The Beginner Guide for Becoming a Project Manager

Project management is the process of planning out a new project and executing it while keeping things under control. A project manager is employed to handle every aspect of a project and the primary goals are to ensure the success of the project.

Project Management Lifecycle

Project management comes with various challenges, and managers are responsible for handling the five main phases of a project. The phases are:

Phase 1: Project initiation – In the first phase, managers ensure if the project will be a success or failure.

Phase 2: Planning the project – Once the first phase is over, the manager starts planning the project and creates an effective timeline.

Phase 3: Executing the Project – After the plans are ready, the manager allocates resources and executes the project as decided.

Phase 4: Monitoring and Controlling the Project – The manager keeps a keen eye after the project is executed and monitor the progress constantly.

Phase 5: Project End - The phase decides whether the project was a success or failure. The project ends, and the manager closes it.

How does Project Management Hold a Promising Future?

A good manager can easily change the game and make a difference, which is what companies want from their employees. PMI’s industry growth forecast predicted 15.7 million new project management roles by 2020, and that number alone proves a promising future. The need for highly-skilled project managers will keep increasing with the expanding market.

Now the question is, how do you become a desirable project manager? The answer is simple; companies are on a lookout for individuals that have a PMP certification training. A Project Management Professional certification verifies that the individual has the required knowledge and skills needed for the job to lead agile teams and improve the company’s profitability.

Skills of a Good Project Manager

Companies look for candidates with certain skills that make them a good project manager. There is a certain skillset required from a leading authority. Some essential skills are:

1.      Leadership Skills

The most important skill required by a manager is ‘Leadership.’ It’s a no-brainer that to be a good project manager, you need to be a leader. Some say a leader is born, but that’s debatable because nobody is a true leader until they’ve applied their potential and proven their skill.

A leader is responsible for overseeing the project and leading the team that is allocated to him. Leadership skills differ as per personalities, and they’re more about managing tasks than managing people.

2.      Risk Management

Running a business and planning projects isn’t an easy task because much can go wrong. Part of a leader’s job is to keep an eye out for issues and resolve them. Risk management involves the analysis and evaluation of financial risks and identifying the best possible solutions to fix them. Your project will succeed if your risk management is effective because there will be unexpected problems.

3.      Critical Thinking

Six major critical skills make up a good project manager, analysis, interpretation, inference, explanation, self-regulation, open-mindedness, and problem-solving. Critical thinking means analyzing a threatening situation with a calm mind and making decisions to overcome it. A project manager needs to think critically when times get rough and keep his emotions at bay.

4.      Communication Skills

Communication and leadership skills go hand-in-hand. Companies expect good project managers to communicate effectively with their team and stakeholders. Managers are also responsible for keeping in contact with vendors, customers, and contractors. The project manager should be able to use the following channels to communicate effectively:

• Social media
• Emails and newsletters
• Meetings and conferences

5.      Cost Management

Money is the blood of any project, and a leader's first job is to create a budget and manage it efficiently. Assign the budget to your project and then maintain the cost through proper execution.

Project Management Courses offered at QuickStart

At QuickStart, we offer people a variety of courses to help them start their Project Management career. The courses range between beginner to training for the PMP exam.

1.      Introduction to Project Management

The ‘Introduction to Project Management’ focuses on the basics of project management. It’s a 10-hour start-up course that has a learning style and placed on ANSI and IEEE accepted standards.

The objectives of the course are:

• To ensure that candidates understand the fundamentals of project management and learn to implement what they’ve learned.
• Enhance the candidate’s knowledge of all concepts, terms, and tools that make up project management.

2.      Brief Overview of Project Management

The ‘Brief Overview of Project Management’ is a comprehensive course that provides a complete understanding of project management to candidates. There are nine key parts of the course, integration management, scope management, time management, quality management, HR management, communication management, risk management, and procurement management.

It is a great course to begin your career as a project manager. In just one hour, you’ll have all the basic information you need about managing a project and being a leader.

3.      Project Management Skills for Non-Project Managers

The ‘Project Management Skills for Non-Project Managers’ is an advanced course that helps candidates acquire project management skills. The course is only 2.5 hours long, and the objectives are:

• Help candidates develop an understanding
• Understand the fundamentals
• Know the terms of project management
• Learn how to plan, start, execute and manage a project
• Learn scheduling, cost and, risk management

4.      Practice Exam - PMBOK: Project Management Professional (PMP)

The practice exam for PMBOK is a certification that helps candidates prepare for the exam. The certificate is based on the actual exam that has 681 questions. The candidate is required to finish the exam in 240 minutes.

5.      Essential Project Management - PMP Exam Prep V6 (PMP6)

The ‘Essential Project Management - PMP Exam Prep V6 (PMP6)’ is a certified course that helps you prep for the PMP exam and offer complete details beforehand. Once you’ve prepared and completed the PMP exam, you can easily earn up to $125,000/year. The PMP exam opens a wide variety of job opportunities for candidates.

Apply and register for a project management certification today at QuickStart to kickstart your career or talk to our experts for other courses!