The Role of Project Manager: Key Responsibilities
What is the role of a project manager?
A project manager ensures a project successfully moves from planning to completion. They oversee every aspect of the project, ensuring it stays within the budget and meets the required quality standards. Their role also includes managing timelines and resources to prevent delays and unexpected changes to the project’s scope.
In this article, we will delve into the key roles and responsibilities of a project manager, shedding light on their pivotal contributions and the strategies they use to deliver successful projects.
Before we begin, you can unlock a free trial with Wrike right away to put your skills into practice with our powerful project management software.
The importance of the project manager role
What’s at the heart of any well-executed project? A competent and skilled project manager, responsible for driving the team to achieve project goals and ensure timely completion.
The role of project manager is multifaceted. The term “project manager” is so broad that it can encompass various tasks and mean different things to different people.
These highly organized and detail-oriented individuals have a comprehensive understanding of project lifecycles, helping teams navigate a roadmap to produce deliverables on time. Their strong critical thinking skills help them tackle complex projects and solve problems as they arise.
Project managers are also people managers. After all, they are responsible for leading the team and communicating clearly and regularly with all relevant parties — not an easy feat. They must encourage their team members, engage regularly with their stakeholders, and inspire their clients.
It’s no wonder that project managers are considered critical to the success of any venture.
So, what specific project management responsibilities make up this vital role?
Responsibilities of a project manager
The key duties of a project manager include:
- Planning the project
- Leading the team
- Executing the project
- Managing schedules
- Overseeing the budget
- Preparing documents
- Maintaining and troubleshooting deliverables
Let’s take a look at these project manager responsibilities in more detail:
1. Planning
A project manager is responsible for formulating a project plan to meet the project’s objectives while adhering to an approved budget and timeline. This blueprint will guide the project from ideation to fruition. It will include the project’s scope, the resources necessary, the anticipated time and financial requirements, the communication strategy, a plan for execution and documentation, and a proposal for follow-up and maintenance. If the project has not yet gained approval, this plan will serve as a critical part of the pitch to key decision makers.
2. Leadership
An essential part of any project manager’s role is to assemble and lead the project team. This requires excellent communication, people, and leadership skills, as well as a keen eye for others’ strengths and weaknesses. Once the team has been created, the project manager assigns tasks, sets deadlines, provides necessary resources, and meets regularly with the members. An ability to speak openly and frequently with all stakeholders is critical.
3. Execution
The project manager participates in and supervises the successful execution of each stage of the project. Again, this requires frequent, open communication with the project team members and stakeholders, ensuring effective project management practices are applied throughout.
4. Time management
Staying on schedule is crucial to completing any project, and time management is one of the key responsibilities of a project manager. Project managers are responsible for resolving derailments and communicating effectively with team members and other stakeholders to ensure the project gets back on track. Project managers should be experts at risk management and contingency planning to continue moving forward even when roadblocks occur.
5. Budget management
Project managers devise a budget for a project and stick to it as closely as possible. If certain parts of the project end up costing more (or, in a perfect world, less) than anticipated, project managers moderate the spend and reallocate funds when necessary.
6. Documentation
A project manager must develop effective ways to measure and analyze the project’s progress. Common strategies for documenting a project include data collection and verbal and written status reports. It’s also a project manager’s job to ensure that all relevant actions are approved and that these documents are archived for future reference.
7. Maintenance
The work doesn’t end once a project has been completed. There needs to be a plan for ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting. The project manager devises methods for properly supporting the final deliverable going forward, even if they are not directly overseeing its day-to-day operations.
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What does a project manager do every day?
So, we’ve covered the key roles and responsibilities of a project manager. But you might be wondering what that looks like in real life. What does a project manager do on a day-to-day basis?
Each project is unique and, as a result, no two days are alike. A project manager’s job is to keep the project moving forward and clear a path for their team members to succeed. Daily, this will involve:
- Answering emails related to the execution or maintenance of a project
- Scheduling meetings with team members, such as daily standups
- Checking in with the client or other stakeholders to update them on the project’s progress
- Creating project reports and other documents to assess project risks, budget, schedule, and scope
- Reviewing workload charts and timesheets and reallocating resources as needed
- Working with project management software and tools including Gantt charts, Kanban boards, dashboards, calendars, and more
- And maybe — just maybe — drinking a cup of coffee or two!
What makes a good project manager?
A good project manager delivers a final product that is on time, on budget, and meets or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders or clients. Tying projects back to business goals is becoming increasingly necessary for project managers. It’s essential to communicate with stakeholders at the beginning to ensure the project is strategically impacting the business’s needs.
Qualities that make a successful project manager are:
- Organizational prowess
- Acute attention to detail
- Ability to see the big picture
- Resourcefulness
- Risk management capabilities
- Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Excellent communication skills
- Can-do attitude
- Ability to inspire and motivate
The Project Management Institute also suggests that important project manager skills include openness to self-assessment and reevaluation.
Enhance your project management skills with Wrike
From initiating and planning to executing and closing, project managers are the driving force behind project success. So, how can you become an expert driver?
To put these essential skills into practice, using a robust project management software such as Wrike can prove invaluable. With an easy-to-use interface, customizable features, and revolutionary AI capabilities, Wrike is the ultimate platform for project managers.
By leveraging Wrike’s powerful features, project managers can hone their skills, overcome challenges, and lead their teams to project glory. Ready to see for yourself?
Artem Gurnov
Artem is a Director of Account Development at Wrike. He previously held the role of Project Manager, overseeing a team of customer success managers (CSMs). Over the years of building teams and scaling business processes, he has successfully deployed multiple projects, from automating client outreach to setting up work prioritization tools for sales reps and CSMs.