Understanding Your Project Manager Skill Assessment

*Understanding Your Project Manager Skill Assessment*
The 54 skills contained in this assessment are critical for project management success. The project manager career path progresses from Team Leader to Program Manager, with individuals being capable of managing increasingly complex projects as their skill levels increase. See below for a description of project manager types, project types and a correlation between the two. For each skill, you have assessed your current level of proficiency. The boxes on the right side of the report indicate the skill level needed to manage different project types. The shading (green if in color) indicates the project type you have the skills to manage. For example, if your skill level for Charter Development is a 5, you have the charter development skills necessary to manage projects of all levels of complexity and all boxes in that row will be green. On the other hand, if your skill level is a 3, you have the charter development skills necessary to manage Type IV projects, those which are least complex, and only the Type IV box will be green. This report can greatly assist in your career development planning. By reading across the rows on the right side, you can quickly identify skills needing improvement. By reading down the columns, you can identify gaps which need to be filled in order to manage more complex projects and move up the project manager career path. These gaps become priority areas for skill enhancement through training, on-the-job exposure or some other means.

*Correlation of Project Manager Types and Project Types*
Project Manager Types		Project Types
Team Leaders Project Managers Senior Project Managers Program Managers	are qualified to manage	IV II, III and IV II, III and IV I, II, III and IV

*Project Complexities*
I	These bear all of the characteristics of Type II and III projects in that they use complex technologies and have high business value. They are the most demanding of the four types and are often mission-critical.
II	This type may use new or complex technologies. Because their business value may be low or moderate, these projects can be distinguished from Type I projects.
III	These are characterized by their high business value even though they may have low or moderate technical complexity. These projects are therefore distinguished from the other two by their high business content.
IV	These projects have low business value and use well-established technology. In fact, these are projects that may have been repeated several times and are now routine.

*Project Manager Types*
Team Leader	Team leaders have responsibility for part of the project. They are generally assigned responsibility for an activity and may have a small number of staff assigned to the activity whose work they will manage.
Project Manager	This individual will have management responsibility for projects that are classified as simpler, less complex, lower risk, not mission critical, etc. They are the more junior of the two classes of project manager.
Senior Project Manager	These are the more experienced of the two project manager classes. They are qualified to manage projects that are more complex, higher risk, or mission critical.
Program Manager	This classification is reserved for those individuals who have achieved the highest level of professionalism and experience in project management. They will often manage project managers on very complex or multi-project undertakings.