Abstract
Majority of products and services in today’s technologically advanced and global world is developed in form of projects. ICT (information and communication technology) research and practice confirm that success of those projects depends on three equivocally relevant areas: technology, management process and people. The last, as proven in numerous surveys and research, is the main cause of failure and challenge of the ICT projects. Project manager skills to handle humans are essential to those endeavours. This paper examines trends in required soft skills for ICT project managers, reflecting state-ofthe-art in the field. The skills identi2ied in a careful survey of 219 job advertisements for ICT project managers in Switzerland, Poland and Thailand are compared with the soft skills identi2ied in 27 journal and conference publications as well as further 46 monographs and standards on project management. For evaluation purpose authors adopted the L-TimerTM process based mental model of project management. Whereas science considers leadership skills and communication capabilities as most important one, practice calls for communication and leadership in reverse sequence, followed by the team management, first. The processes of Human Resource, Conflict and Self Management are underrepresented in the advertisements. While Switzerland represents weighted approach, Poland focuses on team management capability, while Thailand demands leadership qualities of prospective project managers. The cultural roots evaluation and inter-cultural differences reflected by the conclusions of this paper are further research objectives of the authors.
Highlights
Whereas science considers leadership skills and communication capabilities as most important one, practice calls for communication and leadership in reverse sequence, followed by the team management, first
Majority of products and services in today’s technologically advanced and global world is developed in form of projects
This paper examines trends in required soft skills for ICT project managers, reflecting state-ofthe-art in the field
Summary
Within the five to ten years project management is viewed by Collette (2006) as one of the five top "hot skills" around the world. According to Strang (2003), managing projects successfully requires a mixture of skills including interpersonal ability, technical competencies and cognitive attitude, along with the capability to understand the situation and people and dynamically to integrate appropriate leadership behaviours. Soft skills have to be taken into consideration in successful project management and. Project leader needs to master special soft skills, which are necessary for successful team management (Martin & Tate, 2001). Cowie (2003) concludes that the success of a project rests on the understanding of people and management related aspects, and that as such these should be included in project management training courses along with the technical skills needed. Several universities and training organisations base their education on Body of Knowledge of PMI (2004) and IPMA (2006) Baselines, both providing reasonable mix of competences demanded in project management
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