Any Project Managers Here?

cah1234

Hi All,

Are there any project managers on here that could help me? I have a few questions that id like to ask if possible.

Many Thanks,

tgon

Unless it's personally identifiable better to ask your questions in the forum so others can contribute. I am a PM

DKLS

I have been a PM in the recent past and have written a book on Prince2, not my bag anymore for a number of reasons but would happily try and answer a question or 3.

Babbawah

Having once been a project manager, I can confirm that the title of 'Project Manager' serves only to feed the ego of someone in charge of delegating responsibility & thus the 'blame' when the project ultimately goes tits up.

A project manager is an all encompassing thing !

What worries you?

Errata

Very broad outline of project management methodology here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRINCE2

JReacher1

Errata wrote: »

Very broad outline of project management methodology here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRINCE2

That's only prince though. A lot of project managers won't be prince2 trained.

Babbawah

JReacher1 wrote: »

That's only prince though. A lot of project managers won't be prince2 trained.

What's prince2 & will it make me a better PM?

suse*

Good pm's need a good personality, quick thinking and being able to keep calm when the world is going to pot round them, and balls of steel to tell the head of the company none of their plans are going to work. Prince 2, Six Sigma... are tools to help do that using different processes and having different audit points which different companies use for compliance. A good pm though can run a project with just a phone and a spreadsheet though.

Also you get ones who also control the budgets so have to be able to control costs vs time scales etc or just have no financial control at all.

It varies a lot by industry as well as to what qualifications are required as standard, so in corporate IT land it is all prince 2, 6sigma, itil etc etc but if it is construction or some other industry they will have different courses to match their methodology.

So really it depends what you're wanting to know. Are you suited to that sort of high pressure work, and to deal with lots of people who you might hate on a personal and professional level for the length of a really long project? Or do you already do the role and want to move up or out. Experience is what counts a lot more than certificates unless you work in a regulated industry which needs them. You're only as good as your last project and with the advent of linkedin etc someone will always know someone who worked where you once did.

Keeping the beers, coffee, chocolate, pizza coming though can often help people working harder for you and make all the difference come deadline time.

JReacher1

Babbawah wrote: »

What's prince2 & will it make me a better PM?

It's a project manager methodology that some companies like their project managers to have.

In reality though it's a very easy qualification to obtain and can be done in a week. It does no harm but it's not the magic bullet that people seem to think it is.

Babbawah

JReacher1 wrote: »

It's a project manager methodology that some companies like their project managers to have.

In reality though it's a very easy qualification to obtain and can be done in a week. It does no harm but it's not the magic bullet that people seem to think it is.

Aaahh ! So it's an NVQ level then. (Nothing Very Quickly)

What qualification would suit a PM that flits between £10million+ construction projects & the occasional IT management system?

Babbawah

suse* wrote: »

Good pm's need a good personality, quick thinking and being able to keep calm when the world is going to pot round them, and balls of steel to tell the head of the company none of their plans are going to work. Prince 2, Six Sigma... are tools to help do that using different processes and having different audit points which different companies use for compliance. A good pm though can run a project with just a phone and a spreadsheet though.

Also you get ones who also control the budgets so have to be able to control costs vs time scales etc or just have no financial control at all.

It varies a lot by industry as well as to what qualifications are required as standard, so in corporate IT land it is all prince 2, 6sigma, itil etc etc but if it is construction or some other industry they will have different courses to match their methodology.

So really it depends what you're wanting to know. Are you suited to that sort of high pressure work, and to deal with lots of people who you might hate on a personal and professional level for the length of a really long project? Or do you already do the role and want to move up or out. Experience is what counts a lot more than certificates unless you work in a regulated industry which needs them. You're only as good as your last project and with the advent of linkedin etc someone will always know someone who worked where you once did.

Keeping the beers, coffee, chocolate, pizza coming though can often help people working harder for you and make all the difference come deadline time.

^^ This, & sooo much more ^^

I particularly like "balls of steel to tell the head of the company none of their plans are going to work" <snort>.