Selection-establish the ability standard of project manager and let the right person be the project manager.
The selection of project manager is a very important job. In the interview, two senior project managers specifically mentioned this issue. The selection of project managers involves the issue of ability standards, which is a basic work for the classification of project managers' skill level. Some leading enterprises in the world have formulated competency standards suitable for the characteristics of enterprises. Not everyone can become a project manager or be trained as a project manager. Some qualities that project managers need may even be innate, such as "planning" ability and AQ (adversity index) proposed by some people. Some people may be only suitable to be a technical expert because of their lack of communication and leadership (influence) skills. In reality, people are prone to make the mistake of "halo effect"-putting people with strong technical ability in the post of project manager; For externally recruited project managers, competency standards should also be used for evaluation to improve recruitment performance. The consequences of improper selection of project managers are serious. An enterprise changed four project managers in a large project. It is conceivable that the customer satisfaction of the project will also have an adverse impact on the career of the project manager.
Education-Establish a scientific and practical training system for project managers.
At present, the present situation of project management personnel training in some enterprises is not optimistic, and the challenges faced by personnel training are very obvious. As for the members of the project team, take a big project of an enterprise as an example. At the peak of the project team, there were 150 people, most of whom were inexperienced new employees. The project manager is more serious. The project manager of an enterprise-level large-scale project in Q province is a new employee who just graduated. Although he has the training potential of a project manager, his experience and skills are obviously insufficient, and he was "driven off the shelf" when the project manager's resources were scarce. Another data shows that in 2007, the gap of senior project managers in this enterprise reached 3 1% of the total demand. This phenomenon is common in almost all fields for such a fast-developing enterprise.
There are various ways to train project managers, including training courses, tutorial system, case analysis, actual combat simulation and so on. In terms of curriculum system, there is an obvious gap between China enterprises and international benchmark enterprises. Five years ago, Siemens established and improved the course system of project managers based on different ability levels, with more than 300 training courses. However, many domestic enterprises generally outsource project management-related courses to the outside world, and few enterprises develop their own project management courses, even if they do, they are scattered and basically have no achievements. Some departments are also confused about finding and meeting training needs. Some enterprises conduct training once or twice a year, and the training targets are generally based on personal interests, and there is also a lack of evaluation, tracking and feedback mechanisms. Tutorial system is an effective mechanism for enterprise knowledge inheritance. This method has strong pertinence and good effect, and is worth implementing and popularizing in many enterprises. Knowledge management is a platform for talent training. To ensure that all kinds of knowledge can be effectively developed, preserved, updated, disseminated and utilized, knowledge utilization is the biggest problem at present, and it is common to make the same mistakes repeatedly. Some enterprises attach great importance to case development and learning, and have developed a large number of case materials, but the organization and implementation of case management and case discussion lack systematic consideration;
Use-Establish a project manager resource database management system to optimize the resource allocation of project managers.
It is understood that the number of project managers in some domestic enterprises has reached a considerable scale, and a large number of investment behaviors are managed by project managers in the form of projects. Project manager has become a key and scarce resource for enterprises. Optimizing project manager resource allocation management will directly affect the operation performance of enterprises, and establishing project manager resource pool and its operation mechanism is an effective solution. During the interview, I also learned some problems in project manager resource management, such as mismatch between project level and project manager's ability, nonstandard appointment and release of project manager, incomplete tracking management of project manager's identity information, insufficient resource allocation ability of project manager, and imperfect incentive and assessment mechanism of project manager.
Resource database is a virtual resource management tool, which has been widely used in modern human resource management, especially in matrix management system. Through the unified information platform of project manager resource database, it provides decision support for enterprises to select project managers and evaluate their use. In addition to the construction of resource pool, there is also the construction of resource pool for core members of the team. Each business department is the construction and management department of the core member resource pool, which is responsible for training and providing core members with high readiness and availability for the project team, so that each business department becomes a supporting organization to provide human services for the project, rather than a management or even leading organization; Core members who have worked in many business fields can enter the corresponding level of project manager resource pool after the prescribed application and review process.
Enterprises must also establish an effective performance appraisal and incentive mechanism for project managers, and constantly correct the awareness and behavior of project managers through appraisal and incentive. Project management itself is a kind of management mode with great emphasis on goal orientation, and the extensive project manager assessment method has limited incentive effect on project managers.
Stay-create a cultural environment for project-oriented enterprises and build a career development channel for project managers.
The IBM employee said, "I don't know if IBM will give up on me. I don't want to leave IBM because IBM is a good company. " China enterprises and companies like IBM have great differences in corporate culture, and corporate values are changing from traditional to modern. In this process, enterprises are faced with the severe challenge of retaining excellent project managers. During the interview, I learned some problems, such as "the project manager position is unattractive and it is difficult to attract employees from other positions" and "the project manager bears a great responsibility for delivery. However, due to the lack of power matching the responsibilities, the project manager is a temporary job, lacking professional stability, which has no guarantee for the future development of the enterprise. The project manager has been away from the headquarters for a long time, and it is difficult to establish a balance between work and life. The project manager is in a weak position relative to the functional manager, and some enterprises still have a large number of project managers leaving their jobs.
There are many ways for benchmarking companies to retain project managers in the world, such as setting up a project management office (PMO), establishing a career development channel and post rotation system for project managers, and improving the power and treatment of project managers. It is a common practice to establish PMO and career development channels for project managers. Whether to establish enterprise-level PMO is an important symbol to measure the maturity of enterprise project management. PMO is not only engaged in organizing project management capacity building activities, but also the home department of professional project managers, providing a platform for project managers' work and career development. The career path of project manager is the third career path independent of management and technology career path. Project manager is a special occupation with both challenges and a sense of accomplishment. In developed countries, project manager is a very respected profession, which means extraordinary personality charm, rich work experience and brilliant professional achievements. For China enterprises in the process of globalization, it is necessary to look at the position of project manager from a new perspective and provide an attractive living environment for the project manager.
To sum up, to improve the project management ability of enterprises, it is necessary to establish a good guarantee system on the organizational system of project managers, follow the ability standards suitable for the characteristics of the country and enterprises in the selection of project managers, adopt various forms and methods in the training of project managers, implement hierarchical classification solutions, improve the ability of project managers, optimize the resource allocation management of project managers through the construction of project manager resource database, continuously improve the success rate of project delivery and customer satisfaction, and create an environment and soil suitable for the survival of project managers.