Interview with the Project Manager

A study in common traits and behaviors

The Team
Brian D Edwin H Robert S

The Project
Thesis:
Successful Project Managers share similar traits and behaviors Distinguish traits and abilities from skills

Methodology
Developing Questions
Brainstorming questions Assembling the question bank Prioritizing questions Professors Acceptance

Selecting qualified project managers:

Those who have successfully managed projects over several years

Interviews
David D. (Ed):
Pacific West Regional Office for National Park Service (20 Years)
Project Manager for telecommunication projects

BS in Electrical & Electronic Engineering MS in Project Management from the University of Wisconsin Platteville

Interviews
David G.:
Regional Engineer for the Bureau of Reclamation Lower Colorado Region Bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Master's degree in civil engineering and engineering mechanics from Columbia University Bachelors and Masters Degrees in English Literature

Interviews
Tony P.:
Safeway Inc. (23 years) IT project services 10 Years IT experience 3 Year IT Project manager experience

Process
Interviewing:
Scheduling Recording Transciping

Similar Response
Have you had any project management failures? If so, how did you handle it?
(D.) Funding and just worked around (G.) No major, just minor and just worked around to mitigate (P..) No Major, just minor that we worked around for later date

Mostly Similar Response

What do you feel are the three major skills a project manager uses every day in the course of a project? Why are these skills so important?
(D.) Communications, organized, empathy (G.) Communication, forecasting and prediction, Leading (P.) Communications, organized, Coach employees

Dissimilar Response
In forming project teams are their particular behaviors and traits that make your decision to choose someone more or less appealing?
(D.) Positive Attitude (G.) Open mindedness, tell it like it is (P.) Experience, skills

Conclusion
Overall we found that we had two questions that all the managers had answered the same with only two questions that were answered universally different. Of the remaining six questions three of the questions were almost universally answered the same in half the questions and answered differently in the other half. This group feels that this shows that a successful project manager does have many of the same behaviors and traits as other project managers.