What Does It Take to Be an Excellent Project Manager?

Genoso-PM 86900-18

Assignment 18

Jocelyn Genoso

California Southern University

June 26, 2013

Genoso-PM 86900-18

Assignment 18

Chapter 8 – Evaluating and Terminating the Project 

What does it take to be an Excellent Project Manager?

Abstract

Yes, if you are a project manager you really need leadership skills! Today's project managers must have leadership skills in order to effectively perform their roles in the organization and stand out from the crowd. Something must make you distinct from the others, especially if you are currently job searching or worried about your job security given the current economy (Abudi, 2009).

In today's business world and current economic conditions project managers (PMs) main focus is in the reduction of everything from budgets to resources and timelines to get the products/services to market, in order to ensure their organizations remain competitive in a global economy.

With these new current demands although most project managers have strong technical skills, but are sometimes lacking in the critical soft skills necessary to be truly effective.

Introduction

Project Managers who are not well-versed in technical skills (such as earned value management, quantitative risk analysis or estimating activities) cannot perform their role effectively. Professional and managers who does not have a working knowledge of the Project Management Body of Knowledge  (PMBOK), PMs will be unable to acquire their Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. Additionally, in a world where there are many people running around with the "project manager" title, a PMP certification is one way to stand out from the crowd. However, that alone may not be enough. Strong project management technical skills and PMP certification is not sufficient for those project managers aspiring to take on more responsibilities. Project managers cannot effectively compete with so many other certified PMs unless they have more than technical skills in...