Junior Project Manager. It’s a great chance or opportunity. No! It’s a lot of hard work. It is a great time to build a foundation for professional growth. [iStock/5xinc] You are assigned to a project by a junior manager. There is a senior PM. Is he happy about it? Most likely not. This means that he will have to do more work. At least for the initial period. It may take several weeks or even months before you are able to start helping him. These are eight questions that a mentor should ask a junior project manager.
1. What are your expectations?
There may be many reasons why you were assigned to a particular project. Your organization wants you to be a project manager. Senior project managers need help to reduce routine. You will be replacing the project manager. It doesn’t really matter.
You need to understand your manager’s expectations. Is he expecting you to be valuable? Or are you a deadweight. What do you know about him? What is his attitude towards you?
It is a simple and powerful statement. “I want to know what your expectations are of me.”
This is also a great time to express your expectations and goals.
2. What are my responsibilities and roles?
Do you plan to take over the mundane work? Maybe you will be reporting? Or will you manage a portion of a project? What is your authority? What authority do you have?
You will be communicating regularly with the project team. It is important that you communicate with your manager. It is not a good idea to make opposing decisions.
It is worth taking the time to understand the roles and responsibilities of the project manager for the current project. This will allow you to make a decision about what you can do.
3. What the Project is All About
This is something you would want to know. It is important to know what you are expected to deliver. However, I recommend that you concentrate more on the process, the workflow, as well as the methodology. It is more important to know how to move the project forward than what technologies it uses.
The project team loves to talk about the products they have made. Ask your manager about it to save their time. It’s a great way to get to know people. This is especially true for engineers.
Ask your manager about communication tools and task trackers, meetings and reports, administration routines, etc.
You want to be helpful as a junior manager. Start with taking over non-project-management work.
4. What is the current status of the project?
What is the earliest deadline? What should we deliver? These are the two questions you need to ask. It doesn’t make sense to clarify the entire project’s roadmap.
Ask for the last reports. I recommend looking back at least one month. This will allow you to become familiar with the reporting format. You will also see some project history.
Sometimes you may need to take on a project in difficult times. You might need to skip some tasks. Ask for a task that you can do on your own, and then get out of the way.
5. Who are the Main Stakeholders
You can’t learn stakeholder management from books. It is the most valuable experience a junior manager can gain from his mentor. If I were you I would be a focus on stakeholders.
First, discover who they are. It’s not enough to know their names or position. If the stakeholder register is available, ask for a stakeholder management plan.
You might have some notes that your project manager does not include in the official project documentation. It is usually a part of analysis that portrays the real characters of stakeholders. Without flattering or political correctness. He might not want to share sensitive information at once. Ask about it when you feel comfortable enough.
6. Are you able to manage stakeholder relations?
What is more important? It is a plan that will help you achieve a certain level engagement
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