What is a project manager?
A project manager is responsible for planning, executing, and closing projects. A project manager guides the project from its initial idea to its final delivery, ensuring it meets the project scope, budget, and timeline.
A project manager also handles the team, resources, risks, and communications that are part of a project. Apart from that, a successful project manager applies different methods to create and update project plans, monitor progress, and achieve goals.
What does it take to be a project manager?
As a project manager within an organization, you will have to balance the needs and expectations of your clients to deliver them a better outcome. You will have to constantly adapt to changes in project scope, timelines, and resources.
Also, you need to be able to skillfully navigate these competing demands and find creative solutions that set you apart from other professionals in your field.
You must also manage risk and uncertainty throughout the project lifecycle while maintaining quality standards. You must deal with team dynamics and interpersonal conflicts, ensuring a positive work environment and fostering collaboration with your team members.
As a successful project manager, you will:
- Have high earning potential in the job market
- Have a lot of opportunities when it comes to your career advancement
- Have job security and stability, no matter how small or large an enterprise you work in
- Have the ability to improve organizational processes to achieve targets
- Have the opportunity to work on interesting and challenging projects within your organization
What does a project manager do?
Now, if we look into a project manager’s shoes, we will come to know that a project manager wears multiple hats during their job. In other words, project managers lead a specific project related to the organization’s business.
They also manage the entire project from start to finish. They initiate planning with involved departments, follow up on the plans, ensure smooth execution, and evaluate the project for further improvements if needed.
On the same page, project managers ensure that the project is delivered cost-effectively and within the budget. Furthermore, they coordinate the various team members involved in the project and ensure smooth organizational operations.
However, here are some of the responsibilities of a project manager:
- Schedule and manage the GCP audit process.
- Develop and manage metrics and KPIs systems for new product business groups.
- Apply for the FDA medical device, minority and small business certifications.
- Mentor, coach, and implement best practices, SOX and HIPAA compliance standards while managing multiple projects and resources.
- Lead teams using the Informatica ETL tool to design and develop multiple financial and risk enterprise data warehouses.
- Administer and manage Salesforce requirements.
- Create and deliver universal project management documentation that is used throughout the PMO.
- Develop monitoring strategies based on PMI project management methodologies forecasting progress versus estimate completion.
- To implement PeopleSoft HRMS application software to provide project management and consulting services at client engagements.
- Write project management documents, facilitate the electronic sign-off process and manage SharePoint sites for each project.
- Manage a high-visibility project effectively to improve delivery dates of prescriptions to patients by providing infrastructure and application enhancements.
- Design and implement a project selection, management process, project planning, and database software to enhance efficiency.
- Develop operational strategies to provide vision, business process management, business architecture, business process improvement and implementation services.
- Excel in a highly organized enterprise project management office, leading projects using SDLC and standardized project management methodologies, processes and tools.
- Perform project management responsibilities, including national portfolio management, work breakdown development, schedule management, personnel management, and cost management.
What skills do you need to become a project manager?
Technical skills
Project Management: Lead the browser project that uses the vendor’s database to provide customers with cardholder information when evaluating cardholder applications.
Project Scope: Define and manage the project scope and product requirements and convert them into specifications aligned with the corporate development agreement.
Customer Service: Performed various business operations and helped the organization to achieve cost-effective production with increased quality, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Infrastructure: Support quality management project efforts for infrastructure, application integration, and software deployments at the Transportation Security Administration as a Project Manager.
Status Reports: Create regular status reports and facilitated status meetings and other communication with internal customers, Business clients and steering committee.
Other soft skills
Analytical skills: Analytical skill is important for any project manager. Analytical skill is needed because project managers have to plan project strategies, deal with unexpected issues and delays, and solve problems during the project.
Business skills: Business skills are also important for a project manager to perform their duties effectively. In order to handle budget matters and coordinate and supervise workers, business skill is required.
Customer-service skills: A project manager is known for having customer-service skills, which are critical to their duties. This skill is very important because project managers have to communicate with the company’s directors, team members, and clients.
Leadership skills: A project manager’s second name could be a leader. And that’s true in every sense. To manage day-to-day tasks, a project manager must have the leadership skills to delegate tasks effectively to the involved team members and other higher authority people such as CEOs and CTOs.
Speaking skills: A project manager should have excellent speaking skills, and that’s the need of the hour because project managers have to give clear instructions to explain complex information to technical and non-technical team members or clients.
What is the average salary of a project manager?
In the United States, on average, a project manager makes an average salary of $91,578. The yearly salary of a project manager can vary from $64,000 to $129,000 depending on their experience and qualifications or the organization they work in.
Other than the fixed salary concept, the average hourly rate for project managers is $44.03 per hour.
What are the career paths for a project manager?
There is a wide range of career paths for project managers to choose from. With time and experience, project managers can catch higher-level roles or even executive-level positions, such as senior project manager.
However, below are some of the sought-after career paths for project managers. Have a quick look:
- Project Manager (average salary: $91,578)
- Product Manager (average salary: $111,729)
- Information Technology Director (average salary: $138,906)
- Project consultant (average salary: $78,912)
- Team Leader (Average Salary: $68,817)
What are the best project manager certifications?
Project Management Professional (PMP)
PMP certification is one of the world's most respected project management certifications. As a PMP certificate holder, you are recognized as a professional with expertise in the three core areas of project management: predictive, agile, and hybrid.
It also shows you have business skills to achieve goals and increase your organization’s market value globally.
You can consider getting this certification if you are an onsite or off-site coordinator, quality assistant manager, PMO office representative, program manager, or manager.
The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam covers many exam domains, including people (soft skills to manage a team), process (technical aspects of project management), and business environment (executing projects in compliance with the organizational strategy).
PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI)
The PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI) certification validates your knowledge and skill to identify threats involved in a project, create plans to mitigate them and evaluate the plan’s credibility, helping your organization meet its business goals within a specified time and without monetary loss.
Organizations today focus on risk management and project management to achieve goals faster and save on financial resources.
The content of this RMP is highly complex and, hence, challenging to clear. If you earn this certification, you can work in Fortune 500 companies and several government organizations.
The domains you must cover in the PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI) are risk strategy and planning, stakeholder engagement, risk process facilitation, risk monitoring and reporting, and performing specialized risk analysis.
To earn and maintain PMI-RMP certification, you must earn 30 professional development units (PDUs) in topics related to risk management every three years.
Also, there are several prerequisites. You must have 36 months of project risk management experience within the last five years and 40 hours of project risk management education if you have a secondary degree.
Else, 24 months of project risk management experience within the previous five years and 30 hours of project risk management if you hold a four-year bachelor’s degree.
Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
The Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification is another of the best project manager certifications. A Certified ScrumMaster professional helps project teams use Scrum effectively, increasing the chances of the project’s overall success.
The certified Certified Scrum Master (CSM) professionals have a deep understanding of Scrum values, practices, and applications and have knowledge and expertise that goes beyond typical project managers.
In every organization —where these professionals work— they are considered servant leaders, helping the rest of the Scrum team collaborate and learn the Scrum framework.
Six Sigma Green Belt
The Six Sigma Green Belt certified professional works on small Six Sigma projects that require less commitment. They do this with the support of a Six Sigma Black Belt leader who supervises and handles more complex improvement projects.
As a certified Six Sigma Green Belt professional, you also have an in-depth knowledge of enhanced problem-solving techniques using the DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) model.
To take the Green Belt Professional, the council prescribes no prerequisites and no project requirements for this certification. However, if you wish to obtain level 2 Green Belt certification, then project completion is required. The Six Sigma Green Belt certification exam topics cover six phases.
These are the overview of Six Sigma and the organization, define, measure, analyze, improve, and control phases. It is a difficult exam to pass. But if you work in the process improvement industry, you must know the importance of getting this credential. So you need to have a deep knowledge of exam topics to pass the exam.
Six Sigma Yellow Belt
The Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification equips you with foundational Six Sigma knowledge, but you cannot lead the project team. They are primarily involved in developing process maps to support Six Sigma projects. You either work as a team member or get hired as a subject matter expert for a project.
You often take responsibility for running small process improvement projects using the PDCA (plan, do, check, and act) model. PDCA helps you to identify projects that can be worked upon for better performance.
These smaller Yellow Belt projects are often upgraded to Green or Black Belt levels. At these levels, the DMAIC model is used to increase cost savings.
As a certified professional, you will have enough confidence to implement Six Sigma techniques and value to the team. The Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification exam tests your knowledge across the following topics: Six Sigma fundamentals, define phase, measure phase, analyze phase, and improve and control phase.
There are no formal prerequisites to take this exam except a clear understanding of exam topics, yet having cleared the Six Sigma White Belt exam is an added advantage.
Six Sigma Black Belt
The Six Sigma Black Belt certification equips you with the knowledge and skills to handle process improvement projects independently and lead the team. As a Council for Six Sigma Black Belt certified individual, you understand the entire Six Sigma Body of Knowledge in-depth.
Your team management skills get enhanced, and you understand how to use several improvement and statistical tools. By having the Six Sigma Black Belt certification on your resume, you are viewed as a highly valued employee by your organization, and your chances to get hired by the top international firms increase manifolds.
You understand the DMAIC model, have a basic understanding of lean enterprise concepts and identify and eliminate non-value-added activities.
The Six Sigma Black Belt certification online exam tests your knowledge across the following topics: introduction and organization-wide planning and deployment, process management and measures, team management, DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) model, and design for Six Sigma.
Certified Agile Developer (CAD)
The Certified Agile Developer (CAD) certification needs no introduction, as CAD certification is recognized by a number of great employers across the globe.
The CAD professionals help teams adapt to unpredictability through incremental, iterative sprint cycles. Agile methodologies are different from waterfall or traditional sequential development. Agile is a popular way of delivering high-quality software on time through a collaborative, iterative approach.
The Certified Agile Developer (CAD) certification helps you understand the key principles of Agile software development, which encourage faster release cycles, better deliverables and the ability to adjust quickly to changing situations.
This certification program will teach you about policies and process improvements to improve interactions between developers and project and program managers.
Agile software development uses iterative, feature-driven, customer-focused Agile practices to develop applications that meet user requirements.
Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
Project management is an ever-growing profession, and organizations globally have recognized the need to hire trained project managers for timely and result-oriented project delivery.
The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification is a globally acclaimed certification that tests an applicant’s ability to handle a project individually or with a project team.
If you clear the CAPM online exam, your knowledge and effectiveness in managing large projects are considered at par with global standards. So, if you want to gain project management skills to manage large projects, you must consider earning the CAPM certification. Ten project management knowledge areas together constitute the domains of the CAPM exam.
You must hold a secondary degree and have completed at least 23 hours of project management education from a PMI-certified education provider to appear for the Certified Associate in Project Management exam.
You need to undergo professional and educational development programs regularly to meet the current demands of the business environment and earn 15 professional development units (PDUs) every three years.
Program Management Professional (PgMP)
The Program Management Professional (PgMP) is a comparatively new certification in the market, but it has been recognized as one of the best project management certifications over the years.
The Program Management Professional (PgMP) certification validates your skills and knowledge to lead and manage multiple projects in a coordinated way.
By taking this certification program, you will enjoy the many benefits at the same time. Candidates earning the Program Management Professional (PgMP) credential will be internationally recognized as professionals with the knowledge and experience to make and implement important decisions and achieve strategic objectives that improve business results.
Managing Programs and Projects with Project Server 2013
When it comes to Microsoft, there is no need to think about the authority and popularity of its products. The Managing Programs and Projects with Project Server 2013 certification exam is for IT professionals who manage projects, programs, or portfolios using the Microsoft Project Portfolio Management (PPM) environment and have a solid knowledge of key project management concepts and terminology.
To sit for the Managing Programs and Projects with Project Server 2013 certification exam, you must have hands-on experience using Microsoft Project Professional 2013 and Project Web App 2013, including managing enterprise custom fields, views, and portfolio objects.
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
The Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) also comes in the best project management certification category. The Certified Scrum Product Owner professionals are trained in the Scrum terminology, practices, and principles that allow them to play the role of Product Owner on a Scrum team.
The CSPOs are usually the individuals closest to any project's business side. They are responsible for getting the product out and are expected to do the best possible job to satisfy the client.
Apart from that, the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) professionals also keep the product backlog updated and ensure that everyone in the team knows their tasks and priorities.
Want to take the project management certification?
There, you have it. Now, we’ve come to the end of this blog post. With so many options in front of your eyes, you might be wondering which project management certification is best for you.
If you want to build your career in project management, you can start your career by earning the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. The PMM certification is offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI), and every IT professional knows about the PMI organization.
If you want to start your career in project management, consider earning the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. The PMP certification is offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI), and every IT professional knows that PMI-PMP is recognized as the world’s leading project management certification.
The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification validates your project leadership skills and knowledge in any way of working, including agile and hybrid approaches.
If you want to learn more about the other certifications mentioned in this blog post, click the chat button below (WhatsApp or Telegram), and one of our guides will contact you shortly.
