Project Management — How to Choose the Right Project Manager

Approach. Skills. Experience. Methodology. Frameworks.

Choosing the right individual, team or organization to deliver projects for your business is essential to your future growth and success. Entrepreneurs, business owners, and other stakeholders should know what to look for when deciding who should manage their projects.

Projects are an essential part of a successful business. Because projects are designed to develop new products, services or processes, it’s vital that they are managed by individuals or teams that have the right level of skills, experience, and expertise. Whether you’re using an internal project manager, hiring a specialist firm, bringing in a consultant or taking on a contractor, it’s important to know what to look for. In this article, we’ll explore the key areas that you should insist on to find the right person or organization to run your projects.

Important areas include:

• A proven track record
• Areas of expertise
• Qualifications and methodologies
• Reassurance of work quality and guarantees
• Details of project services that are included, before during and after project delivery

A proven track record

One of the best indicators of future success in project management is projects that have been successfully delivered in the past. You will want to establish:

• The type and size of projects that have been delivered previously.
• Whether the projects were delivered to time, budget, quality and requirements (scope).
• Any significant risks or issues that the projects ran into and how they were resolved.
• How the project dealt with stakeholders and other interested parties.

Areas of expertise

Certain project managers or organizations will specialize in certain types of project, sectors or industries. It will be helpful if you can identify: