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Location: Language Technology Center: Articles: The Mark of a Good Project Manager

November 4th is officially International Project Management Day. According to the Project Management Institute, there are over 402,675 project managers worldwide today. While a project manager’s role and responsibilities might seem intuitive, many people are fuzzy on the details—especially when it comes to localization project management. Customers are content to pay the project management charges seen uniformly across different vendors’ invoices without really understanding if they’re getting their money’s worth. That charge is there for reason, though, as Project Management not only takes some of the organizational burden off of the customer, it also makes a difference in the final product that is delivered. In honor of Project Management Day, let’s take a look at what makes some project managers more special than others:

A. Good Project Managers listen to their customers’ needs and create plans to meet those needs

As the customer, your overall localization experience should be evaluated throughout the project lifecycle, from your first meeting to the final deliverables. You should feel an organized and systematic approach is in place to manage all your needs—from the project details to your overall business goals. Two documents to look for are: a Project Proposal and a Project Handoff Template. These documents outline the parameters of the project, so you can be sure you and your vendor are on the same page.

B. Good Project Managers anticipate issues before they arise

Good help is hard to find, they say, but a good project manager is easily identifiable by their ability to avoid problems before they even happen. Oftentimes, a cursory glance through files and a phone call from an attentive Project Manager can identify errors that can avoid problems down the road while saving you money. Your Project Manager should be proactively looking for all the risks to your project success to avoid these traps going forward. This means that a good Project Manager will have a bunch of questions for you (even if they’re slightly awkward and you’re acting like you don’t really have the time for it) so that you really know what your requirements are and what you’re getting in your deliverable.

C. Good Project Managers manage effectively in the good times and the bad

It’s easy to manage something that is going according to plan, but what happens when there’s an unexpected disaster in Latin America, a worker’s strike in France, the linguists translation memory crashed, the editor has been hospitalized, and your delivery deadline is looming (don’t laugh, it’s happened)? That’s when a good Project Manager steps up to the plate and hires new linguists, transfers the files, ships a new license and computer to the linguistic team, and sends flowers to the injured. Project Managers regularly work with teams of up to 40 people. Keeping everyone involved is the key to great customer service and innovative ideas, but with such large teams, it can get messy! Your Project Manager is the person who makes sure you’re not bothered by all the confusion.

D. Good Project Managers ensure that the quality process is followed every step of the way

Your vendor (hopefully) has a good quality management system in place but who is responsible for ensuring that the quality steps you’re paying for are being followed? It’s your Project Manager again, making sure all the steps are completed effectively and every box is checked on the QA checklists. Without the project team feeling they have ownership and responsibility, a quality system is just a nice-looking stack of documents. A good Project Manager ensures that the quality system is thoroughly followed.

E. Good Project Managers create schedules that work with your timelines and tell you what is feasible

It would be nice if all translations came back in a week, but the reality is that if you expect the highest quality and three sets of eyes (translator, editor, and proofreader) to translate your content, it may take longer than you expected—but it shouldn’t take too long. Project Managers can always add resources to your project to speed things up or work with your internal teams to deliver on a rolling schedule. In addition, good Project Managers can take the organizational burden of working with reviewers from you and manage the review cycle directly. If your expectations are way out of line with reality, a good Project Manager quietly and discreetly books your ticket back to Earth.

F. Good Project Managers document any lessons learned from previous projects to avoid issues on the next project

It is rare that a project, with so many dynamic contributors and stakeholders, is executed flawlessly (nor should that be the goal). Oftentimes, conflicts and challenges lead us to significant process improvement opportunities that improve project turnaround times, costs, and final quality. This can only happen if your Project Manager takes the time to reflect on the lessons learned and documents those lessons to benefit future projects.

The role of a Project Manager is vast and there are myriad impacts on the overall project success, as well as your own stress levels. Not only does the Project Manager manage your localization team so you don’t have to, they also manage the project risks, budget, and quality requirements. On top of that, they continuously seek opportunities for improvement, identifying efficiencies that are repeatable and documenting your issues so that they are not. On this upcoming International Project Management Day, take into consideration just how much your localization Project Manager improves your localization experience.

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