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Skills
"[ ...selecting
a project manager based on technical abilities] would be
similar to picking a racecar driver from the best mechanic in
the pit-crew.... it is generally accepted that the job of
building and maintaining a racecar requires distinctly
separate skills from those needed to drive a racecar. Yet in
many companies, it is the best mechanic that gets selected to
lead the project."
From, Are
your mechanics doing the racecar driving? by Chris
Clucas, President, Aspen Consulting, Inc.
Read more...
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Responsibility
"The project
manager has the single most important position on a project
and has the overall responsibility for its success. This
position comes with a tremendous responsibility,
accountability, ownership and authority."
Neal Whitten, PMP,
president of The Neal Whitten Group
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Preparation
“The front end, in fact, lays
the foundation for everything that follows.”
Roger Van Zele, Manager,
Project Management Division, ExxonMobil, 2002
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Communications
"[Projects]
fail because of a project manager’s inability to communicate
effectively, work within the organization’s culture, motivate
the project team, manage stakeholder expectations, understand
the business objectives, solve problems effectively, and make
clear and knowledgeable decisions."
Kate
Belzer,
PMForum,
Expert
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Knowledge
"The project
manager must be sufficiently technical. This requirement,
however, is far from being highly technical or being the most
technical person on the project. It is more a matter of having
a sufficient level of domain knowledge regarding terminology
and technology that the project engulfs. It also is a matter
of demonstrating the leadership to draw upon the technical
knowledge and skills from across the project's membership when
needed."
Neal Whitten,
PMP, president of The Neal Whitten Group - Speaker,
trainer, consultant, mentor, and author in project
management and employee development.
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Time
"Observe
that for the programmer, as for the chef, the urgency of the
patron may govern the scheduled completion of the task, but it
cannot govern the actual completion. An omelet, promised in
two minutes, may appear to be progressing nicely. But when it
has not set in two minutes, the customer has two choices--wait
or eat it raw. Software customers have had the same choices.
The
cook has another choice; he can turn up the heat. The result
is often an omelet nothing can save--burned in one part, raw
in another."
Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. in
The Mythical Man-Month (p. 21)
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