Read through the text and choose the best summary for each paragraph.

The Project Manager

If you looked through the job advertisements in any newspaper fifteen or twenty years ago, you would never have found the words project manager” – the job description simply did not exist.  Now, on the other hand, it seems that everyone is, wants to be, or is looking for  a project manager”.  Every MBA course offers a module on project management”, and some universities even offer a whole Masters on the subject.

So where exactly did this new professional figure come from?  

Towards the end of the 1980’s and throughout the 1990’s, old-style large industrial companies transformed themselves almost completely.  The privatisation of old monopolies in Europe and the United States, the increasing possibilities of globalisation, the opportunities offered by new technology and the ever-present threat of global recession and political instability in many parts of the world saw companies downsize and outsource.  They broke down into smaller companies, and contracted many of their operations to small independent companies or individuals.  Aware of the possibilities of instant change in the worldwide economic situation, many companies started to think in terms of individual shorter-term projects”, rather than long-term plans.

So who could manage all this activity?  A new role emerged, one required by the complexity of this way of working.  What was necessary was somebody who could co-ordinate a number of different activities and manage a number of different people possibly working in different places around the globe – the project manager.

There is a joke that describes project managers as being useless, without skills and specialist knowledge, getting other people to do all the work, taking credit when things go well, and blaming someone else when they don’t.  But this isn’t all entirely true or fair.

While it is true that a project manager may not be an expert in the field that she or he is working in, a good project manager has to have a number of transferable skills.  A good project manager has to:

• have strong people management skills (she or he must, for example, be able to motivate people, to explain things clearly, to be able to get people to work together
• be a good planner
• have good time management skills
• have good communication skills (both for talking to other people in his or her workgroup and for writing reports and plans)
• have good financial planning and budgeting skills.

So, the next time you hear the joke, you might want to think twice!

Now check you have understood some technical terms from the text.