Career leap with distance Project Management MBA

Career leap with distance Project Management MBA

‘Project Manager’ an impressive job title! Many wants to pursue the career in this space. We hear discussions like “Project manager is the key”, “Choose a bad project manager and your project is doomed”. All of your success in projects and organization initiatives seems to be pivoting around this one person called project manager.

We had lot of questions: What kind of tasks this key person does? What role he/she plays? Can someone learn the skills without leaving his current job through distance MBA in project management? So we started our research.

Does distance MBA teach Project Management practiced in Different Industries?

We started our search with job portals. Collated key roles and responsibilities from various job descriptions of a project manager from different industries. We noticed job description (JD) details can be classified in to three sections as follows. On a sample basis we are showing JDs three sectors, Information Technology (IT), Construction and Engineering.

A: Project Management Processes and tools

• Lead the development of the project/product to ensure delivery of the solution
• Support development of business cases
• Successfully execute the project to planned schedule and timelines
• Make sure that deliverable are ready within the given budget
• Monitor the execution to ensure that variances are as minimal as possible.
• Creates and implements a strategy to minimize variances in timeline and budget
• Identify and manage various risks during the project with effective mitigation and contingency plans
• Manage issues and effectively handle change management during the project execution
• Ensure objectives of the projects are met
• Ensure that quality guidelines and standards are adhered to.
• Reports on variances to the planned project baseline
• Do a formal project closure
• Do resource planning and management
• Communicate with teams, top management, and stakeholders
• Work within the processes framework
• Manage external vendors and contracts

B: Domain Specific Knowledge and Experience

Domain-specific skills of a project manager vary based on the sector.

Project Manager in Information Technology

• Extensive experience of IT project delivery with off-shore resources
• Practice of SAFe Agile environment
• Knowledge and understanding of MS SharePoint features

Project Manager in Construction

• Experience high rise Building Construction
• Provide technical inputs for methodologies of construction & co-ordination
• Understand the complete lifecycle of a real estate project from a delivery perspective
• Manage project dependencies well against cost, quality, time and safety

Project Manager in Engineering Project

• Liaising between clients and project stakeholders for all engineering phases like feasibility, basic engineering Design, commissioning, etc. as needed
• Manage Specifications and manufacturing for injection tools, checking fixtures, test jigs, etc.
• Establish controls in compliance with the regulations of Health & Safety.

C: Technology and Tools

Technology and tools are very specific to the industry domain.

Project Manager in Information Technology

• Knowledge of Microsoft Project plan MSP is required.

Project Manager in Construction

Project scheduling and tracking through Primavera software

Project Manager in Engineering Project

• Should have hands-on working experience on AutoCAD
• Good in Tool Design, Product design and validation, Catia
• Good in the complete product development cycle

A distance project management program focusses on section A which is project management processes and tools shown above.

Conclusion: Anatomy of Project Manager Role

If you closely look at the job descriptions from various sectors, the responsibilities and desired skills can be categorized into three sections. They are Project management Processes and tools, Domain knowledge and experience, technology and tools.

And we have good news for all aspirants of project management! The knowledge of project management processes and tools is common or same across all the industries and projects. As domain knowledge and experience are very specific to the industry and sector, project management processes would need some tweaking. However, most of the common body of knowledge and principles can be applied across sectors, industries or projects without much change. This would serve as a boon in taking a career leap.

Want to switch to different Industry with distance MBA

There might be many reasons why on would want to switch industry. The industry or sector as a whole may not be doing well, there may be some specific issues with an organization and one doesn’t want to work in the similar culture or continue same type of work. Pursuing distance project management would be a good option to prepare oneself to grow in the career by switching the industry/sector. As you will master the generic or sector agnostic skills in project management, you would be ready to take up responsibility of managing project in a different sector of your choice. Nuances in the execution related to business domain can be picked up as you start working on new project.

Want promotion as Project Manager? Do distance MBA

If you are already handling a part of project coordination responsibilities, it makes lot of sense for you to hone your skills further by pursuing distance mba in project management program. You may not have to leave your current job and still acquire cutting-edge skills in this discipline. There is almost no risk in this deal as there is no downside. If you master the project management skills and demonstrate them in your current work, you would be just inches away from making your dream come true.

Demand for Project management jobs is growing day by day. Newer sectors have started practicing project management discipline to ensure the business outcomes in the current uncertain global environment. Anyone who has strong passion to grow in a career and demonstrate his skills and abilities to the world, distance project management MBA is one of such programs which can build a solid foundation for it.