management

At the stages when a team is already beginning to work together and, perhaps, is moving towards the peak of its productivity, conflicts are inevitable. Claims against PM are also not excluded. Naturally, it is important for a PM to be able to identify potential conflicts shortly, as well as resolve those that have already occurred. Perhaps there is no better tool for this than communication: one-to-one meetings, retrospectives, informal communication, etc.

Here I would like to emphasize three very important points that PMs often forget:

• The PM must always (when there are clear arguments for this) defend the interests of the team to the customer. If the customer asks to speed up: show that this is only possible by adding a resource and/or budget; if the customer asks to take some work out of turn: show how this will affect other tasks, deadlines, and milestones, etc.
• The PM should not hide the problems and risks of the project from the customer, or artificially create the appearance that everything goes well. Otherwise, the team will stop trusting the PM
• The PM must be able to adjust project management processes not only to the project itself, but also to the team: eliminate meetings and rituals that the team considers useless, adapt the format of meetings and rituals to the team's requests, etc. Naturally, the process adopted by the organization must be followed, but flexibility in this case is extremely necessary. And this is only possible in a 'healthy' organization

Training

The PM should train the team – new approaches and tools that he is going to use when managing the project, the features of this kind of projects he may have worked on previously, identifying potential project risks, rules of communication, and reporting on the project – everything that will allow the team to feel protected and comfortable in terms of the processes on the project.

Team building

These activities are acceptable and even needed at any stage of the project! Going to a bar together, watching new films, discussing an interesting book someone has read, playing board games – whatever the team likes!

A PM can also offer the team some gamified traditions: small talks at the beginning of the daily standup (for example, on Monday, before the standard speech, each team member talks about the most interesting event of the weekend), a day when the team communicates exclusively in English (well, in

joint meeting at least).

Also, for example, before the New Year, the PM can prepare something like a dashboard of the team's achievements for the year, giving symbolic gifts to everyone. And in this case, the hybrid format of the team's work cannot serve as an excuse – over the past few years, people have learned to drink beer together even online! :)

So, what are the main conclusions that these reflections have led me to?

• There is no such thing as a 'traditional' PM – each organization puts into the concept of #ProjectManager the meaning and content that meets its current needs. But if even in one company not everyone has the same understanding of who the PM is, then this is a PMO's mistake
• The project is carried out by a team. Therefore, despite the classic project triangle, the main focus of a PM should be on the team: a motivated team of 'middles' is more likely to complete a complex project than a team formed from indifferent and burnt-out 'seniors'.

What is a PM from your point of view? Share in the comments!

#ProjectManagement #Agile