Benefits of Having a Project Manager in a Team

In large modern companies or fast-growing startups, a well-established management process helps achieve goals more efficiently. Understanding all the peculiarities of doing business, many entrepreneurs are looking for an experienced project manager who will organize, monitor, and automate the work on the project communication with the customer and workers. Various organizations have realized the value of a PM for their business: 99Firms estimates that by 2027 the demand for project management jobs will reach almost 90 million people.

If you own a business but don't have a project manager on your team, find out all the benefits of having such a specialist and remember the points that will help you choose a real professional to join your company.

Why a Business Needs a Project Manager

At the beginning of the launch, many startups may find that a project is over budget, the team is under pressure, and customers constantly change their wishes. The employer hires a specialist who can cope with these tasks to establish and control all processes. The PM takes responsibility for the project's long-term goals and for all employees who work under them. Typically, project managers are required to complete tasks related to working on a prototype, developing an MVP, software modules, and interfaces. The main functions of the PM include:

• project team formation;
• time and resource estimation;
• communication with customers and senior management;
• setting goals and tracking results;
• assistance in matters of employees;
• budget allocation.

The requirements for a project manager may vary depending on the company's niche, but most often, this specialist can change the course of work, find an error, make the client more loyal and rally the developers. A competent specialist will take over all the work with the team, saving the entrepreneur's time and freeing them from routine tasks.

Building a Project from Scratch

Before launching any startup, a business owner needs to know its goals, concepts, approaches, and calculations to get the desired result. At this stage, the project manager takes over all the estimates:

1. Identify resources, risks, and benefits.
2. Make plans in case of unforeseen circumstances.
3. Communicate with the team and the customer.

With the help of planning and monitoring software, the PM illustrates the project plan, budget, and priorities there and then sends it to the interested parties for approval.

After starting the project, this manager controls it at every stage and makes the necessary changes, if required. Thus, the entrepreneur relieves themself of the obligation to monitor every process daily and communicate with the client.

Saving Time for Planning

A project manager is an employee who controls all the processes within a project. Thus, this specialist monitors the entire team's schedule and can competently plan meetings as needed. Since instead of communicating with the customer and employees, the business owner needs to write to the project manager - this saves time on more critical tasks.

Responsibility for Budget Allocation

One of the main tasks of a project manager in any niche is to control and retain a team that can go beyond the allocated budget. Because the people on a project (developers, designers, architects, etc.) are responsible for building and maintaining the software - they often don't control costs even if they try to stay within budget. The PM helps the team prioritize and optimize their time on a task to avoid wasting work hours. In this case, the businessman does not need to monitor each employee's costs and individual productivity.

Scaling Tracking

The responsibilities of a project manager include strict adherence to the plan: budget expenditure, deadlines, intermediate results. Entrepreneurs hire these professionals because managers and developers face unplanned scaling and project modification due to a lack of control. It may result in an unforeseen additional budget and longer timelines than previously expected. The PM ensures that scaling up does not affect the bottom line, completion time, and priorities. This person will properly process all changes and document them for reporting to the customer.

Risk Responsibility

The significant benefit of a project manager is that by hiring such an employee to the team, the employer makes it easier for themself to deal with the potential risks and tasks that may arise during the work on the project. The PM identifies and manages risks early in the process and eliminates them before they can cause a problem. Thus, shortcomings in the team's work will not affect the deadlines and the formed budget. The manager continues to control the situation in the project until its completion, informing the management and the customer about the changes taking place.

Team Management

The project manager takes responsibility for the whole team: issues discussion, assistance in tasks, employees' needs, and communication between departments. The PM defines the duties of employees and guarantees the company's owner that the work is carried out without errors and failures of deadlines. Since the project's final result depends on each team member, the project manager ensures that each participant feels comfortable at work. A professional leader knows the ways to rally employees to achieve excellent results.

What Tools Will Help the Project Manager

Every business owner wants the company's projects to be successful and complete as planned at the beginning. The businessman needs to hire an experienced project manager and equip them with tools for more productive work to achieve the desired result. Conforming with FirstSiteGuide, 70% of small-to-mid-sized businesses invest more in their digital presence. Since many companies have moved to the online space, they choose the software that contains:

• kanban board for visualization and project management;
• list of tasks for planning the working day;
• time tracking for reporting;
• file sharing for exchanging documents;
• chat for communication between employees.

To combine all the tools into one software, organizations began to use CPM systems that store all business data on a single platform. CRM with built-in project management features provides owners with additional savings for investment in a single software solution. In addition, teams use a single application that integrates their company's data and processes for ease of use.

In order for the team to work productively and produce the desired results, you need to choose software that meets your company's needs. Having the software will make your project manager's job easier and help you focus on more critical tasks.