Planning and organizing: - Make use of productivity tools and create processes - Create plans, timelines, schedules, and other forms of documentation to track project completion Budgeting and controlling costs and other factors: - Monitor and manage the budget - Track issues and risks - Manage quality - Remove barriers Managing and showcasing [[Project task|project tasks]] Clarify goals Measure progress --- **Customer Needs Analysis & Scope Definition**: Project managers are responsible for interfacing with both internal stakeholders (management, resource managers) and external customers (clients, contractors) to define the project's requirements. This involves setting important technical guidelines, establishing the budget, and determining deadlines. PMs conduct targeted problem-solving sessions to uncover the "why" behind a project, determine the impact on the organization, and define the ultimate goal without sacrificing quality. **Resource Management & Team Assembly**: A PM must evaluate the project's required skills against available resources to build an effective team. This duty includes identifying the specific expertise needed based on customer requirements (e.g., medical expertise for a healthcare project) and assigning specific, actionable project tasks to individual team members. **Cross-Functional Communications & Project Alignment**: Because individual contributors typically focus only on their specific assigned tasks, the project manager acts as the central node that sees the "whole picture". The PM's duty is to map out the impacts of each process within the project and communicate these dependencies to the team. This ensures that every individual's task goal is perfectly aligned with the broader, big-picture goal of the finished product. **Barrier Resolution & Schedule Maintenance**: The PM takes on the work of clearing roadblocks that threaten the project's timeline. If the team struggles to get answers from another organization or department, the project manager steps in as a liaison to handle the communication and keep the team on track and on schedule. Furthermore, they advocate for additional resources when necessary and empower the team to innovate beyond legacy processes. **Performance Monitoring & Team Support**: PMs conduct daily check-ins to monitor progress, assess the team's needs, and ensure that individuals have the support required to execute their specific tasks. They actively evaluate each team member's motivations, strengths, and weaknesses to enable efficient decision-making.