IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT - What's the Role of an IT Project Manager

In the field of professionals, the designation project manager can mean a lot of things. But in this specific article, let's just assume that we are referring to an IT project management officer who works in field of software development whenever we use the label project manager. While the duties and responsibilities of a project manager cannot be simply encapsulated into mere categories, we will just try to make a generalization of what a project manager usually do for the company so that we can make a significant assessment of a project manager's role in the continued survival of any company or organization.

However, before we proceed into describing what a project manager does, it will be helpful if we first define the meaning of a project in the context of business. In general, a project is an undertaking that attempts to achieve a set of goals. The goals may or may not be realistic as of the onset of the project so great risks are always involved in a project. The main features that identify an undertaking to be a project are:

1. It should have a deadline
2. The undertaking has a definitive budget
3. The variables that define the start and end of the undertaking are outlined

Now, a project does not have to be a single undertaking alone. In many cases, it is broken down into components that can be treated as separate projects themselves. The overall coordination of these components is managed by an IT Project Management officer. Examples of such components are:

1. Design
2. Project management
3. Programming
4. Quality control

There are many other types of components. The four components given above are mere examples and these can be altered depending on the nature of the main project. The more formal term for a component is phase.

Since the project is a set of all things that need to be done, work force is imperative. But with so many people with specialized skills needed, how can coordination happen? There is a grave need for the group to be organized so that the goal is met within the given time frame. The responsibility of keep the group together falls on the hands of the IT project manager.

The project manager can be compared to the steering wheel of a car. He or she determines the destination of the project. If necessary, the project manager is also the person in-charged of re-routing the course of the project if ever some things do not go according to plan. Being the IT project management officer assigned to lead the entire group, it is the responsibility of the project manager to bind everyone in the group and utilize each individual to secure the success of the project. Although there is a budget officer in the team, it is still the project manager responsibility to make sure that the project does not go over the budget allocated to it. Most importantly, it is the project manager's duty to predict any unwanted events and dodge them before they happen.

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The author is a certified IT project management expert. He got his PMP certification from PMI two years ago and since then, he has been managing big projects in the field of telecommunications.