What is Project Management?

My career in project management found me — literally.

In the early days of my career, I had no idea what project management was. As a rotating equipment engineer, I was on the technical side of things — and as my job title indicated, I was responsible for repairing and maintaining any piece of equipment that rotated. Attention to detail was vital to the successful and safe operation of the plant and I played a crucial role in that. Because most equipment rotated unthinkably fast, being even 1/100th of an inch off would send it shattering.

There was no such thing as a typical day because there was always something new to fix. From repairing broken pumps to finding out why motors tripped, every day was a new adventure. 

Project managers, from my perspective back then, were the people who took notes in meetings and worked on things that I never saw get done, which didn’t seem very exciting to me. They were so far removed from us tech people that they even worked in their own building at the front of the plant, along with management and finance. Did they even do real work? At the time, I couldn’t have told you. 

So you can imagine my astonishment when my boss called me into his office one day and said, “Omar, you’re being moved into project management. You start next week.” 

My jaw dropped. There was no way to be ready for such a curveball, but I gave it a shot. And in those first two years, I learned so much it made my head spin.

So what is project management?

Whether you know it or not, you’ve already got project management skills. If you’ve ever planned birthday parties for your kids or an epic vacation through Europe with friends — you, my friend, are a project manager. 

The difference between you and a professional comes down to a combination of experience and tools — the latter of which I can teach you. 

In a nutshell, project management is leading groups of people to deliver on multiple tasks that result in a grand deliverable or project. It involves putting resources like people, money and time into a system that makes order out of chaos, so that everyone involved knows what’s happening and understands their role in making any project a success. Confusing? To better illustrate this, let’s say we were building a house.

There are hundreds of steps involved in building a house from scratch. From permits to inspecting the design, the never-ending to-do list needs to be organized into a system that everyone understands. Figuring out a schedule (so the contractors don’t show up all at once), how long it will take to build, deciding on the most efficient ways to build, which materials will be needed, how much everything will cost — all of this would fall under the purview of a project manager.

Project management also involves encouraging conversations that need to happen to ensure that whatever you’re building works seamlessly and flawlessly the first time. With our fictional house, for example, the electrical team would need to communicate with the mechanical team about where they’re planning on putting wiring. Tasks can’t be completed in a vacuum because they impact other areas of the larger project. A project manager makes sure all lines of communication are clear, open and understood between all team members. 

Today, project management is a crucial role in most industries. While construction and engineering, finance, healthcare, information technology and law are the most predominant, project managers will be needed at any company that’s building something, whether it’s a refinery, a piece of software or an ad campaign.