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Project Manager's Job Description
Your project managers run the risk of getting burned out. The demands of the job may have evolved and become more complex. The enthusiasm wears thin. Their responsibilities have changed from a straightforward "keep the project on schedule and on budget" to include numerous technical and business aspects of a construction contractor's overall business.
Burning out and losing a capable project manager is hazardous. Where would you find a replacement? If you shook a "project manager tree", how many would fall out? One if you are lucky. (ask any headhunter)
Project managers who work for smaller companies seem to be happier. Their jobs are smaller, simpler and of limited duration. Their office atmosphere is less formal.
Management intensity is one of the key determining factors of success on a project. Diluting that intensity guarantees that less proactive behaviors and essential double checks are performed. This is playing with fire. Keep the responsibilities defined to produce critical outcomes.
Take a look at your responsibility creep for your P.M.s. Over time, an overly ambitious contractor may add responsibilities that endanger this basic tenet. A project manager should focus mostly on schedule (including planning) and budget adherence with safety.
If projects are profitable then, a contractor's business is profitable. The field supervisor and project manager are critical to achieve this. 80%+ of a contractor's cost are project related. This is where focus must reside.
For the complete chapter, buy our book, Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day (McGraw Hill, 2007, 406 pages). It is available in all major bookstores including ours.
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Matt Stevens is a management advisor who works only with construction contractors. His book, Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day, is published by McGraw-Hill. He has performed training and business consultation for the contracting community since 1994. Matt can be reached at mstevens@stevensci.com">mstevens@stevensci.com. His firm, Stevens Construction Institute assists contractors in working smarter, is located at www.stevensci.com. His direct line is (407) 678-0730
search terms: Pre-construction, post-mortem, lessons learned, PM, job function, project responsiblilites
Posted by Matt Stevens at April 4, 2006 12:08 PM