More and more people hold the title of project manager, and more and more people obtain PMP certificates, but the effectiveness of project management is still not high. Why exactly? There are many reasons, but a considerable part of them is because the project manager is not qualified enough.

Some people will say that I have been a PM for many years, or how long it has been since I passed the certificate. Is this the only criterion for a qualified project manager? Of course not. Perhaps, some people will say that the winner is the winner and the loser is the loser. As long as the project is successful, he is a qualified project manager. Yes, but when you need to choose a project manager, you may not be able to fully judge based on this criterion.

How to choose a qualified project manager? Usually it can be judged from at least five aspects, namely knowledge, experience, ability, character, culture and values. In fact, various roles in corporate organizations should be judged from these five aspects.

1 Knowledge

Knowledge usually refers to information about a specific subject learned through books, school, practice, etc. The purpose of "certifications" and diplomas is to demonstrate mastery of knowledge in a subject. The knowledge required by project managers in the IT industry includes three parts:

Project management: including project management theory, methodology and related tools.

IT industry: Generally speaking, one should have a comprehensive understanding of relevant IT fields. For example, one should have an understanding of the IT knowledge related to the core business of the enterprise. If it is to implement enterprise informatization and other areas covering many areas, Projects in a technical field require more comprehensive IT knowledge.

Customer industry: Today’s IT projects are very rarely related to a single operator. They are basically projects covering department or enterprise scope. Therefore, you must master the knowledge of relevant customer industries so that you can find the right IT projects. The combination of system and business operations enables IT system investment to support the improvement of enterprise efficiency.

Obviously, for different types of projects, the required project management functions and IT industry knowledge will be different. Some projects are relatively simple and require less knowledge. For example, ordinary addition, subtraction, multiplication and division arithmetic problems only require It only requires elementary school students, but problems such as points require college students. Similarly, the requirements for customers' industry knowledge are similar. Some projects are relatively pure basic platform projects that are not directly related to improving business efficiency, and have relatively few requirements for customers' industry knowledge.

Two points need to be noted. First, the source of knowledge is not limited to schools. Second, compared with other roles in the project organization, the IT industry knowledge required for project managers focuses more on comprehensiveness and understanding. rather than the detailed mastery of pure technicians.

Whether the knowledge is solid, comprehensive, and applied freely determines the level of the project manager.

2 Experience

Experience emphasizes what has been done, or more directly, the process of using knowledge. Therefore, it also includes three aspects: project management, IT industry and customer industry.

For companies, when looking for a suitable project manager, it would be best if they have experience in all three aspects; if they cannot all be met, the first requirement that can be lowered should be experience in the same customer industry , but it is best to have experience in other similar industries; secondly, experience in the IT industry, which does not require experience in the same product, but experience in similar products; finally, in terms of project management, there should be at least a project manager assistant or project organization The experience of middle-level key personnel.

To engage in the career of a project manager, you need to pay attention to improving your learning ability (this is mentioned below), so as to enrich knowledge related to project management in different experiences, and pay attention to strengthening weak areas. This will improve the level of project management and ensure that you can quickly get into working mode in new projects, because many projects are only superficially different, but there are many similarities in the essence of project management.

Experience, for project managers, means that it no longer just stays at the level of knowledge, but also that it can spread its wings.

3 Ability

Ability is a very important aspect in judging people. In the past, we often judged a person based on diplomas, and our educational philosophy is relatively simple, so the results may be The loss is biased. In addition to reading, testing and book-related questions, project managers also need to be judged from the perspective of pure ability. Although the judgment environment may not be so perfect, he can be as objective as possible for the individual who is specifically judged. Ability evaluation includes the following aspects:

Learning and thinking: From a project perspective, there are no identical projects. "One cannot step into the same river twice." Past projects only have experience that can be used for reference, and only the most abstract and fundamental methods and concepts can be copied. Therefore, to become a qualified project manager, you must have the ability to learn and master new knowledge. At the same time, project managers should also be diligent in thinking, constantly reflect, get rid of stereotypes, and summarize their own knowledge from successful experiences and failures. Learning and thinking can allow project managers to continuously accumulate, improve project management level, move from quantitative change to qualitative change, and then enjoy the joy of success in greater project management challenges. The highest state of learning and thinking is to "learn and practice from time to time, review the past and learn the new, and tell the past and learn what is coming."

Practice: The more you read, the more you know, and you will realize that “it is easier to know than to do”. You can only talk about it with your mouth, or even just keep it in your stomach, but it will not produce any benefits. Therefore, one must have practical ability, and even "if there are no conditions, we must create conditions" to practice. Only through practice can the content of the book truly become its own appendage. There are two prerequisites for having practical ability, one is to have clear ideas, and the other is to have the courage to practice.

Social communication and communication: There are many things to consider in project management. In fact, everything is directly or indirectly related to people. There are three types of people that project managers need to deal with: customers, company leaders, and project members. To make all people work in the same direction for the same project goal, the project manager first needs to have social skills and maintain good relationships with them. Create a good project atmosphere; then continue to communicate with relevant personnel according to the needs of the project. The expressions of communication include: expressing - explaining things clearly; influencing - respecting the choices of others, but being able to influence them through your own words and deeds to achieve the desired effect; persuading - getting others to implement proposals or requirements; listening - letting others implement them. Others have room to speak; accept others' suggestions - project managers should follow the good news while adhering to necessary principles.

Strain and response: From a macro perspective, now is an era of change, and the speed of change is getting faster and faster, and the IT industry is changing with each passing day. Changes at the macro level will inevitably determine that projects at the micro level are also constantly changing. Projects executed at different times by the same customer in the same industry will inevitably add some new connotations. To keep up with the times and industry development, or even to be at the forefront, one must have the ability to adapt to changes, which must be achieved through learning and innovation. From a project perspective, there are too many changing factors and many unexpected events. If there is no adaptability, the project may be in trouble. At the same time, the project manager should also have a keen response ability and be able to sense future changes from subtle signs, be prepared for changes in advance, and ensure that changes have the smallest impact on the project.

Analysis and decision-making: As a project manager, you usually have a lot of information. Information itself cannot play a role. "The smarter the owner of the information, the greater the role of the information." Therefore, project managers must have analytical skills. When encountering a problem, the project manager should first be able to accurately define the problem, and then be able to "remove the dross and take the essence" from the information available to form an analysis of various possibilities. The next action after analysis is decision-making. In project management, it is often necessary to determine which option is feasible in a short period of time. Therefore, after forming alternative action plans, the project manager needs to establish an objective judgment system, as long as there are local advantages. Make a choice. Remember, "There is no perfection, only the best."

Overall view and organization: Project management is like playing chess and requires an overall view. If you only care about the gains and losses of one piece and one place, but lose the grasp of the overall situation, failure is inevitable. Today's projects are becoming more and more complex, especially the increasing influence of non-technical factors, whose irrational impact on the project may be fatal; in addition, from a purely technical or business perspective, the project also contains a lot of content, and the same You need to have a big picture view. In the project, the overall view has several levels of concepts: IT, business, IT and business, people and IT and business, and other resources. We must not miss the forest for the trees. Failure to see the overall situation will make the plan biased. With a view of the overall situation and the ability to organize and coordinate, you can mobilize the many resources you have (even project members, customers, and company leaders are all resources to a certain extent) to ensure the smooth implementation of the project. Without organizational coordination, plans cannot be executed.

All these abilities are indispensable for qualified project managers.

4 Character

Character and ability complement each other. Character determines destiny. If the character cannot meet the needs, the ability cannot be used; if the ability is insufficient, the character will deteriorate.

Toughness: Difficulty, complexity, changes, and risks all make project managers subject to considerable pressure. If you don’t have a strong character, it may be difficult to stick to principles in the project, and you may even give up midway; if you are not strong enough, you cannot believe in yourself, and if a project manager does not believe in himself, how can project members trust him? Therefore, toughness is the first priority for project managers, especially those working on large and complex projects. Project management is also like sailing against the current. In many cases, as long as you persist a little longer, you can tide over the difficulties.

Decisive: Projects must be completed within a certain period of time, so often there is not much time to find the perfect answer. At this time, you need to be able to make decisive choices and implement them. Project implementation is like fighting a war. Information on the battlefield is changing all the time. Delaying time will only delay the opportunity.

Calm down: Conflicts may exist at any time during project implementation. Calmness is the first guarantee that conflicts can be resolved. Only by calming down can the project manager think about why, face up to the problem, and find a real solution instead of just "treating the head when it hurts and treating the foot when it hurts."

Tolerance: Understanding and respecting others requires a tolerant character. Only by understanding and respecting others will others respond with understanding and respect. Projects in the era of knowledge economy require understanding and respect between personnel, so that knowledge belonging to everyone can be better gathered together to produce a fusion effect, thereby benefiting the project.

Cheerful: A cheerful personality can allow others to fully understand a person. If project members cannot recognize the existence and role of the project manager, project management will definitely fail.

This may seem like you are looking for a perfect person, but this is not the case. A qualified project manager should have more or less these characteristics.

5 Culture and Values

Whether it is a company where you work or a client company, there are many types. From the perspective of capital type, there are foreign capital, joint ventures, state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, etc., from the headquarters to which Regions include North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. You can also find many other classification methods if you are willing. Each type of enterprise will have its own unique culture and values. Conflicts caused by culture and values ??often bring great adverse effects to projects.

Therefore, when selecting a project manager, you need to evaluate his or her cultural background and values ??to see if he or she can adapt to the company's culture and values, and whether he or she can recognize and tolerate various customer corporate cultures.

In short, it is not comprehensive enough to judge whether a project manager is qualified only from the perspective of knowledge (certificate or diploma) and experience. Knowledge, experience, plus ability, character, culture and value19692020 2009-12-16 17:40:24 The following is a fragment of a project manager’s work log. Let’s look at the project manager’s work log from his work log. Work.

These are just fragments of the work of project managers. I believe that every project manager should have his or her own tragic story, probably even more so. What special skills should a project manager have?

A competent project manager should have the following abilities:

1. Be easy to communicate

The author personally asked the American project manager in 2002 A project management expert, Dr. William Wells (former director of the US Apollo moon landing program), asked him what skills a project manager needs most. His answer at that time was: "There are three things a project manager needs most. The first is communication, the second is communication, and the third is communication."

Please think back, during execution What part of the project do you spend the most time on? Report work progress to leaders, introduce products and work results to customers, explain work to project members, seek support from other personnel in the unit, and coordinate matters with partner vendors. ． ． For project managers, most of the day is spent communicating with people.

Communication can be simple or complex. For some people, communication is just about expressing my opinions anyway. Is there anything difficult about it? However, there are so many people related to the project during the project, so what needs to be considered is not only expressing opinions, but also "at what time, in what way, what kind of information is conveyed" To what kind of person?"

Many project managers are "passive project managers". It's like "First tell me what project information you want, and I will find a way to get this information for you." Therefore, the work of information sorting is basically not included in the work control. You can only deal with the supply of information with a coping mentality.

If you look at it from a more proactive perspective, the project manager first understands what everyone related to the project wants to know. There must be duplication of information, and then organizes and categorizes the information. Before you ask for it, I will provide it to you first, so that you have no doubts about the project and turn passivity into initiative. The action of organizing and classifying this information is directly included in the project manager's work control, so there are no "surprises" for the project manager.

It sounds simple to say, but it is actually not difficult to do. You can make a communication plan in two hours and just follow a few steps:

(1) Get to know the project stakeholders

(2) Analyze the information needs of project stakeholders

(3) Find out the types of information according to the information needs

(4) Classify the types of information< /p>

(5) Determine the cycle of information transmission

(6) Decide the method of information transmission

(7) Collect information

(8) Transmitting information

(9) Review the effectiveness of information transmissionwangchaoyupf 2010-01-07 08:35:33 Coordination ability - often you do not have real leadership but you have to coordinate all parties. Communication skills and understanding skills are very important.

Learning ability: You need to know a lot of things you don’t understand.

Resilience: Patience and persistence are very important. You must have very good psychological quality and high EQ.

Management skills: especially the ability to manage your leaders skillfully and effectively. Many people think that project managers are always accompanied by "ideals and glory". In fact, as project managers who are interested in improving China's software development process, they bear more of "hardship and pain".

Here, I summarize the qualities that a project manager must possess through various phenomena I encountered during my tenure as a project manager. If you do not have these qualities, it will take many years of effort to cultivate them. If you can't train him successfully, then please change your position, because the project manager is not suitable for you and it will be difficult for you to succeed in this aspect.

1. Persistence

It can be said that if you are not persistent, you will not be able to accomplish anything in China, because when implementing various norms and management systems in the software development process, you You may encounter various resistances and obstacles. If you are not prepared and prepared to deal with setbacks, it will be difficult for you to succeed. You must know this basic fact, the key to the success or failure of project management is: if you don't persist, no one will persist. It is impossible to count on the support of leaders and the consciousness of the masses. Only by firming up your beliefs and working hard to impress others can you succeed.

Persist until you succeed. As long as you decide to join the management process, don't regret it, just persist, because you have worked hard and achieved 99%, but you don't know that when you decide to give up in the end, it may be the time when you are going to succeed. You must know that when you are ready to give up, it may be when the other person is also ready to give up. Only by persisting can you succeed.

2. Affinity

Affinity refers to the extent to which you and your team rely on each other and trust each other. Affinity is the foundation for you to lead your team to success. If a team does not have enough centripetal force and works independently, failure will accompany you. If you want every member of the team to trust you, you must care about your subordinates, proactively communicate with them, and fight for their legal rights. Caring for subordinates means providing guidance on their work status and development direction in daily work to avoid detours; also caring about their physical condition in daily life to promote the recovery of physical and mental health.

Communicating with subordinates more often is the lubricant to eliminate misunderstandings, and it is also the only shortcut to understand the true inner thoughts of subordinates. People who are project managers do handle certain things differently from others, and it is difficult for people to understand. At this time, we can only communicate more with subordinates, gradually achieve political awareness, and strive for everyone's understanding and support. Remember, you can never standardize project management without the understanding and support of your subordinates. This link is very important. I once spent too little time on this aspect and took many detours. The other is to understand the real thoughts of our subordinates. Frequently understanding the real thoughts of our subordinates will help us continuously improve and adjust the process to make the production process more in line with the actual situation of the team. Remember, as a leader, you must respect the ideas of your subordinates and communicate with them. If you wait for your subordinates to come to you, they will usually communicate with you only when they are incompatible with each other, and it will be too late to regret it.

Fighting for the legal rights of subordinates is an important responsibility of the project manager. Being responsible is a basic quality of a project manager. If you do not regularly study work data to protect the legitimate rights and interests of your subordinates, it will be difficult for your team to maintain high efficiency. Once, our test engineer's work performance suddenly dropped by half. After communicating with him, I found that the company did not focus on efficiency but only on working hours. He did not go to work one day, and the company deducted one day's salary; but he actually overachieved. 120% of the monthly plan. After understanding the situation, I coordinated with the company and successfully repaid wages, and production efficiency increased significantly.

3. High moral character

“Every single stroke is a person, and we must learn to be a human being from generation to generation.” The most difficult thing to do in this world is to be a person with noble moral character. Just imagine that it is difficult for a person with obscene thoughts to achieve success. Even if he achieves it through hard work, it will only be temporary. He cannot achieve long-term success. Only people with high moral character can infect the people around them and make the team cohesive and move from success to success.

There are three types of people, one is to bully others with power, the other is to overwhelm others with their talent, and the last one is to convince others with virtue. People who bully others because of their high status and make irresponsible remarks will naturally be unable to unite people, let alone achieve success; people who use their talents to dominate others think that they have high knowledge and are domineering or aggressive. As everyone knows, "smells have their own order, skills have their specializations", and "a ruler has its own strengths, and an inch has its shortcomings". It is difficult to learn higher knowledge and achieve greater success. Only those who persuade others with virtue can infect others with their own cultivation and moral character, have the courage to suffer losses, are willing to help others, and repay grievances with virtue. Only in this way can the opposite virtuous people not have the heart to hurt you and unite with all the people who can be united. With such Environment, how could you fail.

To have the courage to suffer losses, you must first put aside your selfishness. It is impossible for a person who always revolves around himself. "If a person does not serve himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth." This is a common reaction among people born after the 1980s. However, we must remember that people are first and foremost members of society. If they are separated from society, they may no longer be human beings. Therefore, only when you abandon selfishness and take the initiative to be a human being, others will support you and help you in turn.

Being helpful is a good quality of human beings, just like what is sung in a song, "The structure of the human character is to support each other." The management process cannot be maintained by the project manager alone, everyone must support you. But this requires you to help others more, and others will help you. No matter what happens to a team member, you have to do everything you can to help him or her so that the team can move forward.

Repaying evil with kindness may be the hardest thing for people to do.

The Chinese emphasize that "if someone offends me, I will offend him." In fact, there will be no real enemies this time. If we look at the results of everyone's overt and covert struggles in 20 years, I am sure that most people will feel uncomfortable. It's worth it. Many people gamble with just one breath and annihilate their hope of success. When you can treat people who are opposite you with tolerance and kindness, what else can stop you from succeeding?

“If you get the right way, you will get many help, but if you lose the right way, you will get little help; if you get more help, the world will obey you; if you lose the right way, your relatives will rebel; if the world will obey you, you will attack the rebellion of your relatives; therefore, a gentleman will not fight. , the battle will be won. ”

4. Eloquence

Good eloquence is an essential weapon for project managers to impress project members. When you have good eloquence, you will be invincible. At that time, Hitler used his genius eloquence to conquer Germany, making his "Mein Kampf" implement into the hearts of every German, thus establishing the Third Reich.

In order to implement your own project management ideas into the hearts of every project member, you must achieve the following speech principles:

1. Based on the common goals of the project members Just like them formulating the content of your speech, it only makes sense to convince them;

2. Mobilize the audience's senses, appeal to touch, vision, and hearing, and use blackboards and gestures to assist your content.

3. Continuously summarize the effects and improve the acceptance of your speech promotion. If the effect is not satisfactory, try to express and describe it in another way.

4. Let the audience apply what they have learned. Only by giving them positive feedback can they listen to your thoughts more deeply.

Five step by step

Step by step and not rushing for success are the qualities that project managers must possess in project management. In the upsurge of CMM process improvement in China, there are only a handful of companies that have truly realized CMM management. It’s hard to count, and even fewer companies have used the CMM improvement process to substantially improve quality and efficiency for their companies.

Why does this happen? Is it true that CMM is not adapted to China’s overindulgence? No, absolutely not. It is the project managers of these companies who are too impatient and go straight to CMM3 before they even know what is going on in CMM2. They ignore the objective laws of business development and everything must be done step by step. If an enterprise passes CMM4 within 2 years, I have full confidence that it is a waste of money. If I am more optimistic, it will take about 2 years for a small and medium-sized enterprise to go from CMM1 to CMM2, and it will only take longer for large enterprises. Not shorter because they require a greater expense in training and communication.

As far as my company is concerned, there were only 10 people in the technical department at first. Later, it took a year to become proficient in training CVS version management, and then it took more than 3 months to learn CVSTrac change and process management. Then it took 3 months to implement Finabuild management. Finally, it took half a year to improve CVSTrac into CVSProduce to manage the development process and collect statistics. During this period, a QA management department was established and full-time project managers were added. The number of people in the department has increased to 16, and there are still more Constantly expanding. We feel that the more scientific and process-based management is, the finer the division of labor and the more personnel required. The greater the cost for colleagues to train and understand the ideological work of these people. The cost of developing management software will also rise. When everyone can accept process management and continuous improvement, about 2 years will pass.

"Step by step, step by step, and step by step." This classic quote from Pasteur also applies to our project management field, and it will gradually lead us to success.

6. Persistence in learning

“You will regret the lack of books when you have used them, and you will realize your inferiority when you have learned enough.” There is no end to learning. In my production practice, I found that the entire project management process Improvement is a cyclical process of "learning-training-implementation-problem discovery-re-learning". If project managers do not learn, they will not be able to solve new problems that arise in real work, let alone solve problems from a strategic perspective.

In fact, studying cannot be without goals, otherwise the knowledge learned will be too complicated and cannot be integrated. Such knowledge will provide little guidance for practical work. Real knowledge is a goal system and strictly follows the process. Master the knowledge we need step by step.

Finally, I will summarize the knowledge that Chinese project managers must master:

1. Professional knowledge: data structure, relational database, operating system, software engineering, and compilation principles. (Foreign project managers may not need to master it)

2. Management knowledge: project planning, project configuration management, cost accounting, risk estimation, performance appraisal. This is what project managers must master.

3. Network knowledge: server architecture and configuration of various services. Because the managed building is based on software management, it is unimaginable without the cooperation of a service management network.

4. "After crossing the peak, another peak appears again." This is why Chinese project managers will continue to challenge themselves and move towards higher mountains as they continue to learn.

7. Dare to be responsible

A person has the meaning of survival because of his responsibility. As a person grows older, his sense of responsibility will become heavier. When you become an adult, the law also gives you some responsibilities that you did not have when you were young. At the same time, as the status gradually increases, the responsibilities will also increase accordingly.

Only when a person is responsible can he have the value of being a human being.

The greater the responsibility, the higher the value. In other words, life has meaning only if you have responsibility. If you do not feel your responsibilities, you are not an adult even if you are over 20 years old.

Therefore, managers must be responsible. If they are irresponsible, they don’t need to be managers! The project manager is related to the success or failure of a project; for the company, he must assume the responsibility of reporting project progress, cost accounting and quality coefficients in a timely manner. He must also ensure the performance appraisal of project team members, implement policies, reserve talent reserves and other responsibilities. This is the entire The person with the greatest responsibility in the project cannot take responsibility without good psychological quality and coping ability.

In actual work, the project manager is mainly responsible for the personnel arrangement and scheduling, work allocation, work review, work tracking, project planning, project report summary, cost accounting, profit distribution and other responsibilities of the project team.