Over the past weeks, we have been conducting a number of open conversations as well as one on one conversations with several PMs. TeamFit is interested in understanding the challenges that PMs are currently facing, the roles that PMs play in building teams and how they view their roles and careers evolving.

And a week and a half ago, we held a roundtable for project managers. Project managers play an integral role in putting together teams, growing teams and driving teams to successful project outcomes. Our group of PMs ranged in experience, from “newbie” to “guru” (to use TeamFit’s SkillRank™ terminology). We had a mix of contracted as well as full-time PMs in our session so there was a lot of diversity in the group.

Challenges Faced by PMs

Project managers are working on many unique custom projects, sometimes involved in multiple projects simultaneously. As such, PMs are challenged to get up to speed quickly: working for different customers, in different environments (different countries & culture), and engaging with different team members and different team sizes. Project managers see that they have to always be quick to react and take control of varying demands. As the complexity of projects increases so does the need to better manage for larger and multi-disciplined talent.

Also, virtual teams are the norm today and when people do not have the opportunity to work face to face, a lot is missed in terms of context; especially when it comes to communications and forming trust. Trust by the way, was mentioned as a must have among project members to ensure success. Distributed teams are very commonplace and it is difficult to build relationship and trust when you do not have the social dynamics: the opportunity of seeing teammates each day, having casual chats by the water cooler, or having  the ability to really read their facial expressions and learn quickly their habits and styles. Conferencing tools help but it is still not the same. It is a lot easier to get the team to gel when everyone is are co-located.

Indeed, getting to know the culture and values is very important to fostering effective team dynamics. Age, gender, way of dressing, communication styles, ethnicity, nationality are nuances which people look at to try to figure out how to fit within a group. All of us are trying to manage unknowns and trying to create a sense of security for ourselves especially as join and become part of a team.

Homogeneous teams may be easier to manage and easily build understanding. There is a tendency for people to build teams with people similar to themselves. However, experienced managers know that the trick is to find balance and hire for a degree of differentiation. An ideal team is one where the team members complement each other. Hiring an entire team of like minded, birds of a feather, can lead to other challenges such as lack of diversity or inability to act due to groupthink syndrome. The group acknowledged that diversity contributes to innovation however at the same time diversity can lead to conflict.

Another common thread of discussion among the PMs centered on when to employ the Agile Vs. Waterfall approach to managing projects. There was a lot of discussion as to which method would be best to employ and when. This is often dictated by the culture of the end-customer; however, one observation was that if a project were to have more that 1000 hours allocated Agile works really well. Mark Fromson, one of our participants talks about the blending of Agile and WaterFall in our past blog.

PM Roles

Our group of PMs felt that one of the key leadership roles they play is the ability to get the team to perform. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s state of “flow” was brought up. Flow is also referred as “being in the zone” where one is fully energized, focused, and completely absorbed in what they are doing. In the context of a team, the PM is seen as the leader needing to create alignment in the team. Another technique to get to team alignment and focus includes encouraging team members to truly understand the impact they have on others; how each of their individual productivity impacts the rest of the team. PMs are constantly thinking of ways to create an environment for the projects to succeed.

Evolution of the PM

Fuelled by industry maturity as well as tools available to support the PM process, our PMs shared opinions on how their role has evolved over time. When less tools were available and PM processes where not as established, the main tasks of managing risk by remains constant.

Tools Used by Our Project Manager Participants

In the early days, PMs have seen their roles as being reactive to managing circumstance and risk. Today, PMs view their role as necessarily being more proactive, taking control of circumstance. PMs are expected to be able predict and look into the future and direct action accordingly. Early in their careers, PM’s have focused on the traditional administrative, coordinating and scheduling tasks. As PM careers progress, PMs play a bigger role in defining the strategy behind the projects they manage. This means they are required to be able to bring insight to the overall vision of the project and interact with senior stakeholders across organizations. See our blog from Andrew Netschay mentioning the evolution away from commodity administrative PM tasks.

We would love to hear from other PMs on the challenges, trends, and role they play, especially in building and putting together teams. Feel free to leave a comment.

We also want to understand the factors people consider when choosing a team. Who is responsible for building the team, and what factors influence team stability. Share your opinions by spending two minutes on our nine question survey. Please take the survey and share it with your networks.

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