Through the years I have seen many people who use Microsoft Project (aka project management software) and claim they are project managers, I have also seen PMP certified people who don’t know the basics of Microsoft Project, and sadly I have seen project managers who are managing projects and don’t know the theory nor the software!

Project management software does not make you a project manager it may help you schedule project activities but will not make you manage a project successfully, the problem with the project management profession is that many people think they can do it, they think it is only supervising people who can do the work and submissively obey all requests, this is not project management, project management is more complicated than this, in the following examples I will just scratch the surface of project management:

- People: it involves dealing with people who will be at your side and those who will be working against the project and sometimes against you! You will need solid interpersonal skills to influence both positive and negative people, you will also have a working group that you will have to motivate, develop, empower, and resolve their conflicts and problems

- Cost: working on multi-million dollars project is a very challenging job, you will need to track and control your cash flow and keep considerable amount for contingency that you will not be able to estimate unless you conduct proper risk planning! Otherwise it will be based on a gut feeling that will jeopardize your project

- Time: you will need to master scheduling and resource leveling, leveling is a complicated process that needs real skill and cannot just rely on Microsoft Project auto leveling, you will also need to master schedule compression and critical path analysis keeping in mind that 9 women cannot deliver a baby in one month, I have seen some project management practitioners and business managers who don’t know what a critical path is!

- Vendor Management: vendors are very clever at getting business deals, you need to know how to deal with sales people, how to avoid falling in marketecture trap, and how to negotiate contracts, I have seen many projects come to a dead-end because of a contract dispute, if you don’t conduct a solid due diligence you may put the entire investment at stake, many projects fail because of buying a wrong product, read my post Why Projects Fail Because of Procurement

- Scope & Change Management: the common attribute between scope and gasoline is both never freeze! Scope creep is an inevitable fact in most of projects, you will need to tame your ambitious stakeholders and follow a rigorous change management process to control changes, you will need to master impact analysis to estimate the impact on the project and impact is not always measurable in cost and time units, some impacts cannot be accurately measured such as customer satisfaction, you need to know how and when to say No!

- Risk Management: this is one of the most important aspects of managing projects, you may be trying to identify risks but identification is not the end of the story, I have seen many project managers identify a few risks to include in the project charter and never spotlight those risks when the project is underway, risk management is an art and a skill that you will build up with time

- Communication Management: as per PMI, a project manager spends 90% of his time communicating, you should be communicating in all directions and with different types of stakeholders, communication can make or break your project, I have argued that 90% percent of time for communication is not enough in my post, 90% for Communication is Not Enough

The above brief examples can tell us that mastering Microsoft Project does not make someone a project manager, in fact this is one of the delusions of project management profession, and unfortunately they are many. However mastering project management software is a key trait of successful project managers.

How about you, have you come across examples of people who are deemed project managers because they only use Microsoft Project, or have you seen experienced project managers who are not familiar with Microsoft Project, I would love to hear from you!

Related Posts:

• The Seven Deadly Sins of Risk Management
• Why Do Projects Really Fail?
• Top 5 Communication Skills for Project Managers and Leaders
• 10 Ways to Avoid Marketecture Trap
• PERT using Microsoft Project