7/8/22, 12:48 PM What Does a Project Manager Do?

| Roles and Responsibilities

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What Does a Project Manager

Do? | Roles and Responsibilities
By Kelsey Miller
 | 
February 4, 2019
 

INDUSTRY ADVICE
MANAGEMENT

Project management has always been an important function in business, and it’s only getting
more important as time goes by.
In fact, by 2027, employers will need 87.7 million individuals working in project management
oriented roles. To help manage this increasing need, 71 percent of global organizations now
have a project management office—an almost 15 percent increase from 2007. Clearly, the job
outlook for professionals with project management skills is increasingly positive.

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If you’re considering a career in project management, you’re likely curious about the different
roles and responsibilities you’ll have after earning your degree or certification.
Here, we take a closer look at what project managers do—including key responsibilities—so
you can better decide if it is the right career for you.
Download Our Free Guide to Advancing Your Project
Management Career
Learn what you need to know, from in-demand skills to the industry’s growing job
opportunities.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Key Responsibilities of a Project Manager

So, what do project managers actually do?
In the broadest sense, project managers (PMs) are responsible for planning, organizing, and
directing the completion of specific projects for an organization while ensuring these projects
are on time, on budget, and within scope.
By overseeing complex projects from inception to completion, project managers have the
potential to shape an organization’s trajectory, helping to reduce costs, maximize company
efficiencies, and increase revenue.
The exact duties of a project manager will depend on their industry, organization, and the
types of projects that a PM is tasked with overseeing. But across the board, all project
managers share responsibilities across what’s commonly referred to as the “project life cycle,”
which consists of five phases (or processes):
Initiating
Planning
Executing
Monitoring and Controlling
Closing
While it may be tempting to think of these as “steps,” they aren’t. Rather, these are processes
project managers continually return to throughout the life of a project.
Below, we take a closer look at each phase of the project life cycle, as well as the different
responsibilities a project manager might have in each.
1. Initiating
Project managers begin each new project by defining the main objectives of the project, its
purpose, and its scope. They also identify key internal and external stakeholders, discuss
shared expectations, and gain the required authorization necessary to move a project forward.
Important questions that project managers ask during the initiating phase include:
Why is the project important?
What’s the specific problem we’re trying to solve?
What is the desired outcome?
What are the project’s success criteria?

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Who are the stakeholders on this project? Who is impacted by, or who impacts, this project?
What are the requirements and constraints within this project?
What assumptions are we making?
How will the project be funded?
What is within our scope? What is not within our scope?
Has this project been executed before? If so, what was the result? What information from
that past project should be considered in this project?
It’s important to recognize that project managers don’t do this on their own. Oftentimes, a
project manager isn’t assigned until much of this work is well underway.
As soon as the project manager is assigned, however, he or she needs to fully engage in the
above work which should culminate in a project being chartered and formally assigned.
2. Planning
Once the charter is approved, project managers work with key stakeholders to create an
integrated project plan focused on attaining the outlined goals.
The plan established during this process helps project managers oversee scope, cost, timelines,
risk, quality issues, and communications. It is during this phase that project managers will
outline key deliverables and milestones and identify the tasks that must be completed to
complete each.
It’s important to note that project “planning” doesn’t actually end until the project does. The
project plan should be treated as a living document that constantly evolves and changes
throughout the project.
3. Executing
During this phase, team members complete the work that has been identified in the project
plan in order to reach the goals of the project. The project manager’s role is to assign this work
and to ensure that tasks are completed as scheduled. The project manager will also typically:
Protect the team from distractions
Facilitate issue resolution
Lead the team in working through project changes

4. Monitoring and Controlling

Despite being listed as the fourth phase, monitoring and controlling processes actually
commence at the beginning of a project and continue throughout planning, execution, and
closing. In the monitoring and controlling phase, a  project manager’s work includes:
Monitoring the progress of a project
Managing the project’s budget
Ensuring that key milestones are reached

Comparing actual performance against planned/scheduled performance

Of course, things rarely go exactly according to plan. Therefore, a project manager must be
flexible enough to work within a project’s plan but readily adapt when necessary.
5. Closing
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During this phase, project managers strive to ensure all activities necessary to achieve the final
result are completed. During the close of a project, project managers will:
Work with the client to get formal sign-off that the project is complete
Release any resources (budget or personnel) who are no longer needed for the project
Review the work of third-party vendors or partners in order to close their contracts and pay
their invoices
Archive project files for future reference and use
After the project has been completed, a post-implementation review is often used to identify
key lessons learned. Understanding what went well, what could be done differently, and what
to stop doing can help inform and improve project management practices moving forward.

What Does a Project Manager Do?: A Day in

the Life of a Project Manager
As shown above, the specific tasks that consume a project manager’s time will vary
substantially depending on which phases of the life cycle their projects are in.
That being said, there are a number of general tasks that any good project manager can expect
to perform on a daily basis. These include:

Communicating with team members: Project Management is all about communication,

whether through emails, calls, daily check-ins, or team meetings. Project managers must
communicate with the members of their team regularly to determine the status of various
projects and potential roadblocks that will need to be resolved.
Communicating with key stakeholders: Just as important as communicating with your
team is regularly updating key stakeholders on project progress and ensuring that the
project still aligns with changing company initiatives. This communication can take many
forms, including weekly or monthly reports, regularly updated dashboards, or quick emails,
calls, or meetings. Regardless of the medium, getting comfortable communicating with data
is an essential skill.
Issue identification and resolution: Throughout the course of any project, it’s common for
scope, budget, resource allocation, and other miscellaneous issues to arise. It is the role of
the project manager to ensure that these issues are resolved effectively in order to keep the
project on track.
Budgeting: For small-scale projects, cost estimation may be a weekly or even a monthly
task. But for larger projects with many different expenses to keep in mind, project managers
may spend time reviewing budgets each day to ensure the project does not exceed resource
allocations. This may also include reviewing, processing, and approving invoices from
outside vendors if the project includes such partnerships.
Time management and approval: In order to ensure that the project remains on track,
many project managers turn to timesheets or a project management software that allows
them to see how their team is spending their time. In addition to ensuring that the project is
moving along as planned, this helps project managers shift resources between projects as
necessary.

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Team-building: A good project manager will do more than simply manage the steps of a
project. They will also manage their team in order to keep them productive and happy. A
part of this should include team-building exercises designed to boost morale, particularly
after challenging weeks or phases of the project. Organizing a weekly lunch or happy hour is
one such example.

Project Management vs. Portfolio

Management vs. Program Management
Project management is an umbrella term which can actually refer to three different types of
management: Project management, portfolio management, and program management.
While these disciplines are all similar and interrelated, they each have unique differences that
impact the responsibilities of project managers in their given roles.
Three types of interrelated project management disciplines include:

Project Management: In a traditional project management role, the objective is to complete

a project successfully, while remaining on time and within budget. Project managers utilize a
variety of project management strategies to help organize teams and complete projects
according to their success criteria while engaging stakeholders appropriately.
Program Management: A program is defined as the coordinated management of a set of
interrelated or similar projects to achieve an organization’s objectives in a way that’s not
possible if managed separately. Program managers collaborate with project managers to
ensure each project is strategically aligned and on track to hit major milestones. Program
managers also facilitate organizational change, manage the dependencies between
projects, and address any project- or organizational-level issues and risks that affect the
program.
Portfolio Management: A portfolio is the organization’s collection of programs, projects,
and operational work. Portfolio managers work with the organization’s leaders to identify,
prioritize, select, balance, authorize, evaluate, and control the organization’s approved work
to best meet its strategies, given resource capacity and risk.

Developing Project Management Skills for

Success
If you’re interested in pursuing a career in project management,  it’s critical that you develop
the necessary skills to execute the tasks assigned to you. Earning an advanced project
management degree is one way to learn and improve those skills, increase your salary, and
enhance your marketability to employers while giving you hands-on experience in the field.
To learn more about advancing your career in project management, download our free guide
below. 

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Editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2017. It has since been updated for
accuracy and style.

About Kelsey Miller

Kelsey Miller is a marketing specialist and contributing writer for Northeastern University's
Graduate Programs Blog.

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