Essential skills for successful project management

June 2, 2014
Successful project managers rely on a collection of essential skills.

Successful project managers rely on a collection of essential skills. They include:

• Project management. Manage tradeoffs among costs, schedule, technical solutions, and stakeholder requirements to ensure the project's value.

• Local content and other stakeholders. Ensure proper alignment with stakeholders while meeting requirements to use local content and contractors.

• Costs and schedule. Provide an accurate estimate and control of project results, from concept to completion, monitoring project costs and schedule.

• HR and support functions. Manage resources, training, and compensation to ensure that the necessary skills are available to the project when needed.

• Production operations. Take into account all aspects of the asset's operability and maintenance, from planning through commissioning, start-up, and performance tests.

• Engineering. Identify technologies that deliver innovation and competitive advantage in terms of quality, costs, and schedule while avoiding over-engineering.

• Procurement. Source goods and services based on best market opportunities.

• Contracting. Define and manage contracts to meet quality, costs, and schedule requirements.

• Risk and opportunity management. Minimize the probability and consequences of threats while maximizing opportunities in a systematic and constantly updated process.

• Quality and HSE. Guarantee the health and safety of employees, contractors, customers, local communities, and the environment throughout the project life cycle.