IT

Project
Manag
er
Skills
IT Project
Manager,
Essential
Skills
Required,
Communicat
ion,
Leadership,
Negotiation,
Problem
Solving
IT Project manager
An IT project manager is one who is in charge of ensuring that an
IT project starts and finish at stipulated time, within budget and
cost and meets quality as required by its customers. In ensuring
that IT project meets all of the above, there are some requisite
skills required of the IT Project manager which generally includes
knowledge of the Project management Body of knowledge
(PMBOK), the project environment knowledge, management
knowledge and soft skills or what is popularly referred to as the
human relationship skills (Schwalbe, 2016).

Essential Skills Required

The essential skills required by an IT project manager to ensure
successful project delivery are

1. Leadership
2. Communication
3. Negotiation
4. Problem Solving

Communication
IT project managers have to ensure that all stakeholders are
carried along throughout the project lifecycle. They need to
ensure that they have their stakeholder involvement and that
they understand what their stakeholders expect from the project
and its deliverables (Kendra & Taplin, 2004).

IT project communication is becoming harder as we now have

virtual teams working on project and there is need to coordinate
and communicate with these people who are from different time
zones, cultures and speak different language (Schwalbe, 2016).

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Communication happens throughout the lifecycle of the project as
all stakeholders need to be listened to and keep inform of
happenings in the project which can be achieved by putting in
place an effective communication system (Dillon & Taylor, 2015).
IT project manager should employ all the different types of
communication such as oral, verbal and non-verbal means of
communication, in ensuring team cohesiveness, stakeholders
involvement and proper project coordination (Napier, , Keil & Tan,
2009).

Leadership
IT project manager should ensure that they have leadership skills
imbibed in them as the team and management are counting on
these skills throughout the entire project lifecycle.

Leading, directing and managing people effectively (Kendra &

Taplin, 2004) by showing empathy, being assertive when the
situation arises, knowing how to drive and motivate the team
members, ensure they communicate the project goals and vision
to the team in a way that the team understands, motivating its
team members and showing respect to all, being level headed
and calm in the face of adversity are all ways an IT Project
manager shows leadership (Napier, Keil & Tan, 2009)

Leadership is about ensuring that the stakeholders are

enthusiastic and committed to the project and this can be
achieved only when the IT Project managers shows consistency
by following up, is assertive, calm & respectful, motivate others
and shows empathy. (Napier, Keil & Tan, 2009)

Negotiation
For IT projects to be successful, the IT projects must also ensure
that it has a negotiating skill. IT project manager will interact with
third parties such as vendors and contractors; must negotiate

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with line managers to get the work done and also negotiate to
ensure conflict resolution. Negotiation skill is required in
stakeholder management and procurement.

Projects have been known to be unsuccessful due to high cost and

not being delivered on time and this is sometimes caused by
vendors. IT project manager have to be able to have a good
negotiating skills to ensure that in negotiating with contractors,
the scope of the project, the project deadline and the budget of
the project are not unnecessarily affected (Toledo, 2013).

Also in managing stakeholders, IT project manager must ensure

that conflicts are resolved without affecting project objectives by
seeking a mutually agreeable solution. In resolving conflict, the IT
project manager should be able to separate the people from the
problem, ensure that the interest of the project is put first before
personal interest (Kendra & Taplin, 2004)

Problem solving
In Managing projects, problems usually arise, and as such the IT
project manager needs to have a good problem solving skills. The
IT project manager must ensure that he is on top of all problems
relating to the project by proactively addressing such problems as
soon as they surfaces throughout the project lifecycle (Napier, Keil
& Tan, 2009).

In solving the problem that arises, IT project manager must

gather information about the problem; examine what are the root
causes of the problem and then ensuring that they get to the root
cause of the problem by planning on suitable ways of resolving
the problem. IT project managers who have been successful at
managing IT projects have ensure that they are not impulsive
when problems arises, they do not avoid the problem and they
have accept full responsibility for the problems by professing
solutions to the problems (Napier, Keil & Tan, 2009)

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References

Dillon, S. & Taylor, H. (2015) 'Employing Grounded Theory to

Uncover Behavioral Competencies of Information Technology
Project Managers', Project Management Journal, 46(4), pp. 90-
104.

Kendra, K. & Taplin, L. (2004) 'Change Agent Competencies for

Information Technology Project Managers', Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice & Research, 56(1), pp. 20-34.

Napier, N., Keil, M. & Tan, F. (2009) 'IT project managers'

construction of successful project management practice: a
repertory grid investigation', Information Systems Journal, 19(3),
pp. 255-282.

Schwalbe, K. (2016) Information technology project management.

8th ed. Boston: CourseTechnology, Cengage Learning.

Toledo, R. (2013) Negotiation Strategies for Project Managers.

[Online] Available From:
http://www.slideshare.net/robtoledo/negotiation-strategies-for-
project-managers (Accessed: 13 January 2017)