Key project manager roles and responsibilities

Now let's learn more about the roles and responsibilities of a project manager.

Earlier you learned that project management is the application of knowledge,

skills, tools, and techniques to meet the project requirements and achieve the desired outcome.

How does that actually happen? That's where you come in.

Project managers usually follow a process that involves planning and organizing, managing tasks, budgeting, and controlling costs, and other factors, so that the project can be completed within the approved budget and timeframe.

Let's break these down into examples of responsibilities that you might find in a job

listing for a project management role.

We'll start with planning and organizing.

One responsibility that falls under the umbrella of planning and organizing

is making use of productivity tools and creating processes.

During the planning and execution of a project,

you might need to use certain tools and develop processes to

improve information sharing across the team;

you may also need to create plans, timelines, schedules,

and other forms of documentation to track project completion,

and you'll usually need to maintain those documents throughout the entirety of the project.

The next task is -budgeting and controlling costs, and other factors.

As the project is underway, changes to the plan and budget are bound to come up. Believe me.

This will require you to monitor and manage the budget, track issues and risks as they arise, and manage quality by mitigating those issues and risks.

One way to do this is by removing unforeseen barriers that come up.

Now, by barriers, we mean things that can get in the way of project progress.

For example, if your teammates lack the resources needed to complete a task,

you might identify that issue, or barrier upfront, escalate the issue to a stakeholder,

and work to secure the resource so your team can move forward.

Another huge piece of the project manager's role is managing tasks.

A project task is an activity that needs to be accomplished within a set period of time by you, your team, or your stakeholders.

Keeping track of tasks is a great way to help manage the team's workload

and ensure that things are getting done. Keeping track of tasks is

also a great tool for demonstrating progress to people outside

the immediate team, like your stakeholders.

one of our goals was to create

pathways for students who identify

with communities that are

underrepresented in the technology industry.

A large part of my day-to-day

responsibilities involved working with

two separate engineering teams

to create our technical curriculum.

To manage the tasks associated with this project,

I created separate project trackers for

each team that outline the vision for the curriculum.

These trackers kept both teams

in the loop about the timeline for delivery,

the categories and subcategories for work,

and the team members assigned to each task,

I also made sure to update

our stakeholders every step of the way.

By actively managing tasks

through out the project lifecycle,

I was able to keep tabs on everyone's work

and efficiently inform stakeholders,

which allowed us to achieve

our project goal with minimal issues.

Nice job. Now you should be able to describe

the roles and responsibilities of a project manager.

Coming up, we'll discuss

a project manager's role within the extended team,

including how to work alongside the people

tasked with executing the project. Catch you in a bit.