Soft skills in project management

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Soft skills in project management 2013

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Piotr Plewiński, PMP Chairman of the Board at PM Experts PMI REP Program Advisor EMEA

Soft skills are an inherent part of a project's life. They strongly influence our style of work and its

effectiveness. This subject matter is frequently covered at various conferences, in the press or on

the Internet. It results from a necessity to teach project managers and project team members skills

necessary for an effective cooperation with project stakeholders. It's also emphasized by the fact,

that the new fifth edition of PMBOK® has been expanded with a tenth knowledge area -

stakeholders management. One of the founders of Project Management Institute, Russel Archibald,

whose commentary on our report is to be found below, also draws attention to the importance of

soft skills in project management. The need to continuously improve soft skills in project

management environment is also reflected in the results of our survey, in which 74% of the

respondents claim that soft skills are essential for a successful project. We are pleased to present

these results in this report. I would like to thank all our respondents for taking part in the survey.

Your opinions and comments are a valuable contribution to the development of Polish project

management community. Enjoy!

Russel Archibald, PMI Fellow

Co-founder of PMI®, with the membership card number 6. His presentation was a

part of an opening meeting on October 9th, 1969. A project and program manager

with 60 years of experience. He began his career as a project manager, to

become a company's project portfolio director, and finally a PM consultant. He has

delivered projects in 16 countries, on 4 continents. In 1989 he was awarded the

title of an honorary PMI Fellow.

The core project management capability within any enterprise resides at the individual project level,

and its effectiveness is a combination of two major factors:

• The project manager’s authority, individual capability, knowledge, and project team leadership;

• The ‘project controls’ capability in defining, planning, estimating, and controlling the project

objectives, scope, cost, time schedule, risks, labor, and other required resources.

Certainly a good project manager must understand and fully utilize the project controls capabilities

within their organization, and the project controls function (which usually resides within a PMO) must

understand that they fully support the project manager and are vital to achieving project success.

From the very first paper presented at the founding meeting of the Project Management Institute on

October 9 and 10, 1969:

Managing projects requires two basic categories of skills which are relatively new, at least in some

industries. These are:

• Skills in managing projects, and

• Skills to operate and develop the project management systems which support the Project

Manager.

These skills must be developed in each organization concurrently with the systems, but we

frequently have failed to recognize this fact.


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PM Experts survey results

1. Relevance of soft skills in project management

Results of the survey show that 74% of the respondents consider soft skills to be very relevant for a

successful project, while only 1 % consider them irrelevant.

2. Soft skills challenges in project management

The main soft skills challenges in project management mentioned by the respondents are related to

effective communication with stakeholders and motivation of project team members (including those

not directly reporting to the project manager).


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3. Soft skills in project management

Among 15 soft skills suggested in PM Experts' survey, seven were identified by respondents as

most relevant in everyday project tasks. The responses are presented in the diagram below.

According to the respondents the most relevant project manager's skills are: communication (96%),

decision making (79%) and motivating (70%).

Aside from skills provided by the survey creators, the respondents mentioned the following skills,

which they considered relevant for project management:


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4. Soft skills training needs for project managers

PM Experts' survey presented potential training topics to the respondents. The diagram below

shows seven most relevant topics chosen by the survey's participants.

Out of eleven suggestions, the respondents chose training courses that develop skills needed for

project management challenges. The most popular topics were: communication on the project

(64%), motivating project team members (57%) and project team building (49%).


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Survey methodology:

The survey has been conducted by email on MySurveyLab platform in November and December

2012. The participants included 115 project managers and human resources employees from a

wide range of companies active on the various Polish market sectors.

The survey consisted of 10 questions (open and closed). In closed questions the respondents were

asked to rate the value of certain skills and trainings - from the most relevant, to the least relevant

for a project manager. In open questions the respondents were asked to name additional skills and

trainings that they consider relevant for a project manager’s work.

Soft skills, for the needs of this survey, have been defined as theoretical knowledge, practical skills,

personal attitudes and traits. Examples of skills mentioned in the survey included: communication,

inspiration, proactivity, holding meetings, negotiations, time management, problem management,

decision making, solving conflicts, emotional intelligence, presentation skills.

Authors of the report: Urszula Siemienowicz, Agnieszka Lisiecka and Martyna Samołyk.


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PM Experts is a consulting and training company, that has been active on the Polish market since 2004. Our mission is a comprehensive support of business organizations in developing their project management maturity. For nearly ten years we have been conducting trainings, implementing project management methodology and running projects commissioned by our customers. Their prosperity is our key success factor. Our activities are based on accreditations from the largest international branch organizations, that promote professional project management - Project Management Institute (PMI®) and APMG Group. We are the only Polish company accredited as a PMI® Registered Consultant. Our merits are:

• Ten years' experience on the Polish market, reflected by many successes and references

from our customers

• A group of trusty consultants, project management practitioners with international project

management experience

• PMI® Registered Consultant Accreditation

• PMI® Global Registered Education Provider Accreditation

• APMG® Accreditation

Copyright by PM Experts Sp. z o. o.


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Address:

PM Experts Sp. z o. o. al. J. Ch. Szucha 8 00-582 Warszawa

Phone numbers:

tel. + 48 22 395 64 20 tel. + 48 22 395 64 25 fax + 48 22 300 10 17 e-mail: [email protected]

www.pmexperts.pl

Soft skills in project management

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