A Day in the Life of Project Manager

A Day in the Life of a Project Manager 1. How effectively do you think Rachel spent her day? Project is a complex, non-routine, one time effort that is limited by time, budget, resources and performance specifications and it’s implemented to meet the customer requirements. The following activities performed by Rachel are project related: a. Review project reports and prepare for the weekly status meeting – 25 min b. Participate in the progress review meeting – 45 min c. Reviewing project assignments – 30 min d. Listening to team mates – 20 min e.
Discussing the problem with John – 30 min f. Exploring and getting the necessary equipments for the project – 30 min g. Exchanging information about technical requirements – 60 min h. Discussion with Mary (marketing manager), where she agreed to talk to her team members – 40 min i. Reviewing the impact the client’s requests could have on project schedule – 30 min j. Reviewing emails and project documents – 30 min A few things are ordinary daily work that requires doing the same work repetitively. Time spent on these routine activities: a. Reviewing her schedule – 15 min . Discussing the project with her boss – 20 min c. Updating boss on the key events of the day – 20 min Time spent on non-project activities: a. Socializing and catching up on personal news – 10 min b. Getting to her office and settling in – 10 min c. Project status meeting delayed – 15 min d. Gossiping with Edie – 30 min e. Everyone getting on conference call and checking emails – 15 min f. Waiting in Mary’s office – 10 min g. Going home – 30 min Her efficiency would be calculated as:- Total spend time Efficiency = Direct project related work * 100 = 340/515 * 100 = 66. 02%
She has an efficiency of 66. 02% on the project. She is an efficient project manager to some extent. She has spent only 23. 3% of her time on non project activities. 2. What does the case tell you about what it is like to be a project manager? A project manager provides direction, coordination and integration to the project team * Solve out the problems and direct the team members for the solution. * Discuss with the team members whenever there is an issue and get their ideas involved in the project * Keep regular project status meetings, small discussions to coordinate and integrate.

This will provide all the team members an insight on how the project is progressing Involved in organization planning * Good relationship with managers, team members and other individuals. * Coordinating with the boss and updating him/her on daily tasks * Maintains great integration with other managers when solving an issue, e. g. integration with senior marketing manager Improving the project’s success rate with better leadership * Leading courageously * Influencing others * Act with resilience
Managing the overall schedule to ensure work is assigned and completed on time and within budget * She has been helping Victoria on her project as it was behind the projected time Project Managers have a huge responsibility and authority over a project, it involves identifying, tracking, managing and resolving project issues * She attended a meeting in order to fix a project issue and tried to fix them * Also she found that several clients are requesting features that are not on the project, and she conveyed to her team members that she will get on this issue right away Communication skills One good example is where Rachel goes and talks to the purchasing agent assigned to her project on getting necessary equipments to the project site earlier than planned. * She also walks down to the marketing manager’s office to clarify on the problem they came up with.