Steven James Pannett Dissertation

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BSc (Hons) Business Technology
Project Management: The Right Person for the Job
Steven James Pannett
B00290259
24th
March 2017
Supervisor: Andrew Rae

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Declaration
This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
[Business Technology] (Honours) in the University of the West of Scotland.
I declare that this dissertation embodies the results of my own work and that it has
been composed by myself. Following normal academic conventions, I have made due
acknowledgement to the work of others.
Name: STEVEN JAMES PANNETT
(In Capitals)
Signature:
Date:

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Form to accompany Dissertation
To be completed in full
Surname PANNETT
First Name STEVEN Initials SJP
Borrower ID Number B00290259
Course Code COMP10034/COMPOIS
Course Description COMPUTING HONOURS PROJECT
Project Supervisor ANDREW RAE
Dissertation Title PROJECT MANAGEMENT: THE RIGHT PERSON
______________________________FOR THE JOB
Session 2016-17
Please ensure that a copy of this form is bound with your dissertation
before submission

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COMPUTING HONOURS PROJECT SPECIFICATION FORM
(Electronic copy available on Moodle Computing Hons Project Site)
Project Title: PROJECT MANAGEMENT: THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB
Student: Steven Pannett Banner ID: B00290259
Supervisor: Andrew Rae
Moderator: Costas Iliopoulos
Outline of Project:
This project will explore what makes an IT-specific project manager successful in his/her
field of work, whether the desired key skills can be taught, and importantly, whether a
“strong” manager can adapt to a project regardless of whether they have specific knowledge
of an area of expertise or not.
The difference between a competent Project Manager and a highly effective one can be
quite broad. This will be an area of focus to define what contributing factors can affect their
success rates and make recommendations on what could potentially be done to decrease
the percentage of projects failing.
With current technology evolving at a substantial pace, increasingly complex forms of testing
are used as a tool to predict project success. Part of this project will be to develop a
psychometric/aptitude test to support these predictions using open-source software or a
web-based application. This data can then be employed and tailored to a training
programme for prospective Project Managers in the field of Information Technology.
Gathering information from many sources will allow for a well-rounded and unbiased report
and, as this area has not been covered as deeply as other aspects of Project Management,
could potentially allow for the exploration of new ideas.
A Passable Project will:
1. Carry out a literature review displaying a critical understanding of project success in the
context of a successful Project Manager.
2. Classify and prioritise the key skills exhibited by a successful IT Project Manager
A First Class Project will:
1. Develop an aptitude test to help predict success in IT Project Management
2. Link the results of aptitude testing to the skills a recruiter should look out for in an IT
Project Management job candidate.

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Reading List:
Munns AK, Bjeirmi BF. (1996). The role of project management in achieving project
success. International Journal of Project Management. 14 (2), 1-87.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0263786395000577
Lynn Heather Crawford. (2009). Profiling the Competent Project Manager. Project
Management Research at the turn of the Millennium. 1 (1), 1-15.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lynn_Crawford3/publication/250837584_Profiling_the_Co
mpetent_Project_Manager/links/0046352d061209687a000000.pdf
Ronggui Ding. (2015). Being a Highly Effective Project Manager. Key Project
Management Based on Effective Project Thinking. 1 (1), 339-350.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-47731-1_17
Schwalbe, K (2016). Information Technology Project Management. 8th ed. Boston, MA:
CENGAGE Learning. 1-425
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mPeoBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=it+pr
oject+manager+skills&ots=FLquZpY-
3h&sig=1589U5BfoapAbLnPvzkP5NoCqJA#v=onepage&q=it%20project%20manager%20skills
&f=false
Wellingtone Project Management. (2016). The State of Project Management. Annual
Survey 2016. 1 (1), 1-23.
www.wellingtone.co.uk/state-of-project-management-survey-2016/
Mettl.com. (2016). Online Psychometric Assessment for Project Manager - Pick the right
skill and Cultural Fit. Available: https://mettl.com/test/psychometric-project-manager-
assessment
Target Jobs. (2016). Psychometric tests: what they are and why graduates need to
know. Available: https://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/psychometric-tests/275677-
psychometric-tests-what-they-are-and-why-graduates-need-to-know
Resources Required: (hardware/software/other)
Online Reading Materials
Library Resources
Psychometric Testing software/web applications

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Marking Scheme:
Presentation, Style and Structure 10%
Literature Review 10%
Completion of Basic Objectives 40%
Completion of Advanced Objectives 30%
Critical Reflection 10%
Total 100%
Signed:
Student Supervisor Moderator Year Leader
IMPORTANT: By signing this form all signatories are confirming that any potential ethical issues
have been considered and necessary actions undertaken and that Mark Stansfield (Module
Coordinator) and Malcolm Crowe (Chair of School Ethics Committee) have been informed of any
potential ethical issues relating to this proposed Hons Project.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................9
Abstract...............................................................................................................................9
1.0 Introduction...............................................................................................................10
1.1 Project Outline ..........................................................................................................10
1.2 Overview and Objectives ...........................................................................................11
2.0 Literature Review ......................................................................................................11
2.1 The Successful IT Project Manager.............................................................................11
2.2 Leadership vs. Management........................................................................................13
2.3 Communication in Project Management .....................................................................14
2.4 Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills ............................................................................................16
2.5 Competence and Key Skills ........................................................................................17
2.6 Psychometric/Aptitude Testing..................................................................................19
3.0 Preliminary work .......................................................................................................21
3.1 The Benefits and Drawbacks of Psychometric and Aptitude Testing ............................22
3.2 Existing Platforms .....................................................................................................23
3.3 Identifying a target audience.......................................................................................24
3.4 Attracting Test Respondents.......................................................................................25
3.5 Aptitude Test Development .......................................................................................26
4.0 Primary Research Overview.....................................................................................26
4.1 Research Methodology...............................................................................................26
4.2 Introduction to Chapter .............................................................................................27
4.3 Project Research Aims and Questions.........................................................................27
4.4 Project Scope and Objectives .....................................................................................28
4.5 Introduction to Primary Research...............................................................................28
4.6 Overview of Project Management Skills......................................................................28
4.7 Hard Skills Bar Chart .................................................................................................29
4.8 Soft Skills Bar Chart...................................................................................................30
4.9 Soft Skill Competencies..............................................................................................30
4.9.1 Communication and People Skills ...............................................................................31
4.9.2 Problem-Solving ........................................................................................................32
4.9.3 Leadership.................................................................................................................33
4.9.4 Team Building and Development................................................................................33

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4.9.5 People Management...................................................................................................34
4.10 Hard Skill Competencies ............................................................................................35
4.10.1 Planning ....................................................................................................................35
4.10.2 Technical Skills...........................................................................................................36
4.10.3 Business Domain Knowledge .....................................................................................37
4.10.4 Project Management...................................................................................................37
4.10.5 Organisation ..............................................................................................................38
4.11 Review of Text Analytics............................................................................................39
4.12 Chapter Overview and Findings..................................................................................41
5.0 Analysis of Aptitude Testing....................................................................................43
5.1 Data Gathered............................................................................................................................... 45
5.1.1 Question 1: Tackling the Misunderstanding of a Task or Issue............................................. 45
5.1.2 Question 2: Considering the Repercussions of Verbal Comments....................................... 46
5.1.3 Question 3: Seeing from a Different Perspective..................................................................... 47
5.1.4 Question 4: Demonstrating Professionalism in communication........................................... 48
5.1.5 Question 5: Reading Body Language......................................................................................... 49
5.1.6 Question 6: Clear Verbal and Written Communication.......................................................... 50
5.1.7 Question 7: Human Interaction.................................................................................................. 51
5.1.8 Question 8: Considering Cultural Barriers ................................................................................ 52
5.1.9 Question 9: Asserting Personal Views....................................................................................... 54
5.1.10 Question 10: Expressing Opinions............................................................................................. 55
5.1.11 Question 11: Collaborative Negotiation................................................................................... 56
5.1.12 Question 12: Mood Perception................................................................................................... 57
5.2 Chapter Discussion and Findings............................................................................................... 58
6.0 Conclusions................................................................................................................60
6.1 Conclusion of Question 1............................................................................................................ 60
6.2 Conclusion of Question 2............................................................................................................ 61
7.0 Critical Appraisal.......................................................................................................62
7.1 Personal Reflection....................................................................................................................... 62
7.1 Secondary Research Reflection................................................................................................... 62
7.2 Primary Research Reflection....................................................................................................... 63
7.2.1 Key skills Competency and Text Analytics............................................................................... 63
7.2.2 Reflection of Text Analytics........................................................................................................ 63
7.2.3 Reflection of Communication-based Aptitude Testing........................................................... 64
8.0 References..................................................................................................................65
9.0 Appendices.................................................................................................................71

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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Andrew Rae who has been a tremendous
support during every step of the project and has devoted time from his busy schedule to provide
me with feedback, ensuring that I remained motivated, focused and on the right track. I would
also like to thank Dr Carolyn Begg for some insightful ideas, which allowed me to back up my
research further.
I am also eternally grateful to those from the Reddit and ProjectSmart communities that spared a
few minutes of their time to take part in the aptitude test and gave me ideas on how to improve
its quality.
Thank you.
Abstract
IT Project Managers are a necessity in a world where within the past decade, the number of projects
has significantly increased and the need for successful and competent Project Managers is a strong
reflection of this. A vast range of key skills are needed but with so many different opinions from
professionals in the field of IT Project Management, many of those are focused more towards
either hard skills or soft skills and a healthy balance would provide a solid ground of what to look
for when recruiting an IT Project Manager. This dissertation explores what key skills are necessary
in order to be a successful and competent Project Manager based on both personal and
professional opinion. Those opinions will be backed up with research using text analytics and with
a communication-based aptitude test, created in order to evaluate what particular communication
skills an IT Project Manager should exhibit to be successful in their field.

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1.0 Introduction
“Project management is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience
to achieve the project objectives. A project is a unique, transient endeavor, undertaken to achieve
planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits”
Association for Project Management (2012).
The fundamentals of managing a project require a project team with an abundance of various
skills and talents and that team have a responsibility to deliver objectives set by the Project
Manager. Project management is a position that looks easy from the outside but in essence is a
difficult skill to master and be considered successful at. This project will build on currently
available researched materials such as journals, books and other publicly accessible information
to paint a picture of what skills are really needed in order to be defined as a successful and
competent Project Manager. The choice of skills will be backed up with a text analytics tool,
which looks at the popularity of keywords in documents and websites. An element of aptitude
testing including research and aptitude test development will also be introduced as the currently
available research with regards to recruitment is sparsely available in academic literature.
1.1 Project Outline
There are many views on what makes a successful IT Project Manager and how their
competence should be judged, but a lot of professionals appear to tailor their views towards a
preferred methodology when it comes to deciding what key skills are desired in order to be
successful. Part of this project will be to build an unbiased list which can fit in with both Agile
and PRINCE2 methodologies; 2 of the more popular in use today. This list will define the hard
and soft skills needed for successful project management competency and what it takes to be a
strong leader and manager without showing a bias towards a particular project management
methodology.
Aptitude testing is carried out in recruitment and is used to judge a person’s personal traits. A
key stage of this project will be to develop an accurate test that assesses an individual’s abilities.
After targeted research on aptitude testing, the test will be published on online forums for
candidates to take. The results will be gathered and critically reviewed before conclusions are
made and documented in the final stages of the project.

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1.2 Overview and Objectives
“The objective of any research project is to gather data, analyse it based on your research
question and present your findings and conclusions” (Franklin, 2012).
The literature review concluded that for further exploration of how a Project Manager should be
defined as competent and successful, a short list should be produced of what soft and hard skills
are to be considered as appropriate and necessary in order for an individual to be the right
person for the job. In order to do this, primary research must be carried out. This consists of
researching 6 various publications from journals, books and professional websites and by
determining the most common hard and soft skills to form a ‘skills competency list’. Each skill in
the list will be justified to form a logical explanation of its importance. The justification will also
be backed up with the use of text analytics, where a number of ‘person job specifications’ are
gathered and keywords analysed for their frequency.
The ‘skills competency list’ list was then used as a basis for creating an aptitude test focusing on a
key area of significance. The results from the test provided an idea of what employers should
look out for in a job candidate with regards to success and competency in IT Project
Management.
2.0 Literature Review
The following chapter will consist of a review of relevant literature focusing on Project
Management for Information Technology. In particular, what makes an IT Project Manager a
success, how their competence is defined, and what key skills they should hold. The review will
then focus on the trends of psychometric and aptitude testing and their continued success in
recruiting the right person for the job.
2.1 The Successful IT Project Manager
“A major concern of the field of project management and a recurring theme, is that of project
success. There are two major strands to this concern – how success is judged (success criteria),
and the factors that contribute to the success of projects (success factors)” (Crawford, 2009).
Success is judged in so many ways that there is no perfect definition as to what an IT Project
Manager should be with regards to their key skills, personal attributes and technical abilities.
Findings by many have primarily been based on the opinions of many project management
professionals.
There are many skills that can give the IT Project Manager a competitive advantage ranging from
negotiation and working with others to logical thinking and good time management but one
Project Manager’s opinion varies from another, and this is an area that needs to be addressed in
order to narrow down and focus on the skill sets that a manager really needs. Crawford notes

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that “at the same time, concern for the competence of Project Managers has fueled interest in
the development of standards and certification processes that can be used for assessment, for
recognition and as a guide for developing project management competence”. These standards act
as a general agreement and are typically approved by a recognised body, which grants updated,
everyday use to people of various backgrounds in Project Management. These standards provide
the guidelines and regulations for Project Management activities and tend to be based upon due
process and balance. A prime example of this would be the PMI (Project Management Institute).
The PMI recognises that due to the evolution of the Project Management profession, the
standards need to have some form of continuity with regards to keeping up to date with its
library of standards. These standards such as BS6079-1 (2010) and standards implemented by
APM (2012) in the Project Management profession are used as a guide for the development of
Project Management competence.
Certifications are equally regarded as a method of showcasing a Project Managers competence.
Certifications define a particular standard in which to achieve in order to prove that level of
competence and without at least one of these certifications it would be difficult to convince a
prospective Project Management employer to take a risk on an unproven manager.
"Being a certified Project Manager doesn't necessarily make you better than any other Project
Manager. It just indicates that you have a certain level of knowledge and expertise, and that you
can work proficiently in a project environment” DelGrosso (2010).
From initial research, it is quite clear that following the global standards for Project Management
and holding the necessary certifications are not enough to prove that a Project Manager is going
to be successful. Project Managers need to possess a number of personal traits which differ
depending on the various opinions held by project management professionals. “Additionally,
research is revealing that leading is preferable to managing a project team, and that the leadership
style of the Project Manager directly impacts the outcome of the project” (Gillard, 2009). This
statement is backed up by Crawfords paper where she states that “It is interesting to note that
Leadership, a factor that relates almost exclusively to personality characteristics or personal
attributes, appears consistently in the highest ranking category amongst Project Manager
Competence factors, whereas it appeared no higher than the second ranking category for Project
Success Factors”. These findings were based on over 117 companies, whom she investigated
their opinions on how a Project Manager is defined as competent and what they should know
and understand to be considered as a ‘competent Project Manager.
Leadership and communication are clearly both key skills that are necessary and most, if not all
Project Managers agree with this statement, but there is a need to delve deeper and try to
understand what other skills are needed to be successful, particularly in the specialisation of IT
Project Management.

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2.2 Leadership vs. Management
“Management is said to be the discipline that specializes on maintaining the status quo,
conforming to standards and organizing and directing individuals around the boundaries (time,
money, quality criteria, etc.) that have been set to achieve the task. Leadership on the other hand
is concerned with setting goals, making improvements to existing ways of working and
motivating and leading the team to reaching this new direction. It is characterized by certain
behaviors such as sharing an inspiring vision, producing useful change, leading by example,
empowering others and creating the most conductive environment for team success. Leadership
is not about the specific skills you possess but about how you approach an assignment and how
you relate to others” (Madsen, 2014).
There are notable differences between the styles of leading and managing, and the opinions of
the project management recruiter’s expectations can affect whether the project management job
candidate is suitable for the position or not within an organisation.
The concept of management is moderately new, and within the last century the evolution of
increasingly complex and large organisations has brought about a real need for a system to
regulate work and deal with issues pertaining to control and authority. “Management and
leadership are not easily separated. People look to their managers, not just to assign them a task,
but to define for them a purpose. And managers must organize workers, not just to maximize
efficiency, but to nurture skills, develop talent and inspire results” (Turner, 2016).
There is a general consensus within the project management profession that competent
managers don’t always make competent leaders and competent leaders don’t always make
competent managers as, although professional opinions are largely split there appears to be a
distinction between leading a project and managing a project. The most successful Project
Managers tend to be an amalgamation of both, knowing when to switch from one to the other,
to benefit the functioning of the project development and the supervision of project teams.
It tends to be expected by project management professionals that a competent Project Manager
should possess the ability to be interchangeable between being both a strong manager and a
strong leader, knowing when to alter their persona depending on the given situation. A
competent manager should know when to manage the project and its human resources to get the
job completed to a high standard but should also know when to inspire, focus on the people,
motivate and lead from the front.
Management is critical to the success of all businesses, regardless of size and without a successful
leader, most employees don’t tend to find the right motivation to do much more than what’s
expected of them. Eventually, this can lead to turmoil and confusion meaning a potentially
detrimental effect on the standards of projects.
Finding the right balance between being a successful Project Manager and a successful leader can
often be rather difficult taking into account the processes that need to be carried out such as
relationship building, creating a productive and welcoming atmosphere to team members, and
ultimately, ensuring that tasks are completed on time and beyond their expectations.

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“It is clear that leadership is important to the success of a project because leadership is essentially
about motivating people. It is also clear that what may be characterized as “managership” is
equally important because this is about getting things done” (Verma & Wideman, 1994).
Experienced Project Managers have recognised this and when recruiting, attempt to find a
Project Manager that can both manage and lead successfully.
“Collectively, project leadership and project “managership” may be referred to as project
"stewardship". To be a steward is to hold something in trust for another. Thus, project
stewardship may be defined as a willingness to be accountable for the well-being of the project
organization while placing service towards the goals of the project above self-interest” (Verma &
Wideman, 1994). Stewardship results in being responsible for the team’s accountability, whilst
also acting as a mentor without pushing them towards levels of harsh compliance that don’t
match with the goals of the project. According to Wideman (1994), “during the planning phases,
managership has its limitations, but these can be avoided with the use of effective leadership.
Whereas in the producing stage, leadership also has its limitations, and managership is seen as a
more appropriate approach to take in order to achieve the given goals successfully”. This appears
to be a prime reason as to why employers of Project Managers should recruit an employee that
sits somewhere on the middle ground between both having management and leadership skills.
Although these are two clearly vital skills for being a Project Manager, it is expected that a
project cannot have a higher probability of success unless there are other personal key areas of
strength, which fall into 2 categories; hard skills and soft skills.
2.3 Communication in Project Management
In the world of work, a recurring issue in an organisation is a lack of communication, and most
professionals in project management agree that to be successful, you must possess the ability to
be a strong and effective communicator. “So often it is oral communication skills that distinguish
between a high performer and an average performer” (Crosling & Ward, 2002). In the past, a
successful Project Manager might have avoided criticism for poor communication by being able
to just provide the deliverables but projects nowadays are mostly undertaken in partnership with
other businesses meaning it requires more effective communication in order to make clear and
concise, the aims and progress of the project to team members and stakeholders respectively.
Successful project management means being there for every member of the project team,
understanding the project’s challenges and understanding any issues sponsors may have with
regards to the delivery of the project. Equally, being a visible presence and engaging with all parties
is just as important, especially during more challenging situations.
A significant amount of time in a Project Manager's career is based on communication. “Effective
communicators may seem to have been born with a gift; they always know the right thing to say
at the right time, at the right level, and with the right audience members. They know how to plan
properly to design and implement communication strategies. They know how to actively listen,
and to recognize the role of perception in overcoming perceptual differences as a speaker and a
listener” (Marando, 2012).

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In the PMI’s 2013 Pulse of the Profession report, it was revealed that “the most crucial success
factor in project management is effective communications to all stakeholders”. The research also
found that “effective communication leads to more successful projects and hence allowing
organizations to become high performers” (Foong, 2014). The same report revealed that one in
five projects is unsuccessful as a result of ineffective communication.
Poor communication has been a long-standing issue in project management and has contributed
to the failure of projects. CompTIA carried out a project survey in 2007 and the results were clear.
“Nearly 28 percent of the more than 1,000 respondents to the poll said poor communications was
the main reason” (CompTIA, 2007). Insufficient resource planning was the second biggest
contributor to project failure with just less than 18% of the respondent’s opinion. “Insufficient
resource planning is very closely tied to your communication. When setting up expectations of
your project at the very beginning, part of your communication plan is understanding what type
of resources you're going to need, when you're going to need them and what level of skill sets
you're going to need" (Gingrich, 2007). The third biggest contributor of failure was through
unrealistic deadlines with 13.2% of the respondent’s vote. Gingrich also stated that "If you didn't
communicate clearly, and you didn't get the right resources for the right period of time, then there's
a risk that you're going to build a schedule that just can't be met. Three of these things go hand-
in-hand. It's a chain of events."
On a yearly basis the Project Management Institute (PMI) carry out a survey on the global state of
project management and the 2016 report; titled ‘The High Cost of Low Performance’ provided
evidence that “project success was at a 4-year low. Compared to 2012, fewer projects were
completed on time and within budget per the 2016 survey. Fewer met the original project goals or
intent. Scope creep has increased – as has the percentage of projects that are deemed out-and-out
failures”. (PMI, 2016) The PMI explains the reasons behind why projects fail. “Projects fail because
teams can’t keep pace with changing organizational priorities (41%) and project objectives (38%).
They’re trying to execute projects without a clear vision or goals (31%). They also continue to
struggle to define requirements accurately (37%)”.
Many of these issues lead to the fact that alongside leadership, strong communication should be
top of the list of key skills that a Project Manager should possess in order to be the right person
for a particular job and also to increase the success rate of any given project.

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2.4 Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills
For a project to be successful, in most cases there must be a near-equal balance between hard skills
and soft skills and this can often be difficult to achieve without a clear idea of the type of project
and the organisational matrix type, whether that be functional, divisional or mixed. It is believed
by some professionals that a junior Project Manager should only require hard skills but more senior
positions should also possess soft skills to complement. “Creating the right relationships with team
members and other stakeholders is one of the biggest challenges that face Project Managers. This
requires them to cultivate both hard and soft skills” (Pant & Baroudi, 2008).
“Hard skills are technical and specific abilities that relate to the core business of an organization
such as writing skills, networking skills, machine operation, business analysis, design, construction,
etc. These types of skills are easy to teach and quantify. It often involves the learner learning or
improving a skill without having to unlearn a previous skill” (Ogunsina, 2014). “Hard skills are
job-specific and tend to be acquired through formal education and training programs, including
college, apprenticeships, short-term training classes, online courses, certification programs, as well
as by on-the-job training” (Doyle, 2016). The search for the desired hard skills are commonly used
as a first indicator as to whether a candidate should be considered for a job position and can also
be evaluated in hands-on simulations and aptitude tests. Hard skills tend to be quite objective and
easy to measure, and as such, many companies include varying forms of tests in their process of
recruitment. “Alternatively, soft skills are attributes of individuals. They provide an indication of
how individuals will tend to behave and interact with others” (Parr, 2016).
Communication and leadership are soft skills which need particular attention in the field of project
management and it would be foolish to consider a candidate lacking in these. Soft skills cannot be
easily taught and these are developed through experience as opposed to just taking courses.
Emotional intelligence is linked strongly to communication and since these are intangible skills, an
assessment of a person’s level of emotional intelligence cannot easily be defined just by the use of
a standardised test and must have some other form of testing to complement it, such as an
individual or group interview.
“The case for a potential relationship between Emotional Intelligence and interpersonal
competence is supported by previous studies reporting meaningful and even significant
relationships between Emotional Intelligence and the individual competency domains of
communication, motivation, conflict management, and problem solving. Competent
communicators, for example, were observed to utilize empathy more frequently” (Schmid &
Adams, 2008).
Many Project Managers feel more competent in one skill set than the other, but without a
combination of the two, a project is more likely to fail. The most important aspect is learning to
balance between hard and soft skills in order for the best chance of a project being a success.

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2.5 Competence and Key Skills
There are many misconceptions as to what makes a successful Project Manager with regards to
their key skills and competence. Many websites and journals offer their own professional
opinions. Some offer a very limited range of key skills and others list a range that is somewhat
unrealistic. To be a successful Project Manager, there should at most be a 60 to 40 ratio between
having those skills considered as hard skills and those considered as soft depending on the
methodology implemented into the project. Many modern project management institutions
seemingly forget that someone with a close balance of both skill types should provide the
necessary knowledge and competence to best manage a project rather than put a lot of focus on
one particular skill subset as opposed to the other.
‘The International Journal of Project Management’ (Pant and Baroudi, 2008) believe that due to
changing times, Project Managers should focus more on the soft skills, particularly those
associated with human interaction. The PMBOK Guide (2004), however, suggests a different
approach and emphasises that “hard ‘technical’ skills are more important”.
It’s not as straightforward as suggesting that one skill subset is better to focus on than another
and there are certain things that can determine how a project should be skillfully approached
such as the project methodology and the nature of the project.
Drossel (1980) stated that the “skills required for project management are now often divided
50/50 into traditional ‘hard’ skills, such as risk management and scheduling, and ‘soft’, people
oriented skills, such as interpersonal communication”. Since 1980, there have been enormous
leaps in technology and times have changed drastically in project management, particularly with
regards to software development. That leap in technology has allowed project management
institutions to recommend changes to the way projects are carried out and depending on the
methodology, which skill subset should be more important to focus on; hard skills or soft skills.
The Agile methodology, particularly the SCRUM process tends to focus on daily face-to-face
meetings and close collaboration among team members which suggests that soft skills should be
prioritised as the main project management skill involved whereas PRINCE2 has significantly
more focused processes which point to the involvement of more of the hard skills and less of the
soft skills.
There are 7 PRINCE2 processes (Axelos, 2016) in which communication and human interaction
is a smaller factor and technical skills should take precedence:
1. Business Case
2. Organization
3. Quality
4. Planning
5. Risk
6. Change
7. Progress

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These differences in key skill focus areas lead to a belief that there should be a 60/40 ratio of
hard-to-soft skills or soft-to-hard, respective of which methodology is implemented but also that
there should be a list of key skills equally balanced where more emphasis can be placed on either
hard or soft to benefit the development of the project.
Schwalbe (2015) stated her opinion on what the ten most important key skills and competencies
are for IT Project Managers, but these feel somewhat subjective and point more towards
communication and human interaction rather than ideally having an equal balance of both hard
and soft skills.
1. People skills
2. Leadership
3. Listening
4. Integrity, ethical behaviour, consistency
5. Strength at building trust
6. Verbal communication
7. Strength at building teams
8. Conflict Resolution, Conflict management
9. Critical thinking, Problem-solving
10. Understanding and balancing of priorities
Out of the list of ten important key skills, only the critical thinking and problem-solving skillset
focuses on hard skills, with the other nine appearing to be soft skill based. Despite Schwalbe
stating that “to be most effective, project managers require a changing mix of skills and
competencies depending on the job being delivered”, her list suggests that a project managers
job is 90% soft skills and 10% hard skills where it should be 50% hard and 50% soft; give or take
10% depending on the Project management methodology in practice.
To ensure the impending list is not exhaustive, there will be a range of 10 key skills, five of which
are soft skills and the other five, hard skills. Depending on the methodology used, more focus
should be placed on either of the skill-sets. This will guide towards an equal and fair balance of
what it is believed a Project Manager should have in order to be competent and successful in
their career progression.

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2.6 Psychometric/Aptitude Testing
Psychometric testing and Aptitude testing has been prominent since the early 20th
century and
was formerly used in psychology. In more recent years it has been used as part of the recruitment
selection process. It is estimated that over 75% of the United Kingdom’s top 100 companies use
this process as a form of measuring attributes to give an employer an insight into how well a
candidate might cope with the demands of a particular job that they are applying for.
Information Technology companies are known for making extensive usage out of testing, and
with project management in particular, an employer should be very meticulous in finding the
right person for the job. This means that the most appropriate questions should be asked and
involves more than simply bundling a range of various questions together. Psychometric testing
and aptitude testing is viewed by many as a psychological science. Rust (2014) states that
psychometric tests should be “reliable, valid, standardised and free from bias”. This is also true
of aptitude testing.
An accurate test cannot be carried out without some form of research beforehand. Without the
prior research, there would undoubtedly be a significant amount of unreliability. An assessment
that measures personal traits, for example, should give the same answers for a subject after many
attempts within a short period of time, as long as the test participant doesn’t change their
personality trait. The result of this test would ascertain that it was reliable and free from bias.
Test accuracy is all important, and according to Edenborough (2005), “there may be two broad
options to think about. The first is to increase the predictive accuracy of the test, which requires
investment. The second is to increase the pool of applicants, which also implies expenditure in
capturing and/or processing them. Which approach to adopt will vary with circumstances”. With
the current rise of social media and internet usage compared to that of 2005, it’s fair to say that
the second option of increasing the pool of applicants but without forfeiting any expenditure is a
viable option and the gathering of candidates would not be as difficult as it may have been prior
to the rise of the likes of Reddit and other social media applications that include specialist areas
where the right type of candidates could be sought after.
Psychometric tests generally focus on the level of intelligence and personal characteristics of a
candidate and help identify their personal strengths in order to recognise whether they are
suitable for the job position. Intelligence is fairly simple to judge with regards to ability testing,
where there is a clear, formal and analytical procedure. An ability test is given under exam
conditions and is often timed. These tests most often use a multiple choice answering technique
where a box is ticked against the candidates chosen answer. These tests only ever allow for one
correct answer.
The personality test on the other hand, is not strictly an exam as there are no correct or incorrect
answers but the answers given by the candidate are judged on how it is believed they would act
in certain situations, environments and with other people. “A personality test is, by definition,
designed to assess personality characteristics and/or forecast interpersonal difficulties. In
addition, some of these tests try to measure problem-solving ability and determine whether you
have the potential to supervise others” (Carter, 2007).

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Jablokow (2016) states that there are 9 measures of psychometric evaluation that any test should
pass:
1. It derives from good theory that is readily accessible.
2. It measures one thing accurately (Reliable).
3. It measures what it says it measures (Construct Validity).
4. It discriminates: the scores are normally spread (not bunched).
5. It discriminates: no one scores on its extreme ends.
6. Its items all contribute: distribute normally; correlate highly (but not too highly) with
other items and rest of the measures.
7. Its sub factors are all reliable (over a long time period) and readily interpretable.
8. It gives warnings that an individual’s result may be unreliable.
9. It is supported by a good, comprehensive manual.
These measures back up the statement that a test cannot be carried out without prior research,
thus a steep learning curve is necessary in order to ensure that the psychometric/aptitude test to
be produced will be reliable, readily interpretable and unbiased to a point where it is fair for any
candidate that takes the test.

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3.0 Preliminary work
Psychometric and aptitude testing is used by many organisations to scout out potential
candidates for job positions and is used to measure competence and intellectual capability as well
as logical and analytical reasoning abilities in a specific area. They are used to assess job-related
skills and to predict successful job performance. These types of testing were engineered using the
early ideas of ‘Frederick Winslow Taylors theory of Scientific Management’ (1911). A
psychometric test or aptitude test is most often used to gather evidence of a candidates’
competency along with their CV or application form and further into the recruitment process,
the job interview.
There are 2 common forms of tests which tend to accompany each other to form a bigger
picture of the potential employees’ capabilities; in this case an IT Project Manager.
Verbal Reasoning typically comprises of reading a textual passage and choosing the most
appropriate answer. A popular alternative method involves filling in the blank words to a
paragraph or sentence and gives a selection of keywords to choose from.
Numerical Reasoning can appear in various different forms, but the questions that tend to be
asked usually involve providing an answer to questions relating to statistical charts or calculating
the answer to a problem.
Another form of testing which is job specific, usually to IT related roles is the Diagrammatic
Reasoning Test. These tests involve diagrams such as a set of pictorial questions with very little
or no words or numbers attached to them.
The above types of reasoning form the basis of an aptitude test but personality tests are also very
common to try to learn about how a person may react in various situations. These involve
multiple choice questions specifically designed to draw out information about a candidate’s
personality and are judged in comparison to others to see whether they would fit in with the
organisation's culture.
Meticulous research is always carried out to ensure that the test is gauging the right intellectual
skills and personality traits for the job and is fair and unbiased to anybody that takes the test.

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3.1 The Benefits and Drawbacks of Psychometric and Aptitude Testing
This form of testing is becoming increasingly popular, but as with any technological and
scientific advancement, there are both benefits and drawbacks which can support or discredit the
methods respectively:
Benefits/supporting arguments
 An organisation’s performance can be maximised by improving the accuracy of selection.
 Employee retention can be improved by better matching an individual to the job in
which they are applying for.
 Psychometric and aptitude testing can help avoid the organisation making weak
recruitment decisions and also avoid the associated financial and personal costs involved.
 Improved career management can be achieved by matching an individual’s goals to the
organisation's opportunities.
Drawbacks/discrediting remarks
 Job applicants are often motivated to choose the answer that they think the employer
wants to hear meaning an organisation may be recruiting somebody that may not fit in
with the culture of the business.
 Test anxiety can give a false negative meaning the answers given on the test may not give
a true reflection of the candidates’ real potential.
 Most tests must be delivered by trained administrators and test interpreters. This can be
costly with the option of either training Human Resources Personnel or hiring third-
party professionals.
 Psychometric tests and aptitude tests can often be biased in a way that disadvantages
those with different cultural backgrounds, language barriers and nervousness over
testing. A candidate may well be the best job candidate but are possibly held back by the
process of the recruitment.
In order to find the right balance with regards to testing and the recruitment process, most
companies will implement more than one test and not put too much weight on a single test
result. These results also tend to be combined with interviews, role-play exercises and reference
checks.

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3.2 Existing Platforms
There are various existing platforms in which an aptitude test can be developed; some more
specialised than others.
SurveyMonkey is the most popular testing tool among many academic students and many
professions for surveying, and although the basic version is free, a lot of power is packed into it.
Upon using SurveyMonkey, the user interface is clear, understandable and appears to make it
simple to gather the input from potential test candidates. There are some not so simple processes
such as changing word answers to numbers, which if somebody is not familiar with the
application, may take them a while to find out how to do it. SurveyMonkey offers a vast array of
resources and although slightly outdated, relies on a click, drag and drop design which
surprisingly works very well as opposed to clicking on dialog boxes to progress to the next
question. One disadvantage is that the overall customisation of the application looks fairly bland
whereas other applications have a more impressive feel when answering questions. The
questionnaire should be appealing to the eye, and in this case, the look of professionalism and
aesthetics is more likely to attract the right respondents.
Instant.ly is a free surveying tool, recently acquired by SSI. The application was bought in order
to strengthen the company’s leadership position as a global data solutions organisation. The
survey builder is designed to be intuitive and allows for the targeting of consumers by country,
age and other important demographic information. The application can be used both online and
on mobile devices, and if needed, the data can be exported for a deeper analysis of the results.
On using instant.ly it is very intuitive and offers many question types and allows the importing of
images and videos which would certainly help when considering the use of diagrammatic
reasoning tests. On completion of developing the survey, there is an option to access an online
or mobile in-demand audience or ‘invite your own audience’ which allows the survey to be
posted on social media, sent as an email or embedded on a website.
When comparing the two surveying solutions for aptitude testing, Instant.ly would be better
suited due to its intuitiveness, its customizability options and would allow for more informed
choices when gathering the relevant aptitude test’s data.

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3.3 Identifying a target audience
A common difficulty when carrying out surveys is finding the right respondents so that the data
in which you can make decisions on is accurate and reliable.
It was decided that the best way would be to target Project Managers through social media sites
such as Reddit and online forums such as ProjectSmart.
Reddit is a social news aggregation and discussion website where users can submit content such
as text and direct links.
Figure 1- Monthly Reddit site usage through mobile and desktop applications (14th Nov 2016).
With a monthly reach of 14-20 million users and over 1.2 million page views per day, this is an
ideal target area in which Project Managers can be acquired to act as candidates and complete the
aptitude test.
The website has a dedicated project management forum focused solely on software
development, which as of 14th
November 2016 holds 7,262 active members.
ProjectSmart, launched in 2000 is a project management web resource that aids in the
improvement of Project Managers at all levels with regards to their performance. As expected,
there are significantly less active users on this forum, but there is still some potential to gain
insight from candidates as the forum is UK based. With around 900 active members, there is a
lower likelihood of gaining candidates, but any that take the aptitude test will more likely give
legitimate answers as ProjectSmart is an independent site for professionals whereas Reddit is a
public forum for anyone interested in Project Management.

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3.4 Attracting Test Respondents
Attracting test respondents will pose a challenge, and many things must be considered in order
to engage the right audience to participate in the aptitude test:
Offer Incentives
Sometimes, appealing to the good nature of a person is enough for them to spare 5 minutes of
their free time, but often that’s not enough. There are advantages and disadvantages to offering
incentives which don’t necessarily have to be monetary, but this can attract anybody in the hope
of winning something for nothing and can potentially bias the results of the test. By keeping the
promotion of the test to forums solely aimed at Project Managers, even whether offering an
incentive or not, this will limit the amount of bias and will likely keep the test results clean and
accurate. If an incentive is offered, there will undoubtedly be more respondents engaging in the
test.
Use positive Language
Using positive and action focused language when asking people to take the test will give the
participants a good reason to do so. This should be carried out by explaining how the test results
will help and what they will achieve.
Make it easy for participant
Participants should find it simple to take the test so keeping it simple is a must, but not too
simple as it is aimed at experienced Project Managers. Alerting the test-taker to how long the test
will take is also important in order to hold their interest. This should be carried out at the start of
the test, and if demographic questions are to be asked, they should be asked at the end.
Hold the respondent's interest
The respondents are intelligent professionals and are likely to have limited time, such as the
nature of their work. In order to hold the respondent's interest, the test will consist of a number
of carefully thought out logical questions not limited to multiple choice questions but also visual
reasoning aimed at judging a Project Managers competence, success and personal traits. As a
guideline, this should take between 6 to 10 minutes to complete. The test should be clean-
looking and clear of grammatical errors as a lack of professionalism and tidiness can be an
immediate turn-off to many and would potentially deter would-be test takers.

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3.5 Aptitude Test Development
The first stage in the aptitude test development will include researching into the science behind
assessment accuracy. Simply gathering and producing a series of questions would not be enough
to guarantee accuracy and there needs to be some form of research in order to ensure the right
questions are being asked. Following on from the research, a questionnaire will be produced
using Instant.ly and then published on Reddit forums specialising in project management for IT
and Projectsmart, a forum for Project Management IT professionals. The test results will then be
gathered, reviewed and interpreted. Any test results that look unclean and inaccurate will be
discarded, and after the test results are reviewed, feedback will be gathered from the test
candidates and these will be documented in the project report. A critical discussion of the
findings will then be carried out before preparing to finalise the project and prepare for project
submission.
4.0 Primary Research Overview
“The objective of any research project is to gather data, analyse it based on your research
question and present your findings and conclusions” (Franklin, 2012).
The literature review concluded that for further exploration of how a Project Manager should be
defined as competent and successful, a short list should be produced of what soft and hard skills
are to be considered as appropriate and necessary in order for an individual to be the right
person for the job. In order to do this, primary research must be carried out. This consisted of
researching 6 various publications from journals, books and professional websites and by
determining the most common hard and soft skills to form a ‘skills competency list’. Each skill in
the list was justified to form a logical explanation of its importance. The justification was backed
up with the uses of text analytics, where a number of ‘person job specifications’ were gathered
and the keywords analysed for their frequency. The ‘skills competency list’ list was then used as a
basis for creating an aptitude test focusing on a key area of significance. The results from the test
provided an idea of what employers should look out for in a job candidate with regards to
success and competency in IT Project Management.
4.1 Research Methodology
The methodology that this project adopted was that of a mixed methodology with both
quantitative and qualitative research implemented. Qualitative research was incorporated by
gathering information and opinions from 6 various resources including books, journals and
professional websites in order to explore how an IT Project Manager should be defined as
competent and successful. Backed up by the use of text analytics, these results were then used to
develop an aptitude test focused on one particular key skill, capable of gauging whether a job
candidate would be suitable for the position in which they are applying. Quantitative research
was incorporated with the use of social media, where the aptitude test was published to those

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with an aptitude for IT project management on both the Reddit and ProjectSmart forums. The
results of the survey were then analysed, interpreted and published in the conclusions of the
report.
4.2 Introduction to Chapter
As previously stated, a mixed methodology would be introduced to gather various forms of data
for the study. It is intended that this chapter will specify how the relevant primary research was
gathered and how this can relate to developing an aptitude test capable of giving some reliable
indication of whether a job candidate is the right person for the job.
Following the introduction, the first stage provides a list of publications whose authors have
their own opinions of what skills a Project Manager needs to possess in order to be competent
and successful in their field. These publications were chosen due to their strong citations, the
fact that the lists the authors had provided weren’t extensive and on closer inspection, they all fit
in ideally with what the project hopes to achieve. The findings will then be gathered, analysed
and justified.
The use of text analytics will also be implemented to provide a rational insight into why these
skills were chosen.
The second stage will be the stage of aptitude test development where the information gathered
from research on communication will provide an idea of what questions should be asked to draw
out information relating to whether a Project Manager is the right person to employ for a
particular project.
4.3 Project Research Aims and Questions
This project aims to explore what skills a Project Manager in Information Technology requires in
order to be competent and above all, successful. The secondary aim is to bring the
aforementioned information together and develop an aptitude test capable of determining
whether a job candidate has the right skills to be an IT Project Panager for a particular project.
Question 1
Using Information from various sources, what are the main hard and soft skills needed in order
to be judged as a successful and competent IT Project Manager?
Question 2
Which key skill should be the area of focus for an aptitude test and what questions should be
asked to form a strong indication of a successful IT Project Manager?

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4.4 Project Scope and Objectives
When carrying out research on which key skills are required in order to be a successful and
competent Project Manager, only information from published books, journals and professional
websites were considered in order to be certain that these were adequately researched and not
unsubstantiated opinions. One of the objectives was to ensure that there were an equal number
of soft skills in the list as there were hard skills. These results were backed up by text analytics
and relevant justification.
Secondarily, with regards to aptitude testing, the demographic audience were those with an
aptitude for IT project management and those that are employed or are involved within this area
of expertise. Candidates taking part in the test were kept anonymous and all feedback received by
the test takers taken into consideration.
4.5 Introduction to Primary Research
The previous chapter specified that a mixed methodology would be introduced to gather various
data for the study. It is intended that this chapter will specify how the relevant primary research
was gathered and how this can relate to developing an aptitude test capable of giving some
reliable indication of whether a job candidate is the right person for the job.
Following the introduction, the first stage provides a list of publications whose authors have
their own opinions of what skills a Project Manager needs to possess in order to be competent
and successful in their field. The findings will be gathered, analysed and justified. The use of text
analytics will also be implemented to provide a rational insight into why these skills were chosen.
The second stage will be the stage of aptitude test development where the information gathered
from research on communication will provide an idea of what questions should be asked to draw
out information relating to whether a Project Manager is the right person for employment.
4.6 Overview of Project Management Skills
Upon gathering information from various online resources including books, research
publications and professional Project Management websites, there appeared to be a noticeable
trend that there were some mutually agreeable key skills that could define project management
competency to a certain degree. The most popular key skill of which, was communication. All six
of the publications agreed upon this, although ‘Project Management: Best Practices for IT
Professionals’ (Murch, 2000) phrased it slightly differently and in a broader sense named it
‘interpersonal skills’. The phrase ‘people Skills’ was also used. Not all key skills were
fundamentally agreeable by each publication, but the most popular of those in the list provided a
strong case of which of those skills were most important in the context of being a successful
manager for a project. Personal opinion was also an influence on the decision making process.

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Table 1:- Skills Competency List
4.7 Hard Skills Bar Chart
Table 2 – Hard Skills Competency
Number of times mentioned in publications0
1
2
3
4
Number of times mentioned in publications

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4.8 Soft Skills Bar Chart
Table 3 – Soft Skills Competency
4.9 Soft Skill Competencies
Soft skills tend to be difficult to evaluate in candidates and even more so to develop. “When
candidates don’t have the necessary technology skills, it’s usually a straightforward process to
tighten up that gap through training, certifications, mentoring and hands-on work experience.
However, it’s much more difficult to build soft skills, and that’s why it’s so important to be able
to evaluate them quickly in IT candidates” (CIO, 2016).
There are 3 ways in which soft skills are often assessed in job candidates:
Behavioural Type interview questions – Behavioural interview questions are used to probe
how an individual would behave in a particular situation when working for the company in the
future. These are asked in order to see if the candidate possesses the specific qualities that are
expected in order to be successful at the job. “In other words, if they are looking for someone
with good leadership qualities, they may ask you a behavioural question to see if your past
behaviours demonstrate leadership” (Simpson, 2015).
Refer to a candidate’s references and ask for specific examples of their competency in a
particular soft skill area – Such as the importance of the success of a project, an employer
might inquire with one of the candidate’s referees to provide a third-party perspective on their
soft skills to ensure that they are potentially employing the right person for the job.
Number of times mentioned in publications0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Number of times mentioned in publications

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Test a candidate’s soft skills during the interview process – There are many ways in which a
job candidate can be assessed on their soft skills such as researching the company’s website
through to simply responding to an email in relation to information about the business. The
most promising approach appears to be through an aptitude test where a variation of open-
ended questions are asked, and the candidate responds with the answer that best describes them.
A recommendation would be to follow this up with an interview, whether individually or
grouped and the results from the aptitude test compared against that of the individuals’
performance.
4.9.1 Communication and People Skills
Communication is paramount for any Project Manager to be successful in their profession.
Communication doesn’t just convey details, but it also helps those in the project support team
understand their role in a project. Communication carried out correctly provides an opportunity
for people to engage in the project, whether they are stakeholders, end users or project team
members.
The PMI White Paper, ‘The High Cost of Low Performance: The Essential Role of
Communications’ (2013) states that Organisations with the ability to communicate more
effectively provide more successful projects:
Figure 2
Source: ©2013 Project Management Institute, Inc. Pulse of the Profession In-Depth Report: The High
Cost of Low Performance: The Essential Role of Communications, May 2013.
Communication is the most distinctive and agreed upon skill that can determine the difference
between a manager and a leader. Communication can be defined by something as simple as
writing an email or making a request and having the ability to communicate a message in terms
that are understandable to team members, stakeholders and end users. These are all signs that
prove somebody is proficient in this area. A strong and communicative leader will be able to
hold a one-to-one conversation, whilst making eye contact and allowing no distractions to deter
from a person’s full attention.
“Project management communication is a skill that is never perfected, can always be improved
and is pivotal in being able to initiate and mobilise a project effectively” (Jorhat, 2013).

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4.9.2 Problem-Solving
“Project managers face problems with every project. By building problem-solving into your
project and problem collaboration into your project team you will ensure that problems are dealt
with promptly. You will also establish a track record of being able to identify and deal with
problems” (Grier, 2009).
One of the main goals of a Project Manager is to identify problems early on before they start to
have an impact. Dealing with a problem is far easier than dealing with a crisis. If a problem is left
to fester, it can soon turn into a major issue, and major issues in a project environment can mean
the difference between success and failure and exposes the company to risks.
Problem-solving is usually a concern where the problem has already occurred, and as a Project
Manager, the individual should have the knowledge and confidence to define problems
accurately and make decisions.
Defining problems requires the ability to identify the difference between causes and symptoms.
There are various types of problems such as:
 Technical (e.g. Clashes of opinion on how a product should be designed)
 Managerial (e.g. A functional group may not be working to a high enough standard)
 Interpersonal (e.g. Personality clashes)
If a Project Manager is able to categorise and identify the differences in problem definitions, they
are more likely to be able to solve the problem quickly without the consideration that it may
become a crisis point and a hindrance to the project. Decision making is also an important
consideration in solving a problem.
Making decisions involves analysing the problem in order to determine feasible solutions and
then by considering the most suitable option. An element of timing is also involved; the right
decision needs to be made at the right time and not made too early or too late.

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4.9.3 Leadership
“A poor leader fails to bring out the best of an already great team, but a great leader can create
winners out of a team of individuals who may seem to lack ability. Leadership is a critical and
essential component for any project management team” (Karas, Raisinghani & Webb, 2013).
The role of a leader is to inspire, encourage and motivate. These are fundamental in ensuring the
members of a project team are engaged in a positive environment. This not only improves job
satisfaction but also forges a team that are essentially easier to manage overall.
People are seen as a huge part of a project and to not have leadership on a list of key skills
needed to be a successful Project Manager would be somewhat naïve. People work better when
they are led, rather than being manipulated and taking the factor of human emotion into
consideration, there are times when team members may need motivation, praise and
encouragement. Without these small, yet very effective leadership actions, there is far less chance
that a Project Manager will get the best out of the project team, justifying why leadership is
essential in order for the Project Manager to be successful and competent in their field of work.
A leader
 Takes an interest in the personal development of members of the team.
 Considers how a decision will affect different aspects of the project and
stakeholders.
 Makes decisions taking into account whether they may affect team morale, and
not only on the impact of the business.
 Knows when to make a decision as an individual and when to include others.
 Considers more than just statistics and looks for win-win scenarios.
4.9.4 Team Building and Development
The PMBOK defines Team Building as: “Activities designed to improve interpersonal
relationships and increase team cohesiveness. It is also important to encourage information
communication and activities because of their role in building trust and establishing good
working relationships” (Burke & Barron, 2014).
“It is widely accepted in project management circles that the establishment of the project
involves both project planning and project team building. “It is also recognized that the best of
plans can be sabotaged with a poorly developed team, and that the most effective team cannot
overcome a poor project plan” (Thomas, Jacques, Adams & Kihneman-Wooten, 2008). The
most successful projects tend to have a well-established plan and a team fully committed to the
project goals.
The key objective of developing and building a team is to consider the competencies of the team
and develop the skills in order to enhance the overall performance of the project. When
developing teams, the Project Manager must have a prerequisite that firstly identifies the required
skills and then begin to build the project team by providing leadership, motivation and

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inspiration in pursuance of high performance and successful achievement of the project’s goals
and objectives.
The Project Manager must possess the ability to create an environment deemed suitable for
teams to develop and grow, and again communication is a major factor in how this can be
achieved.
Good interpersonal (communication) skills are the key to developing a successful team. The
Project Manager and members of the project team must be able to work collaboratively to
become familiar with each individuals’ strengths and weaknesses. This in turn will precipitate a
strong team spirit and tremendous teamwork.
4.9.5 People Management
“The “P” in PM is as much about people management as it is about project management”
(Fichtner, 2007).
“People management is seen as one of the most difficult areas of project management to perfect.
People are not machines, they are complicated, emotionally unstable and a good manager needs
to overcome all the pitfalls that may appear in their job lives in order to maintain the team
stability and a valuable equilibrium between their lives, personalities and performance”
(Karaoulanis, 2015).
The Project Manager is tasked with ensuring teams work together to a very high standard and
must possess the ability to provide leadership by people management, where team members can
obtain inspiration and execute tasks to their full potential. Many professionals believe that pulling
people together in order to create a high-performance team is the most challenging aspect of
project management. The idea of this appears to stem from the fact that project teams are
temporary and offer a variety of both contract workers and employees. Employees regularly
receive feedback, but it is often assumed that contract workers are self-motivated and they rarely
receive feedback on their own personal performance. They are also rarely involved in team
development activities and decisions on the overall project.

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4.10 Hard Skill Competencies
To have the hard skills necessary to be a successful Project Manager in IT takes intelligence.
Hard skills, as opposed to soft skills are learnt in school, in books and through training and
through gaining qualifications relevant to the individuals’ career path. Hard skills are associated
with rules that remain unchanged, regardless of the circumstances.
“Hard skills or technical skills are the technical aspects of the project manager’s role and include
development of tangible deliverables such as project schedules, budgets and work breakdown
structures. Hard skills often involve the use of templates and tools such as scheduling software,
spreadsheets and modelling tools” (Ondiek, 2015). Proof of competency is often attributed to
somebody in possession of the necessary qualifications and are able to pass competency-based
tests through the interview stage. In most cases during the recruitment process, many employers
will ask for both of these to ensure they have the necessary skillset to be a successful IT Project
Manager within the company.
4.10.1 Planning
Planning is a major part of project management where the use of schedules and Gantt charts are
key to the success of a project within a project environment. Project planning is often
disregarded, and instead, some managers may have a tendency to just carry on with the project
without a formal plan in place. The implementation of a formal project plan saves time and
money as well as protecting against other potential issues that may not be necessarily foreseen.
“Effective project managers are systematic – they organise a sequence of activities and resources
to achieve objectives, identify all the tasks which need to be done and estimate using all available
information. They expect and focus on improving these with experience” (APM, 2016).
According to Hamm (2010) ‘there are 5 phases to planning a project and without these, many
questions would be left unanswered which could potentially leave areas open to failure’:
1. Define purpose and principles
2. Outcome visioning
3. Brainstorming
4. Organizing
5. Identifying next actions
“The project plan must begin with a reasonable understanding of what the project intends to
deliver. That is, its products. Only then can we consider what resources are needed and the likely
effort and costs” (Webster, 2016). If the Project Manager lacks the ability to produce a plan that
can be understood by everyone involved in the project, then there is potential for delays in
project completion and the possibility of project failure.

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4.10.2 Technical Skills
To be a successful Project Manager, you "must have solid knowledge of the platforms, software
and programs that your company regularly works with, even if your job is not actually technical"
(Gross, 2013). The manager should have a strong working knowledge of platforms and software
that their company regularly works with, even if there is no technical aspect to the individual’s
job. This, in turn, can help release some of the pressure on the project team where the Project
Manager can take it upon themselves to self-appoint tasks that couldn’t otherwise be undertaken
without their knowledge or technical ability. This can also help in earning the respect of the
project team.
“If managers lack these skills, training is one option; being mentored or coached by a more
experienced individual is another. One thing is abundantly clear—the project manager is
ultimately responsible for the entire management of the project, technical or otherwise, and will
require solutions to the technical issues that will occur” (Murch,2000). Without a technical
skillset which bears some resemblance to that of the project, a Project Manager may find it
difficult to understand the aims and principles of what is to be expected by the project’s
completion date.
There are also technical skills that are present and expected in most successful projects:
Budget Preparation and Financing - Although often carried out by the project support team,
this can be a task that could be accurately fulfilled by the Project Manager; assisting in preparing
the projects’ budget and identifying any variances. An accurate budget estimate is often carried
out on a spreadsheet and helps prevent decreasing the workload if resources are scarce. Money
should be proportionately assigned between each phase of the project to ensure all of the tasks
are completed to a high standard, and team members are working to the best of their ability with
the resources available at the time.
Work Schedule Software - Completing projects on time is paramount, and a Project Manager
should possess the knowledge of the works’ operations, which allows them to direct the project
team effectively and closely follow its progress. The most effective means is to prepare a Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS), which exhibits the projects scope, a team members’ assignment
status and responsibilities, and the estimated time for the completion of each task.
Project Evaluation - A Project Manager must be able to have an understanding of the technical
aspects of the project in order to co-ordinate the team to the highest level of efficiency. The
knowledge of technical skills helps in the quick identification of any technical issues that may be
presented, and with this knowledge, these issues can be resolved effectively. A Project Manager
should also know how to define a process clearly to a client and be able to demonstrate the
ability to give an evaluation of the progress of a project.

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4.10.3 Business Domain Knowledge
“Domain knowledge is essential considering the bulk of a project manager’s job is
communication. Communication is what takes up most of a project’s manager time, and
effective communication is likely the common trait of good project managers. There has to be a
common ‘language’ between the team and the project manager, and this implies domain or even
technical knowledge” (Neagu, 2013). Firstly, the Project Manager needs to be effective in
exchanging information and ideas with members of the project team, and this wouldn’t be
possible without business domain knowledge. Secondly, the Project Manager must be able to
keep stakeholders informed and updated with the evolution of the project. Having a grasp on the
relevant terminology to the business tends to prove credibility from the stakeholders and garners
belief that the project will more likely be successful than it would be with someone that has a
limited knowledge of the business domain.
Looking at business domain knowledge from another point of view, an IT Project Manager with
intimate knowledge of the team’s performance and what they are doing earns respect and trust
much easier than an IT Project Manager with very little knowledge. There is a higher probability
that the manager will promptly pick up on whether the estimated times on a schedule are
practical and achievable. Estimates can either be optimistic but can sometimes be over-estimated
by team members where a lack of belief in the Project Managers domain knowledge may be
deemed a factor due to the assumption that they have limited knowledge and little idea of the
complexity involved in the project.
4.10.4 Project Management
“The project manager is responsible for day-to-day management of the project and must be
competent in managing the six aspects of a project, i.e. scope, schedule, finance, risk, quality and
resources. Project managers work on specific projects that have definite outcomes, have time
limits and have to stay within a budget” (APM, 2016). Project managers possess “a broad and
flexible toolkit of techniques, resolving complex, interdependent activities into tasks and sub-
tasks that are documented, monitored and controlled. They adapt their approach to the context
and constraints of each project, knowing that no "one size" can fit all the variety of projects. And
they are always improving their own and their teams' skills through lessons-learned reviews at
project completion” (PMI, 2016).
Project management skills are in increasing demand globally and are recognised as being
indispensable to the success of business. If a Project Manager has a proven skill set in scope,
schedule, finance, risk, quality and resource management, then they are going to be high on the
list of candidates that have the potential to be successful at the job that they are applying for.
These skills tend to be demonstrated by the candidate through prior experience and also by
possessing a hard skills based certification such as PRINCE2, with its core focus on the
following processes:

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Figure 3
Source: https://www.slideshare.net/projectingit/prince2-introduction-to-processes (ProjectingIT, 2013).
Getting to grips with these seven processes and being able to demonstrate those to the potential
employer can lead to the probability of being the right person for the job but other factors such
as those in the list of soft skills and other hard skills need to be taken into account to ensure the
right decision is made by the employer.
4.10.5 Organisation
“Good project organisational skills go hand in hand with good leadership and efficiency. A
skilled project organiser should be able to clearly set out the objectives of the task to all the other
members of a team and to inspire them to work towards the goals. Whilst a plan should be
formulated it’s important that it’s followed through and on schedule. Many people often think
they are good organisers and set out clearly defined strategies but never back that up with
supported actions” (Durham, 2012). Organisation and coordination of tasks are crucial to
ensuring those directly involved in the project have an understanding of the Project Managers
expectations.
A successful Project Manager will be very organised and, as projects have a clear start and end
date, some are tempted to eradicate any evidence of the activities previously carried on the
project upon completion. Nevertheless, a Project Manager with experience will realise that what
might have worked for one project may work for another.
“On a more granular level, project managers often have to juggle different reports, deadlines,
tasks, meetings, risks, and QA issues all in one day. Organizational skills are an absolute must to
keep any project manager on top of their daily task lists” (Burger, 2016). The most common way
for a Project Manager to approach and deal with issues on project organisation is through the
use of Project Management Software such as ‘Microsoft Project’.

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4.11 Review of Text Analytics
“Text analytics is the process of deriving information from text sources. It is used for several
purposes, such as: summarization (trying to find the key content across a larger body of
information or a single document), sentiment analysis (what is the nature of commentary on an
issue), explicative (what is driving that commentary), investigative (what are the particular cases
of a specific issue) and classification (what subject or what key content pieces does the text talk
about)” (Gartner, 2016).
Text analytics were used for the purpose of summarization, where the key content across a larger
body of information; In this case, eight ‘person specification’ forms sourced through the Google
search engine, were used as an indication of the most common desirable skills sought by
employers. These specification forms were all job listings for IT Project Managers around the
United Kingdom and were posted within the first 2 months of 2017. To give an accurate all-
round analytical review on the analysis of the forms, it was decided that 8 IT Project Manager
positions from a mixture of both UK public and Private sector would be compared.
“The person specification is an important part of the recruiter’s toolbox as it allows the company
to distinguish the exact traits they find desirable in their ideal candidates: items such as the
education the candidate has received, their previous work experience and if they have any extra
skills which are essential to the role. In creating a person specification, job seekers are able to
assess themselves before applying and truly understand how they will fit in with the role and your
business. This allows them to match themselves according to suitability and not just skills”
(ReedGlobal, 2016).
To gather the results of the text analytics, the eight ‘person specification’ forms were sourced and
the document’s information copied and pasted into a web-based text analytics tool named
Voyant-Tools and the following results were presented:
Table 4 - Text Analytical table (Word Frequency)
Most Frequent Words: Number of times mentioned in the ‘person
specification’ forms:
Management 30
Skills 26
Experience 25
Ability 24
Project 23
‘Management’ was the most common word, which would suggest that anyone wishing to apply
for a number of IT Project Management jobs around the UK must be able to prove that they
have the necessary knowledge and ‘skills’ from prior roles as an IT Project Manager or a field
closely related to this. They must also have the ability to carry out the tasks required of the job
role such as technical skills, communication, leadership, management skills and the necessary

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certifications to prove they are qualified for the particular role in the company they are applying
for.
It’s worthy of note that ‘management’ wasn’t exclusively synonymous with the phrase ‘project
management’ and fell into other different forms such as ‘risk management’, ‘management of
budgets’ and ‘stakeholder management’. These are all pre-requisites to carrying out daily project
management tasks.
There was also an expectation prior to carrying out the text analytics that ‘communication’ would
feature highly on the frequent words list but this wasn’t the case.
Figure 4 - Word Frequency (Person Job-Specifications)

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Upon analysing the word cloud produced by the text analytics engine, a number of keywords
emerged with many of those relating to the soft and hard skills that were identified in the skills
competency list for being a successful and competent IT Project Manager. Many of these words
could be categorised into soft skills and hard skills, which could be then categorised into each
particular competency from the list:
Table 5 – Keyword-to-Competency Comparison
Soft Skill
Keywords:
Competence: Hard Skill
Keywords:
Competence:
Management People Management
Team Building / Development
Communication
Organised Organisation
Project Management
Planning
Team Leadership
Team Building/ Development
People Management
Delivering Organisation
Planning
Project Management
People Communication
Team Building / Development
People Management
Qualification Technical Skills
Continuous Improvement
(Learning)
Relationships Team Building / Development
Communication
People Management
Budget Project Management
Communicate Communication Prioritise Organisation
Planning
Collaboratively Team Building / Development
Communication
Problem Solving
Complex Technical Skills
Attitude People Management
Leadership
Communication
Operations Planning
Project Management
Organisation
Support Team Building / Development
Problem Solving
Concepts Technical Skills
Continuous Improvement
(Learning)
4.12 Chapter Overview and Findings
There is a wealth of information available online referring to the most important skills an IT
Project Manager might need from various perspectives of those with the experience, able to
make a determination without the conviction of being wrong. The most common skill sets from
a list of 6 publications including books, journals and professional websites were sourced, and
those opinions; a mix of both personal and professional were reinforced with the use of Voyant-
tools, a text analytics web-based application. The tool was able to pick out the most common
words from an accumulation of 8 carefully chosen person job specifications of IT Project
Management positions from both the public and private sector and from various different
locations in the United Kingdom. Of the most common words, many had a direct link to the key
skills that were exhibited in the competency list. These key skills were split into hard and soft
skills, and as one of the objectives, there had to be an equal number of each in order for a
healthy balance.

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Figure 5: Skills Competency Infographic
Of all of the key skill competencies exhibited in the skills competency infographic,
communication was the most common and as a result of this, was used as a basis to create an
aptitude test based on that key skill. ‘Communication’ or variations of the word were mentioned
7 times in the 6 publications and on conducting the literature review and researching the four
other soft skills and various hard skills, it was evident that of all of the key skills identified,
communication was a major factor in determining whether an IT Project Manager could be the
right person for the job.
Notwithstanding ‘communication’ as a key skill in itself, out of all 10 key skills exhibited in the
list, communication was directly linked with 7 of the following:
 Leadership
 Problem Solving
 Team Building & Development
 People Management
 Planning
 Business Domain Knowledge
 Organisation

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By this determination, the best subject to approach in order to create an aptitude test was
communication, where every soft skill and the majority of the hard skills all pointed to it being
pivotal in how an IT Project Manager carries out their daily tasks.
As a recommendation, testing a candidate’s key skills during the interview process, using, for
example, an aptitude test should be paired with behavioural type interview questions, whether
that be over the phone or one-to-one. The more information an employer can gather on a
candidate about their skills, the more likely that they are going to be happy with their decision
that the person they are potentially employing is the right person for the job.
5.0 Analysis of Aptitude Testing
The aptitude test was created using Instant.ly, a web-based survey builder. The first aptitude test,
consisting of 12 communication-based questions was originally created with answers in the form
of agreeable and disagreeable statements but after receiving feedback from various Reddit users
with project management experience, it was decided that a more open-ended version should be
developed in order to receive more focused answers as opposed to a much broader view which
appeared to be the case in the first test. In total, both of the surveys attracted 60 test takers; 33
for the original and 27 for the revised version.
Original Aptitude Test
Figure 6 - 33 test finishers between 21st Feb & 24th Feb 2017

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Figure 7 – Average time taken for the overall test
Revised Aptitude Test
Figure 8 - 27 test finishers between 24th Feb & 2nd March 2017
Figure 9 - Average time taken for the overall test

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5.1 Data Gathered
5.1.1 Question 1: Tackling the Misunderstanding of a Task or Issue
Figure 10
Figure 11
Upon altering the format of the answers to be more open ended, there was a noticeable
difference in some questions; question 1 in particular. The question wasn’t misleading in any way
and was simply reworded to fit in well with the answers, but the answers were quite significantly
contrary to each other. Figure 5 shows that 39% of the test candidates agreed that if they were
struggling with a concept of understanding, they would temporarily push that thought to the
back of their mind and tackle it later, although the results from Figure 6 suggests otherwise.
Some candidates suggested that they would rarely if ever, put themselves in that position and
would rather attack any uncertainty and misunderstanding at the time.
Allie Casey, (2015) suggests that anybody placed into that situation should “handle a
misunderstanding immediately. If something has gone wrong in the communication process,
open up the lines of communication as soon as possible. Often the result of a misinterpretation
doesn’t come to the forefront until a further action has taken place. Rather than place blame,
seek to rectify the situation and move forward”.

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There was a fairly even playing field in Figure 5 with 39% agreeing and 36% disagreeing on this
rationale although the 21% swing of the ‘strongly disagree’ response rate points to the logic that
putting a struggle of understanding temporarily to the back of the mind is not the best way to
tackle an issue and those issues should be tackled head on as soon as possible, especially if it
regards a high priority task or situation.
5.1.2 Question 2: Considering the Repercussions of Verbal Comments
Figure 12
Figure 13
The resulting responses from figure 7 and figure 8 show that a majority of candidates would
think of the consequences before they carry out their actions. Nobody strongly agreed that they
would always say what they were thinking without a care for repercussions although 15% would
agree that they would do this often. 85% of the candidates from figure 8 suggest that they would
think about how to approach a situation as opposed to jumping in head first and not caring for
the consequences further down the line. This suggests that Project Managers believe the best
approach is to always think about the repercussions before committing to saying something,
especially if it is of particular importance to the project. Often, it can be too late to take a
comment or remark back.

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Sandra Folk (2013) suggests that in order to not fall into this trap, you should “examine the
instances where you have either spoken thoughtlessly or been tempted to do so. It is likely that
they occur in similar kinds of situations. (For example, meetings with an impatient boss, a
demanding client or difficult employees). Once you recognize the kinds of situations that “push
your buttons,” you will be more prepared when they arise, and will have strategies to avoid
falling into the trap of not thinking before you speak”.
5.1.3 Question 3: Seeing from a Different Perspective
Figure 14
Figure 15
All candidates in figure 9 and 10 agreed that communication is a two-way street. “Effective
listening can make or break a conversation or relationship. Listening involves much more than
just hearing the words your conversation partner is saying” (Latz, 2016).
Of the 60 aptitude test takers, the answers suggest that they all consider themselves to possess a
good balance between speaking and listening. They find themselves mostly considering the other
person’s thoughts and feelings. Listening is just as effective a tool as speaking and to be a good
communicator suggests that a Project Manager should be strong at both of these.

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As communication is seen as the one skill that affects many others in the skills competency list, it
could be an area of concern if a Project Manager was unable to see things from another person’s
point of view, showing a lack of listening skills and the inability to be open-minded.
5.1.4 Question 4: Demonstrating Professionalism in communication
Figure 16
Figure 17
Of the 60 candidates, all agreed that they often scan their reports, emails and memos for ‘typos’
such as incorrect grammar and spelling mistakes. Scanning a report is particularly important,
especially if it is to be sent to a client prior to the commencement of a project. Typographical
errors may be more forgiving in emails and memos where there isn’t an immediate need to be
accurate with spelling although this could lead some to questioning a Project Manager’s accuracy
in other areas.
With regards to writing reports, “If your statements are turgid and confusing, if the material isn’t
organized into a logical sequence, if the text is littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical
errors, the client may well wonder if this standard of workmanship will carry forward into the
project itself” (Cleden, 2011). The client should be confident that they have the right person for
the job.

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