How To Behave Like a Professional Project Manager

How To Behave Like a Professional Project Manager: "

• Have all the facts at hand

• No searching through your notes.


• No making things up


• No trying to convince people your idea is better in the absence of actual field experience and testimony that it is in fact better


• Understand - in depth - the context and domain of any topic of discussion before provided suggested alternatives

• Speak only in actionable outcomes

• What does done look like?


• How will we recognize done when we see it?


• Speak with nouns and verbs about the deliverable and its maturity - "The Preliminary Design of the Transaction Processing System is Complete"

• Speak in units of measure meaningful to the participants

• These units are always time and money


• We'll be done on or before this time with this confidence


• It will cost this much or less with this confidence

• Have tangible evidence of physical progress to plan

• First have a plan that shows when you will have tangible evidence of progress


• This evidence must be a "working" thing that the customer will recognize as something they asked you to build. It can be software, a piece of hardware, or even a document.


• This evidence must be compared against the quality standards agreed to before the work started.


• Again this is one of the "what does done look like" questions

• Use a credible form of measurement for assessing progress to plan

• Earned Value is the best

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