Responsibilities of Software Project Manager

Proper project management is essential for the successful completion of a software project and the person who is responsible for it is called project manager. To do his job effectively, the project manager must have certain set of skills. This section discusses both the job responsibilities of project manager and the skills required by him.

1. Involves with the senior managers in ‘the process of appointing team members
2. Builds the project team and assigns tasks to various team members
3. Responsible for effective project planning and scheduling, project monitoring and control activities in order to achieve the project objectives
4. Acts as a communicator between the senior management and the other persons involved in the project like the development team and internal and external stakeholders
5. Effectively resolves issues (if any) that arise between the team members by changing their roles and responsibilities
6. Modifies the project plan (if required) to deal with the situation.

Although the actual skills for effective project management develop with experience, every project manager must exhibit some basic skills that are listed below.

1. Must have the knowledge of different project management techniques like risk management, configuration management, cost estimation techniques, etc.
2. Must have the ability to make judgement, since project management frequently requires making decisions.
3. Must have good grasping power to learn the latest technologies to adapt to project requirements.
4. Should be open-minded enough to accept new ideas from the project members. In addition, he should be creative enough to come up with new ideas.
5. Should have good interpersonal, communication, and leadership qualities in order to get work done from the team members.