The most basic task of a project Manager is in the leadership of the project team.

The guide is very comprehensive. Most of the tasks that are the responsibility of a Board of management on the level of the whole company to fall in the project also the project Manager. At this point it becomes clear why it is sometimes difficult for all Involved can be, if the “best specialist” will be appointed to the project Manager. We have seen what competence profile is needed to be a successful project Manager: The project Manager must embody many roles in a Person, e.g., facilitator, conflict Manager, team developer, politician and of the broker between the interests of the company and the project team. In almost every Textbook for project management of all catalogues with the requirements of a project Manager, which describe a total of more of a “super man” as a real Person.

Why are these different skills and competencies at all needed? This is due in large part to the specifics of the project work:

• The project team will be set up from the beginning only for a limited time. This uncertainty, grown-up for the project staff.
• In some models of Organization, the project Manager has formal Power in the Form of clear instructions from the powers. The Team is selected for the solution of complex project task in an interdisciplinary way, that is, the members of the i. d. to be drawn from different areas of the company, subject areas and levels of the hierarchy.
• Depending on the type of project, it is either to specialists at a high level, the need to co-ordinate the project managers to integrate, or to relatively heterogeneous groups in terms of Profession and qualification.
• The team members are usually first priority as representatives of their departments in the line organization.
• The team members do not know often at the beginning of the project and have their own individual goals and motives for their involvement in the project.
• The project work is most often characterized by high time-, cost – and the pressure to succeed, and is characterised by frequent Changes.
• The work requires, in particular, forms of creative techniques instead of the well-known work, and a relatively flexible communications and information processes.

Overall, the project staff often need other skills and knowledge as for a work in the line. The entry into the project is characterized by much lower transparency and stability. Both for the project staff as well as project managers a higher degree of uncertainty.

The initial situation makes clear the importance of the active design and control of internal relations in the Team and also in the course of the project resulting group processes are. First, the project Manager has no working group, but “a more or less ragtag lot of differently motivated professionals”. The project Manager therefore has the task to guide the team formation process and to support.

This Text comes from the book project management by Professor Dr. Franz Xaver Bea, Professor Dr. Steffen Scheurer, Sabine Hesselmann: 2., revised and expanded edition, 796 pages , ISBN 978-3-8252-2388-5

The book shows the “State of the Art” of project management and innovative impulses for the further development. New is the representation of a close relationship between project and Strategic Management. The three authors draw on up-to-date discussions: on topics such as project management Assessment, Critical Chain and Agile project management. Numerous examples as well as questions and answers will help students with the understanding of control and allow you a quick applicability. In addition, the title is also suitable for practitioners who want to update their knowledge on project management.