Investing in a trained Project Manager has been linked to project success. Learn why.
You have smart employees. They have great ideas. They’re responsible. And you trust them to get things done. Perhaps not as well or as quickly as preferred, but they deliver results.
But, sometimes it’s hard to figure out where things stand. Sometimes your team or point person forgets a deliverable or two. And, sometimes no one really knows the purpose, goal, or value of a project.
That’s where a project manager with formal project management or process development training can help. Below are the top five reasons that your organization needs a trained Project Manager:
Why Hire a Project Manager?
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You Don’t Have to Waste Money
To save money, invest in a Project Manager. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), for every billion dollars spent on projects, expect $122 million to be wasted on poor project management practices. And this amount of waste continues to grow every year.
Remember, hiring a Project Manager is not an overhead expense. Introducing a good Project Manager to your business can actually help reduce project costs far more than the cost of their hire.
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You Want Success
Move your organization to proven project management practices – and expect project success to increase by 2.5 times, estimates PMI.
But, to deliver results, you’ll need a trained project manager. Roughly 90% of projects that follow PMI standards prove to be successful compared to less than 35% of projects that don’t follow formal guidelines.
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You Want to Achieve Goals
You want your project to be successful? Then, it’s critical to have someone run it who has all of these skills: leadership, technical project management, and strategic and business management. While employees in your organization may have some of these abilities, it’s important to choose a person who has the right mix. If you do, your projects will be 40% more likely to meet their original goals.
Does your project manager need an official PM job title or have to be full-time? The answer is “No.” However, a subject matter expert, manager, or business resource that just happened to have the capacity to do the project will likely leave you disappointed if they don’t have the aptitude in the three areas mentioned above. Make a wise choice and reap the benefits of your project by hitting the intended target.
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You Want Ownership
When you assign a project team without naming a formal project manager, the hope is that each of the team members will do the right thing and fulfill their commitments. But it’s possible that many other things can get in the way. Resources have multiple projects, additional responsibilities, report to departments with different primary goals, and may be overworked.
It’s also quite possible that they never had the capacity to take the project on from the start. Hoping that all will work as planned without the benefit of an organized and central driving force is often wishful thinking.
With an official Project Manager, the PM owns the project. Period. You have one source for communication. One source for status. And one focused coordinator for all project work. There’s never a doubt as to who is primarily responsible for the project’s success.
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You Want It Better, Faster and Cheaper
Project Managers communicate, organize, align teams, and document all of the steps along the way. They ensure that initiating a project makes sense. That there’s a well-documented business objective for completing the project. And, that the specific scope of work is well-defined.
Using formal project management practices consistently produces projects that are more likely to fulfill the scope, deadline, budget, and quality requirements of the project. Having those regular touch points on deliverables and roadblocks are the hallmark of a Project Manager – and what will ensure that the work gets done.
