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You’ve probably heard of the role of project manager. And now you’re wondering what these professional roles consist of and what their tasks and career paths are. Well, in this article we will tell you all about the Project Manager roles, their competencies, skills, and salary expectations.

What is Project Management?

Firstly, let’s define what it is. Project Management is the process of planning, developing, and delegating responsibilities for an organization’s intended objectives of a particular project according to agreed criteria.

What is a Project Manager?

Then, based on the definitions found on the Internet, the Project Manager is the person responsible for planning and safeguarding the successful execution of the steps to carry out a project. In other words, it is the profile that coordinates the work of the team to meet the objectives.

Large companies have always invested in a similar role to take responsibility for the management and supervisory tasks. But, why are the roles and skills of the Project Manager more important today than ever before? What has changed so that all companies have decided to incorporate one in their ranks?

The answer is simple. The digital business context in which we find ourselves is very changeable and the strategy varies according to external demands. This is why today, more than ever, companies need Project Managers, who will keep the focus on objectives and take into account the external factors that the team is facing.

Also read our Validation Engineer and Solution Arc13 interneshitect: Job description

Roles and skills of a Project Manager

The most relevant roles and skills of a Project Manager include:

Defining the reason why a project is needed
Specifying the quality of each deliverable part
Estimating the resources and timelines required
Developing and implementing a plan and processes for the project
Leading and motivating the team
Managing risks, issues and changes to the project
Monitor progress
Maintain ongoing communication with stakeholders

Also read our CTO and Technical Expert Job description

Salary expectation of a Project Manager

According to the data, 71% of Project Managers who have shared their salary say that it has increased in the last year. The demand for this profile continues to grow steadily, mainly in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Spain.

Of course, the salary depends to a large extent on the project management experience that each person brings. Among the most in-demand profiles, the average salary of a Project Manager with 2 to 5 years’ experience is between $30,000 and $40,000 gross per year, depending on the geographical area and the size of the company.

Skills of a Project Manager

The role of project manager, unlike other profiles, does not require purely technical knowledge. Rather, it requires a specific set of skills that are acquired while working in the profession. For example, the ability to plan, organize, coordinate and control work.

1. Leadership

In the digital era, the role of the Project Manager must revolve around leading and driving the digital transformation within the company. A good leader must know how to transmit these values to their team. Also, they need to transmit their motivation to work and achieve the objectives.

Also read our Director of Information Systems and Quality Manager job description

2. Teamwork

Being a leader does not mean that you do not need to work in a team. On the contrary, you need to interact with many hierarchical levels within the company, and it is important to know how to do it with each one of them to clearly determine the objectives and guidelines to be followed.

3. Organization

To a large extent, the Project Manager’s job is to organize, organize and organize. The organization of the processes and actors involved in the project depends on him/her, as well as a good organization of the deadlines and times of the actions.

4. Communication

If there is one thing a Project Manager is expected to be, it is a great communicator. One of their tasks is to create good communication channels and ensure that all the agents involved in the project know and are clear about their role in the planning.

5. Conflict management skills

In addition, interpersonal relationships in project management are a fact of life, and it is inevitable that conflicts may arise at some stage. That is why it is important that the Project Manager knows how to manage this type of problem and act as a mediator to solve them and create a good working environment.

Discover 17 IT management certifications for IT leaders

6. Ability to delegate

A good manager must also be aware of his or her limitations and assume that it is impossible to cover everything. Therefore, it is important that he/she knows when to delegate and trust his/her subordinates, respecting their functions and motivating them in their work.

7. Detail-oriented and attentive

The quality of the service provided is one of the main objectives to be met by the Project Manager. To this end, he/she must be demanding and attentive to detail, assessing at all times that the standards of excellence are met and being able to identify what goes wrong to make the right decision at all times.

8. Knowledge of the market

Undoubtedly, if the project has a market outlet, it is the Project Manager’s job to know the trends and the competition that may arise to adjust the focus of the objectives towards success.

The position of e-CRM (electronic customer relationship management) project manager lies at the intersection of the IT, marketing, and sales functions. This role occupies an important place in the field of web-based customer relations, as it coordinates the implementation of digital campaigns across all of a company’s digital platforms.

Read also our article on the job description of the e-CRM project manager to learn about the required skills and salary expectations for this position.

9. Target orientation

In addition to setting the main objectives within a project, unforeseen events can also arise. It is crucial that the Project Manager knows how to guide the team with quick and precise decision-making, and establishing deadlines.

10. Knowledge in evaluation and metrics

Having knowledge of analysis and metrics is essential for the Project Manager since one of its functions is to evaluate the efficiency, progress, performance, productivity, and quality of a project or product. In this sense, metrics help to know the status of the ongoing project in terms of time, costs, and profitability.

Also read our IT Product Manager job description

11. Budgeting and planning

The budget indicates how funds will be spent during the lifetime of a project. The Project Manager needs to define in terms of cost all efforts invested in each task.

Also read the IT Business Analyst Job description

What you need to study to become a Project Manager

Professionals with specific and multidisciplinary training with a digital base who manage value, time reduction, agility, and reliability of objectives are becoming increasingly important in companies. Although there is no specific career with which to learn to cover Project Manager roles, you do need to have skills in management, business, and techniques such as design thinking, problem-solving, and Agile & Scrum.

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a discipline that is based on the sensitivity and methods of designers to match the needs of people with what is technologically feasible.

Brands are constantly looking for digital experts that combine emotion and innovation. It is within this context that they seek the help of a Creative Technologist.

The Creative Technologist plays an important role in the digitization of an agency or brand. His or her main mission is to help position brands through technology and innovation. It is a hybrid job that combines expertise in technology, marketing, and design.

Also read about the Creative Technologist

Problem Solving

Problem-solving is the skill that determines why a problem arises and how to solve it. It starts with identifying issues, devising solutions, implementing these solutions, and evaluating their effectiveness.

Agile and Scrum

Agile and Scrum is the process of regularly applying a set of best practices to work collaboratively as a team to achieve the best possible outcome for a project. Moreover, Agile and Scrum are some techniques used to achieve objectives.

The Agile transformation can be a very difficult project for a company. Many reasons can lead to failure: management not open to agility, change of direction and goals…
The Agile Coach is a change agent for companies on the road to agility. He helps companies transform over the long term.

Also read our Agile Coach Job Descrtiption

On the other hand, the origin of the term Scrum comes from rugby. The job of the Scrum Master is analogous to that of the scrum-half. The Scrum Master has the responsibility to push others in the right direction. Promote team unity, and communicate with the outside world. The Scrum Master, therefore, acts as a guide. He or she helps and facilitates the work of the team, with a view to improvement and adaptation.

Also read our Scrum Master Job Description

Jira is a multi-functional platform developed by Atlassian that facilitates the management of development and Agile projects. It is a tracking software enabling teams to define activities, identify blockages and share information. This tool is specifically designed to meet the needs of teams working in Scrum or Kanban.

Explore the role of the Jira Administrator

Need advice on how to start or develop your freelance consulting business in tech or IT? Need to start a new permanent or freelance assignment? Join Mindquest and get support from our team of experts.

In this article, we describe the components of the IT infrastructure, their functions and job profiles.

IT infrastructure consists of hardware, software, and network, i.e. the components necessary to run and manage corporate IT environments.

IT infrastructure can be deployed within a cloud computing system or within the structure of an organization itself.

In addition to hardware, software, and networking, there is the operating system and data storage.

Also, IT infrastructure products may be available as software applications or as online solutions offered by service providers.

Why IT infrastructure matters

IT infrastructure, components and professions profiles

In the IT infrastructure, the above-mentioned technology components both contribute to and drive business functions.

With the modern rapidly changing pace of technology and the competitive nature of business, IT leaders must ensure that their IT infrastructure is well designed to make changes quickly without impacting business continuity.

Therefore, properly networked, optimizing technology can improve communication, increase efficiency and boost productivity.

That is to say, a flexible, reliable, and secure IT infrastructure can help a company achieve its goals and provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Conversely, an improperly implemented IT infrastructure leads to connectivity, productivity and security issues, such as outages and system breaches.

Thus, a properly implemented infrastructure can be a key factor in a company’s profitability.

But, what are the benefits of the IT infrastructure components, their functions and the IT infrastructure job profiles?

Also read our Network/Telecom Engineer and Solution Architect Job description

Benefits of an IT infrastructure

Above all, a proper implemented IT infrastructure, allows a company to:

Provide a positive customer experience by ensuring uninterrupted access to its website.
Develop fats solutions on the market.
Collect real-time data to make quick decisions.
Improve employee productivity.

IT infrastructure job profile: VoIP engineer.

VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a technology that allows the transmission of voice over compatible IP networks. For example, it is the technology used by the communication service Skype that enables millions of people to make calls through WhatsApp every day.

Accordingly, the role of a VoIP engineer is to manage the implementation within the organization.

Discover more about the role of a VoIP engineer.

How do the components of the IT infrastructure work?

To start, the components of the IT infrastructure consist of interdependent elements. Hardware and software represent the two main component groups of IT infrastructure. The two are complementary of each other. Hardware uses software, for example, an operating system, to function.

Likewise, an operating system manages hardware and system resources. Operating systems also establish connections between software applications and physical resources, using network components.

To continue, let’s see more in detail what are the components of the IT infrastructure.

Also read our Storage and Backup Engineer and Technical Expert Job description

IT infrastructure components: Hardware

Hardware components include:

Desktop computers
Servers
Data centers
Hubs
Routers
Switches
Facilities

Also discover our Penetration Tester and Database Administrator Job description

IT infrastructure components: Software

Software components include:

CMS (Content management systems)
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
ERP (Enterprise resource planning)
Operating systems
Web servers

IT infrastructure components: Facilities

Facilities or physical equipment provide the room for servers, data centers, and network hardware. They also include network cabling in offices to connect the various components of an IT infrastructure.

IT infrastructure components: Networks

The interconnection between network components enables network operations, management, and communication between internal and external systems.

The Internet connection, activation tools, firewall, and security, as well as the hardware, i.e. routers, switches, and cables, are essential for the operation of a network.

IT infrastructure job profile: Cisco Network Engineer.

Nearly half of all companies today use Cisco solutions. Cisco Systems, or Cisco, is an American IT company specializing in the manufacture and sale of network equipment (routers, Ethernet switches as well as servers, etc.).

But, what is the role of the Cisco Network Engineer? Read our Cisco Network Engineer job description, to learn about their missions, skills, and salary of these professionals.

How many types of IT infrastructure are there?

Traditional IT infrastructure

To start, the components (the data center, data storage, hardware, and servers) of the traditional IT infrastructure, are managed completely in-house.

Moreover, a traditional IT infrastructure consists of the usual hardware and software components: facilities, data centers, network hardware desktop computers, and enterprise application software solutions. Generally, this infrastructure configuration requires more energy, physical space, and budget than other types of infrastructure. Traditional infrastructure is commonly installed on site for exclusive corporate or private use.

IT infrastructure job profile: Linux Systems Engineer.

As large companies are nowadays operating more and more computers with Linux, the function of Linux system engineers is on the rise.
The Linux System Engineer is an essential link within companies that ensures the proper functioning of a Linux network. The engineer also helps coordinate the IT team, optimizes network operations, and ensures communication between the various computer systems.

Discover more about the Linux Systems Engineers skills and expertise.

Cloud IT infrastructure

To go on, as the name itself suggests, cloud computing IT infrastructure refers to the components and resources required for cloud computing.

End users can, therefore, access the infrastructure via the internet, with the possibility of using computing resources without on-site installation, through virtualization.

To explain, virtualization links physical servers managed by a service provider in one or more geographical locations. It then classifies and abstracts resources, such as storage, to make them accessible to users virtually anywhere there is an internet connection.

It is also possible to create a private cloud using dedicated resources, or a public cloud by ‘renting’ the cloud infrastructure from a cloud provider.

Since cloud infrastructure is often public, it is usually referred to as a public cloud.

In addition, by integrating portability, orchestration, and workload management across multiple clouds at various levels, it is also possible to create a hybrid cloud.

Hyperconverged IT infrastructure

At last, a hyper-converged IT infrastructure enables managing from a single interface computing, networking, and storage resources.

Moreover, software processing together with data storage allows managing the most innovative workloads with scalable architectures on industry-standard hardware.

IT infrastructure job profile: SRE Engineer.

As more organizations are embracing cloud computing and the demand for digital services increases, site reliability engineering (SRE) practices have become imperative. These practices help organizations meet service level agreements (SLAs) for availability, performance, user experience, and business KPIs

Discover more about the Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) functions.

IT infrastructure components and job profiles: best practices

After having discussed about IT infrastructure components, their functions and some of the IT infrastructure job profiles, it is time to talk about best practices.

To clarify, for good and effective IT infrastructure management, it is essential to follow some basic best practices. That is to say, these practices ensure a comprehensive view of all aspects to consider for the successful management of the IT infrastructure.

Gathering knowledge
Creating standards built on that knowledge
Implementing standards with consistency
Maintaining consistency during change management
Documenting heavily

Gathering knowledge

First of all, relevance and authority are the two keywords to keep in mind when gathering knowledge. Too little information can lead to missing critical configurations, while too much information can cripple you, balance is the answer.

At this stage, it is crucial to choose where to focus with the organization’s needs in mind. Therefore, the more relevant the better, so as not to waste time with useless and endless documents. And to make sure you gather the right information, check the sources.

Also read our Cybersecurity Expert job description

Creating standards built on that knowledge

Once you define the organization’s needs and gather all the information you need to implement configurations, make them standards. But never forget to update these standards as the organization evolves over the years. Examples of this best practice are increasing security standards, keep clarifying the configurations, upgrading older commands, etc.

IT infrastructure job profile: SOC Analyst.

The role of the SOC (Security Operation Centre) analyst is to monitor a company’s computer systems. He or she must detect all suspicious and malicious activities on computer networks, whether they come from inside or outside.

SOC Analyst: the job

Implementing standards with consistency

Certainly, having clean and consistent configurations is extremely important for an engineer. With systems such as the Cisco CLI, for example, it can take some time to understand the intentions of the code. Thus, the labeling of things, the use of observations when necessary, and the use of descriptions with relevant information facilitate the work of technicians during problem-solving. By switching from one device to another and all having the same descriptions and the same names, one feels more natural and things make sense.

Maintaining consistency during change management

Change management processes can sometimes seem overwhelming to IT staff, but they can be very useful when used for peer review of the proposed configuration, implementation on applicable devices, and updating documentation to ensure that the work is done from top to bottom.

Therefore, maintaining consistency in changing times is key to facilitating the transaction and ensuring that the work is done without the loss of essential organizational information.

You can also read : Programming VS Web development : What’s the difference?

Documenting heavily

It is somehow common that documentation is an aspect in which internal IT departments are usually somewhat deficient. Even if it feels like you are writing the documentation all for yourself, as no one will ever read it, your documentation is actually your business card. Though, it is important that it is clear and easy to understand.

To sum up, the purpose of the IT infrastructure is to make business possible and this is best done with components that are configured, managed, and maintained cleanly and consistently, following best practices honed with experience and documented clearly and comprehensively.

IT infrastructure job profile: RPA Consultant.

A rapidly expanding technology, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) promotes increased productivity through the automation of business processes. The key: eliminating tedious tasks, streamlining operations, and reducing costs.

In this job descriptions, you will discover the RPA Consultant and the Robotics Engineer missions, salary, and skills. A highly sought-after profile in today’s working world, especially in digital service companies.

Would you like to find out more about our recruitment service for IT consultants? Post your requirements now, or find out more about our job offers directly on our Mindquest platform!