Project management is a temporary activity that includes well-defined steps and has a palpable closure, so the job conditions are different from those you can find in a usual long-term business. There are budget and time limits that need to be respected and certain standards that need to be met, and there are means of objectively verifying the final result and concluding upon the project's success. Although it is a short-term work opportunity, project management has become very attractive for many professionals with diverse educational background and expertise, mostly because of the high competitive environment it implies, the challenge and the non-repetitive nature of the work.
Types of project management positions
For a project to be successful there is a necessity for assigning different responsibilities to different role players in the project. Therefore, a person interested in a project management type of work can occupy different positions with specific attributes.
The project manager is the most important person in a project. Project managers have overall project responsibility and they have to work closely with the sponsor or the initiator of the project, with the team that makes everything possible and with the customer that is the end-user of the projects results. They don't necessarily have to be experts in the domain of the project, but extensive knowledge can only benefit his endeavors of achieving the project's goals.
They have to manage the team, assign tasks and responsibilities, negotiate all differences of opinion, keep track of the budget and the schedule, verify that the quality standards are respected, intermediating with the client, manage the needed resources, report upon different steps of the project, communicate with the public and ensure that all regulations are respected.
Team Management
The project team is formed of professionals in different related or unrelated domains of expertise, which make the necessary actions in order that the final product can develop. They assist in planning and keeping track of the project's steps, while completing them through different operational and procedural endeavors. Depending on the nature of the project, they have to determine the necessary tools and the necessary staff needs and create the product, the improvements or the solutions that the sponsor and the client requires.
The organizational management is another stakeholder sector of a project that offers job opportunities. Usually, the organizational management consists in the specialized staff of a company or a private sponsor that analyzes the necessity and opportunity of different projects, and establishes goals and targets. They also define the policies that the projects have to respect.
Other secondary and optional work positions in a project can be in the business development staff, in the training staff or the technical staff, in the documentation staff or the information security staff. A project also needs its sponsors and the customers that can establish the acceptance quality of the product.