What Makes a Successful Project Manager?

I have (OK, had; I let it lapse) my PMP Certification from PMI. Then:I'd been managing software development projects, the client's in-house "tools" were, er, ah, less than stellar, and we were all experiencing the effects of the Mythical Man Month: adding programmers / engineers / worker bees to a late project makes it later. Now: I'm up to my eyeballs running our startup.

Yes, project management certification is a fine way to acquire a toolset to better manage chaos. Keyword, that: "a." I wouldn't have wanted to have done without it.

No matter where certification is going, it will keep three attributes; it will always be (1) politically acceptable because the client perceives that certification reduces his risk, (2) economically rewarded, and therefore (3) self-sustaining. Not like "CPA," or "MD," but you get the idea.

But up from the trenches also works as a means of getting a handle on things.

Here's why. Some folks think Noam Chomsky is a nut case for his political views, but back when he more or less constrained himself to linguistics he came up with the concept of "deep structure." "The ball did Billy hit," "Hit the ball did Billy," "Hit was the ball by Billy," etc., etc. all have the same "deep structure."

Book learning is a left-brained way to grasp the deep structure, i.e., what's REALLY going on.

OJT is another, hands-on, way.

After "Aha!" everything, and I do mean everything, becomes ever so much easier.

Example: The reason ninety percent of all projects supposedly fail is because, near the end, some stakeholder withheld a key requirement / piece of information / whatever. Yup. I learned the hard way that if I, as a PM, could not coalesce all manner of external clues (insert near-infinite variety of unhelpful behaviors here --->[]) into someone else's internal deep structure (insert personal agendas here--->[]), I figured I had a time bomb on my hands. Machiavelli would have been so proud.

Project management is not about projects. Project management is about communicating with people. Work breakdown structures, milestones, and the all-important project charter are tools to get everyone pointed in the same direction at the same time.

In general I agree with your fathers philosophy. I have worked in the Oil & Gas industry for 35 years as an instrument engineer/E+I project engineer never a PM but I also have a pretty good grasp of electrical, mechanical, piping etc the point being, I have indepth knowledge of my industry from the bottom up but I just happen to specialise on instrumentation just as you have of the construction industry by this I mean the raw basics of your industry (forget about computers and sofware for the moment)

I work with some clever project engineers/managers who do not specialise in any particular field or discipline. They hold a masters degree in Project Management which supposedly qualifies them to work as project managers in any industry eg transport for a couple of years then manufacturing for maybe 5 years, construction for say 4 years etc. do me a favour please, these type of persons will never be top project managers unless they stay the course and specialise in a specific field or industry.

My next point is, to be a proffessional project manager one does not nesessarily have to be an expert in IT systems or every commercial construction delivery system etc. the operative word which you rightly mentioned is "knowledge". For example, I have worked with 2 excellent PM's in my time, both specialised and had very many years of experience in Oil & Gas and both had the same basic philosophy which was "I have the knowledge and experience, I surround myself with competent and trust worthy staff, I supervise them giving clear and unambiguous instructions, I also issue the latest planning should there be revisions so each key member of the team is fully aware and finally I am always aproachable and I need to be informed of anything which could impact the project" This is the philosophy of the 2 PM's I respected. This is not utopea, these 2 guys whilst being human, had the knowledge, experience and would not hesitate to dismiss a person who did not perform, this is after that particular person had been given a number of chances to make good.

The point I have been attempting to make is...........project management is not nesessarilly all about PM university degrees which is desirable but there is no substitute for knowledge and experience, the ideal blend in my opinion would be knowledge, experience, relevant universtity qualifications and a bit of the old human touch.