One of your most important jobs as a project sponsor is to select a good project manager for your project.
Selecting the right project manager is crucial for the success of your project.
Here are the five key factors to consider when choosing the right person for the role:
1) Experience
Nothing beats relevant experience when it comes to managing large and complex transformation projects. On smaller and less complex projects you can give people a chance. On your business critical projects you should not.
You will need to be looking for project managers that have managed projects that were;
> in the same industry. Bonus points when it was in your own company or a direct competitor.
> having a similar objective and scope. After a full cycle SAP implementation at three different companies you understand a thing or two. Unless it were completely different modules and products.
> having a similar size and complexity. Rolling out a new software in one country is different from doing it in twelve. Having hundreds of products, thousands of clients
Your project manager should have a track record. Check references and past project outcomes.
A project gone belly up is not necessarily the fault of the project manager, but you will need to look for successful project completions and satisfied clients or employers.
2) Leadership and Communication Skills
A good project manager should be able to lead a team, make decisions, and motivate team members. Effective communication is critical for ensuring that all stakeholders are on the same page. You will get a feeling for this during your interviews. But the easiest way to check this is by checking references and calling your own contacts that might have worked with them.
3) Problem Understanding and Solving Skills
They should be able to analyse and understand problems and come up with effective solutions quickly. Understanding your problem is half the solution. You can assess this by presenting a number of the problems you want to address with your project to the project manager in an interview and ask them to come up with a solution on the fly.
4) Team Dynamics
They should be able to work well with you and your existing team. Ensure the project manager’s work style and values align with your team and company’s culture. Micromanagement sucks for everybody. Involve key team members in the interview process to get their input on potential candidates.
5) Gut Feeling
If your intuition about a candidate’s fit is good, but one or more of the 4 factors above seems to be not good, then look for a better candidate. Don’t rely only on your intuition in this case.
If your intuition about a candidate’s fit is bad, but all of the 4 factors above seem to be good, then look for a better candidate. Trust your intuition in this case.
If your candidate scores well on these five factors there is a high probability they are the right candidate for the job!
PS: What is absolutely not important are certifications. Possessing the PMP shouts to the world that they have passed a comprehensive exam and confirmed that they are aware of and understand the processes, terms, tools, and techniques as represented in the PMI’s Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Thats it! The same for Prince 2, SAFe, IPMA, and others.
Passing these exams does not confirm that they are an accomplished project manager with a long history of leading successful projects. To claim or even imply that earning such a certification is any more than an indicator of general knowledge in the field is questionable.
In a nutshell: Nothing beats relevant experience when it comes to managing large and complex transformation projects. On smaller and less complex projects you can give people a chance. On your business critical projects you should not.
