LISTCLE: Characteristics of good IT project manager

We are living in a world of constantly growing and changing technologies in which project managers are providing a huge value. Project management is very important in this age and most of the successful projects that we see are because of the project managers who are able to deliver what is expected from them.

Being a project manager isn’t easy, you need to have a particular skill set that is required to deliver what is expected from you. We will be discussing some of the essential skills that a project manager should have.

Let’s check them out:

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1. Good communication skills. An IT project manager should have good communication skills because he/she will be the one who will be managing everything. A project manager should be able to use the right language and should be familiar with the terminologies that are being used in the field of IT to effectively manage the projects.

   If an IT project manager has the right communication skills then he will be able to encourage the rest of the personnel to deliver what is required. Along with all of this, a project manager should know how to interact with team members, otherwise, it can give that the project manager has competence issues.

2. Right leadership skills. Project management isn’t an ordinary role, it is a leadership role that requires having the right kind of leadership skills. A project manager should have the required leadership skills to provide coaching to the team members and also guide them to achieve the required goals. Leadership qualities are a must for project management and if a person doesn’t have the right kind of leadership skills then he isn’t the right person for the job.
3. A good negotiator. Along with other things, a project manager should also be a good negotiator. Project management requires real-world, active negotiation skills with critical thinking. There are so many complexities involved in project management and a project manager should be able to sort those out with active negotiation.
4. Understanding of the IT architecture. A project manager needs to be familiar with the IT architecture, IT standards, the latest technologies, and the terminologies in the field of IT. If a project manager is handed the task of developing a tool like Scrabble Word Finder for board games and he is familiar with the platforms and coding languages that are used to build such a tool then he won’t have any kind of issue with the project but if he isn’t familiar with methodologies and programming languages then he will suffer big time and the turnout won’t be good.
5. A project manager should have a tight grasp on the methodologies and technologies that will be used during the project and should have a basic understanding of the requirements of the project to deliver the best results possible.
6. Broad meeting skills. Since remote meetings have become a common thing, any IT project of this age can involve people from any part of the world. Today’s IT project meetings can be a combination of various connections including in-person, audio, and video connection. Most people are able to handle in-person meetings easily but for audio and video connections, a project manager should have broad meeting skills.
7. A project manager needs to be able to work with the right time zone, geographic disparity, and different work cycles which can lead to delays in communication, and also cultural differences. Having broad meeting management skills is expected from a good IT project manager nowadays.
8. Quality metrics management. An IT project manager should also be familiar with IT quality metrics. A project belonging to any other industry, be it the IT industry or any other, has specific quality metrics. A project manager should have a deep understanding of those metrics and also be familiar with how the systems and software are used in the industry to meet those quality metrics.
9. A good project manager should have sound knowledge about the quality metrics and shouldn’t compromise on the quality because at a later stage it can make a much bigger difference than anticipation, resulting in high underperformance.
10. Make difficult decisions. A project manager should be able to make difficult decisions. Making difficult decisions is a part of leadership and by making difficult but well-informed decisions, a project manager can earn the trust of the company’s management and contributors. A project manager should be able to step back, look at the bigger picture, think out of the box just like one does while playing games like Words With Friends, and come up with a creative solution to get the job done.
11. Familiarity with the company’s roadmap. Last but not least, a project manager should also be familiar with the IT company’s roadmap, what they want to achieve, and how they want to achieve it. Whether a project is big, small, or an isolated part of a huge project, a project manager should understand the company’s technological goals and how the company wants to achieve those goals.