Top Project Management Skills

Project management is not an easy job. In fact, it’s several not-easy

jobs throughout the initiation, planning, executing, controlling, and
closing of a project.

Project managers are responsible for planning projects, assembling a

project team, and then managing project tasks, time and costs.

To do so, the best project managers use robust project management

tools to keep all aspects of their projects organized.

Still, even with robust project management software, that’s a lot to ask of
any individual, but project managers have a variety of project management
skills to get the job done.

What Are Project Management Skills?

As stated above, project managers need to plan and control many areas of
a project. To do so they need a set of project management skills which
consists of personality traits, soft skills and technical or hard skills.

1. Hard Skills: Hard skills, also known as technical skills are those project
management skills that can be learned through education or training.
2. Soft Skills: Soft skills are all those which are not learned through formal
education or training. Some of these are part of someone’s personality,
or are developed through the years.
3. Personality traits: These are not skills, but personality traits that are
beneficial for the project manager role.

There are certainly more than 20, but if you have these, you have the
foundation on which to build a successful career in project management.
These project management skills can be useful for several purposes.

Project Management Hard Skills

In project management, hard skills are the most important because they
are the project management techniques that allow project managers to do
their job. They are also known as the technical skills or project
management know-how that is needed to plan, schedule and manage
projects.

1. Knowledge of Project Management Methodologies

A project manager needs to know about the different project management

methodologies that exist. That doesn’t mean that you need to be an expert
in all of them, as they usually are industry-specific and require certification.
Here are some of the most common project management methodologies.

2. Proficient with Project Management Software

Having a working knowledge of project management software is a must-

have technical skill for project managers in today’s world. There are many
project management software alternatives available in the market, so you’ll
need to determine which project management tools and features are best
for you and your team’s workflow.

3. Team Management

Project management is about teamwork. Project managers must have

people skills to keep their teams working productively. That means
understanding conflict management to keep everyone working together and
morale high. It’s always helpful to start projects with team-building activities
to help create relationships that will stick through the thick and thin of a
project.
4. Time Management

Time is one of the triple constraints and one of the most important
technical skills. Not having time management skills can lead to delays
and worse. Project management is about meeting deadlines and getting
your deliverables out on time. Project managers have to be experts in
managing their time, their team’s time and the overall time of the project.

5. Project Planning

Project planning is a must-have project management skill because a

project plan is the foundation of the project management cycle. It
includes the project schedule, resources and costs. Traditional project
management is all about planning ahead. Therefore, the planning stage
of any project lays the foundation for everything that follows, including
the success or failure of the project.

6. Project Scheduling

The project scheduling process is a vital part when writing your project
plan. A project schedule organizes tasks, teams and time to complete a
project. When people think about a project management skill, they’re
probably thinking about project scheduling, deadlines and deliverables.
But project scheduling is more than that, as it also involves resource
management and risk management. There are many tools that can help
with this process, chief among them an online Gantt chart, which
provides a visual of the schedule with tasks, durations of those tasks,
dependencies, and milestones.

Not all Gantt chart software is as robust as ProjectManager. Our tool will
do all the above, but unlike competitors, we can automatically calculate
the critical path and then you can set a baseline. Now you’re ready to
monitor planned versus actual effort and catch discrepancies with your
schedule and budget. Don’t you want a Gantt chart that can do more?
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7. Project Budgeting

The project budget is the fuel that drives the project. Project
management is all concept and no action without a project budget. But
having a project budget is one one side of the project budgeting coin.
There’s also budget management, which means tracking costs
throughout the life cycle of the project and making sure your actual costs
don’t exceed your planned budget.

8. Risk Management

Planning a project, big or small, is inherent with risk. Before executing

the project, you have to create a risk management plan to identify,
assess, and control risk. The more you can manage risk, the more likely
your project is going to succeed.

9. Cost Management

Projects cost money. Creating a budget is part of the planning stage of

project management. Once you have a project budget you have to use
budget management to make sure that you control your costs through
the execution stage.

10. Task Management

Tasks are little jobs that make up the execution phase of project
management. They need to be created, organized, assigned to team
members and tracked to make sure they meet the project constraints.
This is done with task management. Project management software helps
you manage tasks and fosters collaboration among your project team.

Project Manager supersizes the limited features of most to-do software

tools and gives you more task management tools. You can use Gantt
charts, kanban boards, task lists and project calendars to manage your
projects.

Manage tasks better than on a to-do list with Project Manager. Try It
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Project Management Soft Skills. Soft skills are not taught anywhere
and are developed naturally by individuals. However, some of these can
actually be improved through practice.

1. Leadership Skills

Some say that leadership is a personality trait or soft skill that can’t be
taught. While some project managers have better people skills than
others, we think everyone has the potential to learn how to apply
proven leadership skills and techniques. As a project manager you’re
responsible not only for project success, but you also need to be a
leader that applies leadership skills to guide and motivate team
members to achieve their goals.

2. Communication Skills

Communication skills really go hand-in-glove with leadership. You can’t

be an effective project manager if you’re not able to articulate what it is
you need your project team to do. But you’re not only going to be
communicating with your team, you’ll need to have a
clear communication plan for your customers, stakeholders and
contractors.

3. Negotiation Skills

Being good at negotiation is one of many communication skills, but it

deserves its own space here. In project management, negotiation is an
important skill for conflict resolution and stakeholder management. For
example, you’ll likely get demands from stakeholders that can impact the
project scope. You’ll have to give them pushback, but diplomatically, so
all project stakeholders feel they’re getting what they want.

4. Organization Skills

The term organization skills refer to the ability that an individual has to
manage time and tasks in an efficient manner. So as the name implies,
organization skills allow someone to work in an organized and efficient
manner.

5. Interpersonal Skills

Teams are made of people and people have personalities. There are
many different types of team members and they all have to get along.
Having interpersonal skills brings the best out of your project team and
helps with conflict resolution.

6. Problem-Solving Skills
Projects are problems. Having the skills to solve those problems means
that your project is more likely to deliver success. Think of problems as
puzzles that you can have to figure out. There are many problem-solving
tools out there to help you along the way.

Personality Traits of a Project Manager

As noted above, these are not exactly skills but personality traits that are
beneficial for project managers and their teams.

1. Adaptability

Change is a constant in project management. Being flexible is what

keeps a project viable. If you’re not willing to adapt then the project will
suffer. Of course, you have to have the wisdom to know when
adaptability serves the project and when you have to bite the bullet and
push through.

2. Critical Thinking

Too many people understand the basics of project management but

can’t think outside the box. Critical thinking is all about not accepting
everything you hear but taking the time to understand the issue and do
the research that leads to an informed decision. A critical thinker is more
likely to clear the hurdles that every project has to go through.

3. A Sense of Humor

Having a sense of humor is an essential project management skill, even

if it is a soft skill in project management. Humor relieves stress for you
and your team, and only when tensions are lifted can smarter actions
and ideas show themselves. Project team-building activities are a great
example of how humor can be used by project managers.

4. Patience

Nothing is solved by rushing through a project or getting frustrated when

things don’t go well. Projects need to be thoroughly planned in order to
run smoothly. That doesn’t mean there won’t be issues. They’re always
issues. Whether it’s a change request or stakeholders having unrealistic
expectations, if you don’t have patience everything will be exponentially
worse.

Project Manager Puts Project Management Skills to Use

Now that you know what skills you need to be a successful project
manager, it’s time to equip yourself with the right project management
tools.

ProjectManager has a suite of powerful tools that can improve the

workflow of any project manager. In addition to offering the
aforementioned award-winning Gantt charts and dashboards, we also
offer powerful reporting features to track your project’s progress.

You can have all the soft and technical skills in the world, but without
project management software you’ll still be working at a disadvantage.
Luckily, there are tools that enhance your skill set and make you even
more efficient and productive.

Project Manager has features to help schedule, manage tasks and

budget your project, as well as being online so it’s great for team
collaboration. You’ll have to bring the sense of humor, but we’ve got the
rest.

Try it for yourself by taking this free 30-day trial.