Foundational Technical Skills: The Key to Project Success

Foundational Technical Skills: The Key to Project Success

Jiju Nair

– January 29, 2020

Jiju is a project manager who takes on projects that need help. He likes a challenge put in front of him to be solved in a fixed amount of time. Because of this trait, he was fortunate enough to be called upon for completing projects in distress. Through detailed analysis and designing mitigation strategies, he is able to turn distressed projects into successful ones.

A lack of soft skills is considered a major gap for any project manager who is entrusted with the unenviable task of shepherding complex enterprise projects. It is reported that 67% of software projects result in failure because of soft issues or soft skills [1]. Scores of articles have been written about how important it is to hone soft skills like communication, leadership and facilitation, to name a few.

As an added catalyst, organizational leadership also seem to favor the development of soft skills to other technical skills that project managers need to master. While this emphasis can be justified due to the need for organizations to reduce ambiguity while delivering business benefits, it results in the gradual erosion of project management technical skills that form the foundation of any solid project management capability.

Studies have confirmed that technical skills for a project manager are very much required as they directly relate to the success of projects. As per a research report in Asia Pacific Management Review, 25% of sampled industry leaders indicated that project management related difficulties have hampered progress in project implementation.

On the same note, it is also observed that 15% of difficulties originate out of process- and quality-related gaps amongst project managers. These results point to the inclusion of technical skills related to …

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Published at Wed, 29 Jan 2020 05:00:00 +0000