The Project Manager’s Cycle – Redux

“What does a project manager do?  What value do I add to your project?  It’s true that I don’t contribute directly to the product or service for which the project exists.  However, if I’m doing my job well, then I add significantly to the productivity and value of the team by improving communications, eliciting priorities, and focusing the team on the key deliverables.  Further, I am your agent, seeing that we perform to plan and communicating back when we diverge from it.”

Note:  I originally wrote this in April/May 2011 and it was intended to be the final post in The Project Manager's Cycle series, but on reviewing my archives today I realized that I never published it.  My apologies... and here it (finally) is.

The Project Manager’s Cycle includes these activities:

• Validate the metrics
• Validate task status
• Incorporate approved change control
• Reschedule/Replan
• Check variances and progress/productivity
• Communicate planned/expected resource utilization to resource managers
• Develop earned value reports
• Review risks and mitigation actions
• Review issues and action items
• Review commitments
• Conduct client/sponsor status meeting
• Conduct project team meeting
• Publish the project status report

A baker’s dozen posts on the core project management elements of monitoring and controlling a project.  This series on The Project Manager’s Cycle been a pleasure to write and has also been beneficial for me.  I developed the outline of the series several years ago, but this journey required that I really flesh out the details, relationships, and components.  I appreciate all of my reader (yes, that would be you) who stayed with me through this.

A picture is worth a few words, it’s said, so I’ve tried to rough out the series in a diagram.  If I ever figure out how to make it available as a download, I’ll enable that.  In the meantime, leave a post or drop me an email and I’ll reply with a full-size PDF of version 1.0 of the diagram.  Next time I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll add the inputs and outputs, though I’m concerned that will make the diagram too busy.

We stepped on the ferris wheel together in January to start this ride.  We’ve gone around the cycle and now it’s time for us to step off.

What of this series has been the most beneficial to you?  Where have I not been clear and need to expand or improve the discussion?