The information presented in this blog post comes from a joint webcast held by Deltek and PSMJ Resources titled, “The 3 Pillars of Project Management Excellence”.
There are many ways your firm can spend money. However there is only one way it can make money — on projects.
Strong project managers are your firm’s front-line salesmen, managers, and ‘doers’. Your typical project manager plans, organizes, directs and controls projects. However PMs wear many hats that require them to take on additional PM roles such as up-selling and cross-selling their services, closing new deals, and participating in the design/technical direction of a project. At times they may even be responsible for earning the profit, billing the client, and securing payment for the project.
In short, your PMs have A LOT on their plate. Where can they possibly find all of this extra time though? They should follow the 10% Rule! If you take all the hours budgeted for in the project, about 10% of those should be dedicated specifically to the typical project management roles like planning, organizing, directing and controlling. The remaining 90% should be spent on their additional responsibilities.
Project managers are fairly high up on the totem pole or hierarchy of command in most professional services firms. Typically the CEO/COO sit up at the top of the pyramid, followed by your principal, then the project managers, the technical and design staff, and so on.
Your firm’s future depends on the success of your PMs and their ability to effectively and efficiently manage their projects. Their direct impact on the firm is far reaching and affects almost every aspect of the business including claims, client retention and even employee retention.
