Skills to Look for in Project Managers

Today I read a brief article describing the eight skills to look for when hiring an IT project manager. The headlines caught my attention and I'm sure this was the purpose. While the eight skills (conflict management, technical knowledge, business awareness, communication skills, management skills, risk assessment, ability to speak technology, and global experience) are all important skills this list is certainly a narrow view of the criteria to use when hiring a project manager.

A more complete view of project management skills should be taken from the Project Management Institute's Project Manager Competency Development (PMCD) framework (I also have my own conceptualization here). While not specific to individual skills, the PMCD framework better outlines all of the areas of proficiency an effective project manager should posses. From this framework, a set of skills can be derived and prioritized.

The skills mentioned in the article mostly describe the industry-specific expertise used to complement the basic PMCD framework but, other than risk management, the skills were limited to the Professional competencies of the PMCD. In addition to omitting professional competencies of leadership, cognitive ability, effectiveness, and professionalism, the list also did not include most areas of project performance competency and the entire set of Knolwedge competencies. The list also left off the Organizational expertise competency but, since this was a list for hiring a project manager, it can be assumed that this competency would not be expected of any new hire. Keep in mind that this required competency may be reason to consider hiring from within.

While the article certainly missed many of the competencies needed for an effective project manager, it did touch on several critical skills. The main point of the article is that we should not just focus on knowledge of project management processes when hiring a project manager; other skills are needed beyond process knowledge. The inclusion of several soft skills help make this point.

CIO Reporting

During my MBA last semester we discussed the reporting structure for the Chief Information Officer (CIO). This topic of reporting structure typically emergeges during our IT alignment discussions where I argue the importance of reporting structure on alignment. In this discussion I posit that the CIO should report to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) rather than the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operations Officer (COO), or another C-suite executive. When I make this case I am often asked how frequently CIOs report to the CEO and I'm unable to give estimates. However, after today, I am now able to respond to this question.

During the third quarter of 2014 CIO Magazine conducted a survey and one of the questions posed related to the executive reporting structure of the CIO. The results published this month indicated that 44% of CIO report directly to the CEO. The results also indicated rather than reporting directly to the CEO, 20% of CIOs report to the CFO, 13% report to the COO, and 23% reported to some other position. The results indicate that the most common structure is the CIO reporting directly to the CEO.

Now, back to structure and alignment. A direct reporting relationship between the CIO and the CEO encourages participation of the CIO in strategic planning. Involvement of CIO in the strategic planning ensures proper IT support of business strategies as well as developing new business strategies based on IT opportunities. The alignment of business and IT allows the organization to realize new opportunities provided by corporate information and information systems and to ensure the information and corresponding systems are available to support any new strategic initiatives.

It is good to see so many CIOs reporting directly to the CEO. The reporting structure supports alignment. Now can let's hope CEOs are listening to the CIO describe new opportunities IT can provide.