Project managers must be able to address and solve problems within the team, as well as those that occur outside the team. Armed with the company skills inventory and personal competence scores, employees who take the appropriate training will see their value to the company rise. The eight areas of focus for IT professional development and a sampling of associated skills include: Customer focus—employee possesses knowledge of customers’ business needs and expectations; delivers constructive qualitative feedback to customers, meets deadlines, and works with customers to set requirements and schedules, Technical skills—employee possesses skills related to programming, computer- aided software engineering, desktop client services, enterprise infrastructure applications, technical software, and hardware support, Product or technology evaluation and expertise—employee analyzes and compares products, makes sound recommendations within the company architecture, understands and recognizes limitations of technologies, can communicate the fundamentals of technology to others, and uses technical team resources to resolve or avoid technology-based problems, Business and application expertise—employee possesses knowledge of business-specific applications, knows company’s business and local operations, knows the broad application environments (e.g., order entry and accounting), and understands general concepts of business management, Project management—employee handles projects of certain size and complexity, estimates project costs and schedules with a degree of accuracy, executes project to plan, manages multiple projects at once, builds teams and organizes team resources, and knows project management tools, Interpersonal skills—employee performs as team member or team leader, contributes knowledge to the team and to the organization, and communicates effectively, Administrative skills —employee has understanding of budgeting, interviewing, economics of the business, and salary and review process. 2. Again, there is no single, reliable answer. Good intuition takes an incredible amount of knowledge and experience and is thus highly valuable. Now let us examine the skills and qualities needed to meet these requirements. It lays out a road map for skills development, work role definition, career tracks, resource management, staffing allocation, workload balancing, and learning. GAUSMAN & MOORE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS. Through a program of skills identification, IT organizations can see the holes in their coverage, set priorities for projects, define which training is required, and determine which skills may need third-party coverage. No matter where you are at in your career, it’s important to continue growing and learning to improve. A good project manager understands this and is able to prioritize accordingly. Continuous training is considered essential to the program’s success. Talented project managers understand that in addition to communicating well, they must also listen well. Although many programs and initiatives adopt the label skills management, most of them focus on skills inventory and fall short in analysis and forecasting. Skills management serves as an order for managing the work force (see Figure 2–1). Finally, a favorite and personal rule of the author: “Underpromise, then over-deliver.”. A good project manager needs to understand many facets of the business aspect of running a project, so critical skills touch on expertise in the areas of organization, communication, finance, and human resources. One must be persistent and capable of confronting issues as they rise, if not before. Even more enticing, many IT professionals, under the mantle of career “entrepreneurism,” will throw in their lot with enterprises that have clearly committed to and funded skills management programs. Enterprises can reap several lessons from skills management. On larger complex projects, such as systems integration projects or multiple-year projects, there are frequently too many complex technologies for the project manager to master. The same business cultures? The initiative—notably, company-wide skill identification and continuous training—will help the company to raise its skills level and will give IT employees control of their professional development. Engineering Project Manager Resume. Be considerate. Effective communicator. A highly valuable skill in most industries, effective communication can make or break a project. The best project managers are adept at various forms of communication, knowing the … The above list of project management skills misses out on a crucial part of being a PM: personal and professional traits.